EPHESIANS SERIES (9)

JUNE 8, 2025 | STEVE PIXLER

Ephesians 2:19 (ESV): So then you are no longer strangers and aliens (foreigners), but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into A HOLY TEMPLE in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

Here is the KEY PHRASE that the Holy Spirit spoke to me many weeks ago, the BIG IDEA that’s driving our obsessive focus on THE TEMPLE MOTIF in Ephesians:

“You were created to be priests of my presence, and your life is liturgy.”

From the dawn of creation, God created humans to be portals of his presence, channels for his glory. God created humans as existentially “bipedal” creatures, standing on two legs, with one foot in the “spirit–realm” and one foot in the “physical–realm.” You are a spirit embodied within flesh. Your SOUL is the interface, the nexus, between heaven and earth, God and man, the spiritual and the physical.

You are a MEDIATOR of God’s presence.

When humans serve as priests of God’s presence, they release the reality of heaven into the earth through creational and covenantal partnership with God. (“Let it be on earth as it is in heaven.”) When humans obey the original creation mandate to “be fruitful and multiply, fill up the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fowls of the air, the beasts of the field and the fish of the sea” (Genesis 1:28), they manifest the blueprints of heaven on earth, and the world is filled with the artifacts of glory. This DOMINION, this RULE and REIGN with God, starts with priestly worship and matures into kingly responsibility. This is why believers are called KING-PRIESTS.

1 Peter 2:4–6; 9–10 (ESV): 4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood (KING–PRIESTS), a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

The temple is the convergence of hallowed TIME–SPACE–MATTER. At the temple, time is redeemed, space is made sacred and matter embodies spirit.

Today, let’s focus on how priestly worship REDEEMS TIME, how LITURGY (LEITOURGEO), an intentional order of worship, recalibrates time and brings mundane time into alignment with eternity. .

Ephesians 5:15–17 (ESV): 15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of (REDEEMING) the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is.

Liturgy pauses the flow of time morning and evening in order to bring chronological time into alignment with the kairological time of the heavens. The ages are framed by the word of God (Hebrews 11:3) when we harness our time through morning and evening priestly worship. The “times and seasons” God embedded within the fabric of the cosmos are aligned with God’s eternal purpose and process.

The glory of God is embodied when we release the Spirit/spirit in physical, habitual worship. (We mediate as we meditate.) The glory of God takes form and shape when we instantiate eternity in time through daily rhythms of priestly worship. These rhythms are the liturgy of daily worship.

Paul teaches that true worship activates both BODY and MIND:

Romans 12:1–2 (ESV): 1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your BODIES as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your SPIRITUAL WORSHIP (logiken latreia, MINDFUL WORSHIP). 2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your MIND, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

We are transformed as our MIND is renovated through the training of the BODY. Physical, daily routines of embodied worship is LITURGY. And here is the kicker: Your life is liturgy whether or not you intentionally make it so! The habits of your life shape your mind, and you will automatically embody the values you practice—whether mindfully or not.

Thus, in order to practice worship that is “holy and acceptable to God,” worship that discerns “what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect,” we must deliberately and intentionally engage our BODY and MIND.

We must gain a deep awareness of the spiritual power of priestly rhythms, the daily habits of:

  1. PRAISE

  2. PRAYER

  3. PROPHECY

The early church put this into practice when they gathered daily “in the temple and from house to house” (Acts 2:46). Here’s how they worshipped:

Acts 2:42 (ESV): And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.

As we practice daily, priestly ministry, we lay the foundation of the restoration of the HOUSEHOLD TEMPLE, the restoration of the original conviction that priestly ministry is a practice of the creational, covenantal household. This is how we take church home!

CONCLUSION

What do we do with all this?

We receive the revelation of the living temple deep into our spirit and heart. Then, we ask, How can I live each day as a priest/temple/sacrifice? How can I put into practice “you are a priest of his presence” and “your life is liturgy”? How can I develop the Spirit-filled habit of morning and evening worship?

The goal is to fulfill this powerful promise in Malachi:

Malachi 1:11 (ESV): For from the rising of the sun to its setting (time: morning and evening; space: from east to west) my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.

EPHESIANS SERIES (8)

JUNE 1, 2025 | STEVE PIXLER

Ephesians 2:19 (ESV): So then you are no longer strangers and aliens (foreigners), but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into A HOLY TEMPLE in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

In Ephesians 2, Paul teaches us that God is shaping his people into his living temple. Indeed, if we look quickly through the New Testament, we see passage after passage where the people of God are described as a reconstituted living temple. That makes it easy for us to take for granted the idea of a living temple. Seems simple.

But for first century believers it was the most controversial, radical idea they had ever heard. The ancient temple in Jerusalem will be destroyed and replaced by the people of God as a living temple?! No way!

To understand the significance of the reconstituted temple and the unprecedented controversy it caused in the first century, we must explore a bit of background on the temple.

First of all, Israel believed three things about the temple:

1. God desires to dwell among his people.

Exodus 25:8 (ESV): “And let them make me a sanctuary, that I may dwell in their midst.”

Exodus 29:45-46 (ESV): “I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God. And they shall know that I am the Lord their God…”

Leviticus 26:11-12 (ESV): “I will make my dwelling among you, and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you and will be your God, and you shall be my people.”

1 Kings 6:13 (ESV): “And I will dwell among the children of Israel and will not forsake my people Israel.”

Ezekiel 37:26-27 (ESV): “I will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.”

Zechariah 2:10-11 (ESV): “Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for behold, I come and I will dwell in your midst, declares the Lord.”

2. Israel believed that the temple could not contain God, of course, but that it was the central earthly location where God chose to place his name and the sacred site where he was to be worshipped.

Deuteronomy 12:5 (ESV): “But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes to put his name and make his habitation there. There you shall go…”

Deuteronomy 12:11 (ESV): “Then to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you…”

Deuteronomy 14:23 (ESV): “…at the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there…”

2 Chronicles 7:12, 16 (ESV): “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice… For now I have chosen and consecrated this house that my name may be there forever.”

Ezekiel 43:7 (ESV): “…This is the place of my throne and the place of the soles of my feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever…”

3. Israel believed that Messiah would come and purify the temple and restore the pure worship of the one true God, which would draw all  nations to worship him alone.

Isaiah 2:2–3 (ESV): “It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains… and many peoples shall come, and say: ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob…’”

Isaiah 56:6–7 (ESV): “…these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer… for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”

Jeremiah 3:16–17 (ESV): “…They shall no more say, ‘The ark of the covenant of the Lord’… At that time Jerusalem shall be called the throne of the Lord, and all nations shall gather to it…”

Jeremiah 31:38–40 (ESV): “…The city shall be rebuilt for the Lord… It shall not be uprooted or overthrown anymore forever.”

Ezekiel 43:4–7 (ESV): “As the glory of the Lord entered the temple… And he said to me, ‘Son of man, this is the place of my throne… where I will dwell in the midst of the people of Israel forever.’”

Daniel 8:13–14 (ESV)“…‘For how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate…?’ And he said to me, ‘For 2,300 evenings and mornings. Then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state.’”

Haggai 2:6–9 (ESV): “The latter glory of this house shall be greater than the former… And in this place I will give peace…”

Zechariah 1:16 (ESV): “Therefore, thus says the Lord, I have returned to Jerusalem with mercy; my house shall be built in it…”

Malachi 3:1–3 (ESV): “…The Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple… and he will purify the sons of Levi…”

These Old Testament passages shaped first century Jewish expectation. The hope that God would restore the temple and its sacrifices lay at the heart of their deepest conviction and hope. Thus, when Jesus foretold the destruction of the temple and its reconstitution, its “spiritualization/universalization,” as a living temple made of people, the disciples were shocked beyond words.

Matthew 24:1–2 (ESV): 1 Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. 2 But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”

Jesus taught his disciples—though they did not understand it at first!—that Jesus’ own body was the temple of God.

John 2:19–21 (ESV): Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” The Jews then said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will you raise it up in three days?” But he was speaking about the temple of his body.”

The apostles came to understand later that Jesus was the living tabernacle of God:

John 1:14 (ESV): 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt (tabernacled) among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Then, the apostles came to understand that Christ ascended into heaven and omnipresenced himself in believers at Pentecost, making the church his body and his building, the incorporated, living temple of God.

John 14:23 (ESV): “Jesus answered him, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.’”

The apostles came to believe that the church was the temple of God.

Look at the following passages that show how thoroughgoing the “living  temple” idea really was:

1 Peter 2:4–6; 9–10 (ESV): 4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

1 Corinthians 3:16–17 (ESV): 16 Do you not know that you (plural) are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

1 Corinthians 6:19–20 (ESV): 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

2 Corinthians 6:16 (ESV): 16 What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Hebrews 13:10–16 (ESV): 10 We have an altar from which those who serve the tent have no right to eat. 11 For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp. 12 So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood.

13 Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured. 14 For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. 15 Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. 16 Do not neglect to do good and to share (koinonian) what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.

Romans 12:1 (ESV): 1 I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

John 4:23–24 (ESV): 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

Here are a few more passages that describe the spiritual sacrifices of the spiritual temple:

Philippians 2:17 (ESV): “Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.”

2 Timothy 4:6 (ESV): For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

Philippians 4:18 (ESV): I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied… a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

Revelation 5:8–10 (ESV): …golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints… You have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.

Revelation 8:3–4 (ESV): …he was given much incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints… and the smoke of the incense, with the prayers of the saints, rose before God…

The entire New Testament is framed around the unprecedented idea that  the temple and the city would be destroyed and replaced by the living temple and the heavenly city “coming down from God out of heaven” (Revelation 21:2). Indeed, the primary message of Revelation is the destruction of the old covenant temple and the reconstitution of God’s people as a living temple.

(Worship is warfare.)

Revelation 21:1–3 (ESV): 21 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. 2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

Revelation 21:9–10 (ESV): 9 Then came one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke to me, saying, “Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.” 10 And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain, and showed me the holy city Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God,

Revelation 21:22–27 (ESV): 22 And I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. 23 And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. 24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.

As the writer of Hebrews put it:

Hebrews 12:22–24 (ESV): 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

Why does all this matter?

Simply this: God’s desire to dwell among his people has always pointed toward his even deeper desire to dwell within his people. In fact, God created people to be PORTALS OF HIS PRESENCE, mediators of heaven into earth. God’s desire has always been to include us in the union of the Father, Son and Spirit and make us channels through which his presence would manifest as glory until “the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).

To put it simply, God created us to be micro-temples that would mediate,  model and manifest his glory into all creation until the entire cosmos becomes his habitation, the macro-temple—until the temple of God is fully “built out” on five levels:

  1. The temple of the body

  2. The temple of the household

  3. The temple of the church

  4. The temple of the earth

  5. The temple of the cosmos

The main point I am after in Ephesians 2 is threefold:

  1. Paul taught us the earthshaking reality that the temple in Jerusalem was being replaced by the living temple of God’s people.

  2. Paul also taught us that the people of God are now the universalized priests, sacrifices and temples of the living God.

  3. And Paul also taught us that universal, individual priesthood is the only way that the earth can be filled with the glory of God.

We must understand that (1) we are priests of his presence, and that (2) life is liturgy. We must understand that “the dispensation of the fullness of the times” wherein everything in heaven and earth are summed up in alignment under Christ as the one head of all creation (Ephesians 1:10) can only come as we redeem time, space and matter through daily, priestly ministry. We must understand the power of harnessing time, of quite literally pausing time morning and evening in order to bring chronological time into alignment with the kairological time of the heavens.

CONCLUSION

What do we do with all this?

We receive the revelation of the living temple deep into our spirit and heart. Then, we ask, How can I live each day as a priest/temple/sacrifice? How can I put into practice “you are a priest of his presence” and “your life is liturgy”? How can I develop the Spirit-filled habit of morning and evening sacrifices?

The goal is to fulfill this powerful promise in Malachi:

Malachi 1:11 (ESV): For from the rising of the sun to its setting (time: morning and evening; space: from east to west) my name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering. For my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.

Sample Morning Liturgy (Daily Office)

1. Opening Sentences

O Lord, open my lips,

and my mouth shall proclaim your praise. (Psalm 51:15)

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;

His mercies never come to an end;

they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness. (Lamentations 3:22–23)

2. Silence (1–2 minutes)

Pause and invite the presence of God.

3. Prayer of Invocation

Almighty and everliving God,

As I rise to meet this day,

grant me the grace to carry your light within me.

Kindle in me the fire of your love,

that I may shine with your peace and walk in your truth.

Through Jesus Christ, my Lord. Amen.

4. Psalm Reading

(Select a morning Psalm, e.g., Psalm 63:1–4)

“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you;

my soul thirsts for you;

my flesh faints for you,

as in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”

5. Scripture Reading

(Select a short passage, e.g., Mark 1:35)

“Rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark,

Jesus departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.”

(Optional: Lectio Divina)

  • Read – slowly and prayerfully

  • Reflect – what word/phrase stands out?

  • Respond – speak to God from your heart

  • Rest – in silent presence

6. Apostles’ Creed

I believe in God, the Father Almighty,

Creator of heaven and earth.

I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord,

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, died, and was buried;

He descended to the dead.

On the third day He rose again;

He ascended into heaven,

He is seated at the right hand of the Father,

and He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,

the holy universal Church,

the communion of saints,

the forgiveness of sins,

the resurrection of the body,

and the life everlasting. Amen.

7. Intercessions & Thanksgiving

Pray for:

  • YOU: Your own walk with God today

  • FAMILY: Family and loved ones

  • CHURCH: Your church, local and global

  • WORLD: Your community, local and global

Lord, grant me eyes to see your work,

a heart of compassion,

and hands ready to serve. Amen.

8. Confession

Most merciful God,

I confess that I have sinned against you

in thought, word, and deed,

by what I have done, and by what I have left undone…

Forgive me, renew me, and lead me. Amen.

“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us…” (1 John 1:9)

9. The Lord’s Prayer

Our Father, who art in heaven,

hallowed be thy Name.

Thy kingdom come.

Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread.

And forgive us our trespasses,

as we forgive those who trespass against us.

And lead us not into temptation,

but deliver us from evil.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory,

for ever and ever. Amen.

10. Closing Prayer

Lord, go before me to guide me,

behind me to guard me,

beneath me to support me,

and above me to bless me.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart

be pleasing in your sight,

O Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Amen.

Final Blessing (Optional)

The Lord bless you and keep you;

The Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;

The Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace. (Numbers 6:24–26)

EPHESIANS: PAUL’S EPIC VISION FOR VICTORY (6)

MAY 4, 2025 | STEVE PIXLER

Ephesians 1:9-10 (ESV): 9 [God has made] known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan (administration) for the fullness of time, to unite (align under one head) all things in him (Christ), things in heaven and things on earth.

Ephesians 2:11–22 (ESV): 11 Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands— 12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. 14 For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility 15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself ONE NEW MAN in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might RECONCILE us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. 17 And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. 18 For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens (foreigners), but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD, 20 built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, 21 in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into A HOLY TEMPLE in the Lord. 22 In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

God’s plan is to unite heaven and earth and make the cosmos his holy temple. God plans to “be all in all.” He plans to fill all things with his presence and glory, until all spiritual, psychological and physical reality is suffused with him. The goal is union with God through the unity of all things. All creation is meant to be God’s house: his household, his family, his temple.

The early church, who still gathered daily at the temple in Jerusalem for the morning and evening prayers, had to wrestle spiritually and theologically with “the temple issue.” Christ had prophesied in Matthew 24 (Mark 13, Luke 21) that “not one stone of the temple will be left standing on another,” which meant that their entire system of worship, which shaped their worldview, was coming to an end.

The entire form of Old Covenant worship was built around the exclusivity of Israel as the host of God’s presence and glory in the physical building of the temple. Sins were forgiven at the temple. Priestly worship was offered at the temple. God and people met at the temple. Prayers prayed in the direction of the temple were heard in heaven. The truth about the one true God was mediated, modeled and manifested at the temple. The temple was the center of the universe, the intersection of heaven and earth, the portal through which God’s reality broke into man’s.

But Jesus promised that the physical temple would be destroyed, and that the true worship of the Father would be universalized:

John 4:21–24 (ESV): 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when NEITHER on this mountain NOR in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

This was a radical reconfiguration of everything. Though the early Jewish believers continued “daily in the temple and from house to house” at first, the looming destruction of the temple at Jerusalem (together with the astonishing inclusion of the Gentiles) forced the apostles to reckon with what worship would look like once the temple was destroyed.

This is what the entire New Testament is about.

The New Testament is about “the new testament,” the new covenant. Every book in the New Testament wrestles with this issue: how is worship done now that the temple is universalized in believers and the Gentiles (all nations) are included in the covenant?

Here’s what they came to believe:

  1. All believers are priests serving God in daily worship: 1 Peter 2:4–5 (ESV): 4 As you come to him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, 5 you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

  2. All believers are living sacrifices offered to God in Christ: Romans 12:1 (ESV): I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

  3. All believers are the temple of God where the presence and glory of God is mediated, modeled and manifested: Ephesians 2:22 (ESV): In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

The temple of God that had been particularized in the physical building at Jerusalem was now universalized in believers. Believers had become “the household of God,” the “holy temple” that was “the habitation of God through the Spirit.” The temple was now universalized on five levels:

  1. PEOPLE: The early church came to believe that the indwelling presence of God through the Holy Spirit meant that the human body had now become the temple of God. 1 Corinthians 3:16–17 (ESV): Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? 17 If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.

  2. FAMILY: The early church not only gathered daily in the temple, but they also gathered “from house to house” around the table. This became the pattern and form of early Christian worship. The “household of faith” became the core, the center, the beating heart, of the Christian gathering. It made perfect sense because priestly ministry had always been rooted in the household, anyway. Thus, the first wave of temple universalization was expressed in the multiplication of priestly ministry within the household. The greater “household of God” gathered in individual households. They came to see the ACTS 2:42 ministry of the saints as their priestly ministry, echoing the daily service of the Jerusalem temple (laver = teaching; candelabra = koinonia; table = communion; altar = prayers). This is why Paul drives home—literally!—the message of Ephesians in his radical restructuring of the Aristotelian household codes in Ephesians 5. (We will discuss that later.) The Christian household as a kingly/priestly/prophetic palace/temple/shrine is the matrix of the self-replicating body of Christ.

  3. CHURCH: The early church came to believe that body of Christ at large, gathered under apostolic oversight in cities in every nation, is the global temple of God. They came to believe that the presence of God is multiplied in every nation through the mediated worship of the ekklesia. The early church mediated the presence of God through “3D EKKLESIA”: (1) the ministry to the multitude; (2) the ministry of the fivefold; and (3) the ministry of the saints.

  4. CULTURE: The early church came to understand that the nations of the earth are Christ’s inheritance (Psalm 2; Acts 1:8), and that the church is commissioned by Christ to “disciple the nations” (Matthew 28:19). As the nations are discipled, the culture is transformed to manifest the glory of God in “the artifacts of culture” that become the earthly manifestation of the heavenly city, the New Jerusalem, the city “that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Hebrews 11:10). This is how the fact that “the earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein” (Psalm 24:1) becomes a manifest reality.

  5. COSMOS: The early church believed, as Paul explained so powerfully in Romans 8, that the growth of the church in the world fills the earth with glory until it reaches “critical mass” and becomes the catalyst of the resurrection. (Romans 8:18–22) Paul described this as “life from the dead” (Romans 11:15), when the “fullness of the Gentiles” provokes Israel to jealousy and thus turns their hearts back to Christ. This is how “all Israel shall be saved” (Romans 11:26). The reconciliation of Israel and the nations in the one body of Christ will be the catalyst of the resurrection, which will liberate creation, flooding the cosmos with the presence and glory of God as the veil between heaven and earth is torn open and Jesus appears to present the finished work to the Father. (1 Corinthians 15) This is how the entire cosmos will become the temple of the Most High God and “God will be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28).

The key to all this is the priesthood of all believers.

When believers minister (leitourgeo, “liturgize”) as priests in their body, their household, their congregation and their world, the presence and glory of God creates portals, points-of-cosmic-rupture, where heaven breaks into earth. The universalization of the temple is the means by which “the knowledge of the glory of the Lord shall cover the earth as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14). We must restore the priesthood of all believers so that the temple of God may fill the earth.

God’s purpose is to make all things one, everything in heaven and earth, so that “God may be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15). Oneness through fullness. But the oneness of creation will come as a result of the oneness of the body of Christ, the church. When the church is made one, with both Jews and Gentiles fully united as the one family of God, then all creation will be liberated from the curse and “share in the glorious freedom of the children of God” (Romans 8).

The oneness of the body of Christ will come through the oneness of the family. As Paul put it in Ephesians 5, marriage is a great “mystery” that mediates the union of Christ and the church into the earth. By the reconstitution of the household as the microcosmic expression of the household of God, which is the church, the unity of all humanity takes root in our families of origin and brings real transformation and generational momentum.

And yet the call for oneness—the urgent prayer request of Jesus expressed in his High Priestly prayer in John 17, “That they may all be one as we are one!”—goes one level deeper. The oneness of creation that flows from the oneness of the church that flows from the oneness of the household, then also flows from the oneness of the transformed individual. In other words, the union of marriage flows from the union of believers with Christ.

So, here is what God is doing: He is calling for TRANSFORMED PEOPLE to produce TRANSFORMED FAMILY to produce TRANSFORMED CHURCH to produce TRANSFORMED CULTURE.

And all that leads to TRANSFORMED COSMOS.

EPHESIANS: PAUL’S EPIC VISION FOR VICTORY (5)

APRIL 27, 2025 | STEVE PIXLER

Ephesians 1:9-10 (ESV): 9 [God has made] known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan (administration) for the fullness of time, to unite (align under one head) all things in him (Christ), things in heaven and things on earth.

Paul wrote Ephesians to bring up to speed the new believers in Ephesus (and elsewhere) that had not heard him teach personally on the revolutionary “mystery of Christ,” which is “that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6).

Paul wanted believers to know that God had reversed the division of the nations that happened at Babel, delivered them from the tyranny of the principalities and powers, the gods of the nations, and restored all the tribes of the earth back to the worship of the one true God, Creator of heaven and earth. The Gentiles were now included with Israel in the covenant God made with Abraham.

Paul also wanted believers to know that the reconciliation of Israel and all nations to God through Christ by the Holy Spirit is the means by which God will fulfill “the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan (oikonomia, administration) for the fullness (pleroma) of time (kairos, appointed season), to unite (anakephalaiosasthai, sum up under one head) all things in him [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth” (Ephesians 1:9-10).

Paul wanted believers to know that God will reconcile the entire cosmos under Christ as the head of all creation, and that this union of all things in Christ will happen through the union of Jews and Gentiles in the church. Literally, as Paul explains further in Romans 11, the union of Jews and Gentiles in the one body of Christ will be the catalyst for the end of the age, the resurrection and the return of Christ.

Here’s how Ephesians lays out:

  1. EPHESIANS 1:1-14: Paul’s gospel is not an innovation! It was predestined in the heavenly places before time began. We were chosen in him and predestined before time to be adopted and redeemed.

  2. EPHESIANS 1:15-23: Paul is determined that the church should know by divine revelation that God raised Christ from the dead, exalted him to his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principalities and powers, above every name that is named, and gave him to the church as the head of all things, making the church “the fullness of him that fills all in all” (1:23).

  3. EPHESIANS 2:1-10: What God did in Christ was done for us, in us and as us. We, who were dead in our sins and trespasses, have been made alive in Christ and raised up to be enthroned with Christ in the heavenly places as partners in the King Jesus administration, exercising restored dominion over the heavens and earth as God’s workmanship—all of this by grace through faith.

  4. EPHESIANS 2:11-22: Through our salvation by grace through faith, which abolished the law and reconciled Jews and Gentiles, God has included Gentiles with Israel as God’s new covenant household. This new covenant household is the Father’s house, the holy temple, the “dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

  5. EPHESIANS 3:1-13: Paul feels the urgency that believers must understand how the administration (oikonomia) of King Jesus (1:10) was particularized in “the administration (oikonomia) of God’s grace” that was given to Paul for the Gentiles. Paul was commissioned to preach “the mystery of Christ,” the mystery “that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (Ephesians 3:6). Paul wants the church to know that God will use the reconciled church, made up of both Jews and Gentiles, to display his “multifaceted wisdom” to the evil powers in the heavenly places that have enslaved the nations through idolatry. Darkness your time is up!

  6. EPHESIANS 3:14-21: Paul bows his knees and prays to the Father, from whom all the families of heaven and earth receive their new name as they are repatriated and refamiliated, that believers would be empowered and indwelled by Christ through the Spirit so that they may rooted and grounded in love and comprehend within the full scope of God’s purpose as the renewed, cosmic temple of God. Paul then breaks out in praise to the God who is able to exceed our wildest expectations, that the heavens and earth would be filled with glory through Christ indwelling the church, throughout all generations for eternity.

  7. EPHESIANS 4:1-16: Paul urges believers to “walk worthy of their vocation” (4:1) as each believer grows into the grace that has been measured out to them, facilitating the unity of the body on a local and global scale until the body of Christ, gifted and equipped by the fivefold ministry, grows into the maturity of “the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (4:13). As the body grows into this fullness, the fullness of glory that fills the cosmic temple, then the body will supply every need through its joints and parts and thus “builds itself up in love” (4:16). The church becomes a self-replicating family that grows throughout the nations until “the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the waters cover the sea” (Habakkuk 2:14).

  8. EPHESIANS 4:17-32: Paul goes practical. But the practical “walking out” of the gospel is what Paul has been after all along. Since we now know what God is doing in the world through us, let us walk out that vocation with faithfulness. Paul urges believers to live out the personal transformation of the gospel that works its way out as the social transformation of the gospel. Changed people change the world!

  9. EPHESIANS 5:1-20: Paul focuses specifically on the immorality that accompanies idolatry and urges believers to be light in a dark world. By living out the holiness and blamelessness of Christ in the world, we “redeem the time” (5:16). Literally, time itself—the “kairos” that Paul spoke about in 1:10—is harnessed and brought to fullness by our transformation life. The appointed ages that God framed by his word manifest through the faithfulness of Christ lived out in us by the Spirit.

  10. EPHESIANS 5:21-6:9: Then, Paul reaches back to chapters 2 and 3 and pulls in again the idea of “household.” The household of God will be manifest in the world through redeemed and reconciled human households. Through restored kingdom households, the families of the earth shall be renamed, repatriated and refamiliated. The mystery of Christ—that Israel and all nations are reconciled in Christ—is worked out through the mystery of marriage.

  11. EPHESIANS 6:10-20: The transformation of people, family and church will result in the transformation of culture. Paul brings Ephesians to a grand finale, to a theological crescendo, by pointing to the reality of spiritual warfare that surrounds this new people/household/temple mandate. The principalities and powers were decisively defeated and disempowered in Christ’s death, burial, resurrection and ascension. But they do not go gentle into that good night. They fight back! Yet, the war has already been won. Our role in the battle is simply to put on our armor. We are called to preach the gospel, baptize believers and disciple the nations. That is spiritual warfare in a nutshell.

  12. EPHESIANS 6:21-24: Then, Paul wraps it up with a personal greeting and declaration of grace and peace for us all—thus closing as he opened.

The main point of Ephesians is that God will fulfill his purpose through the ekklesia (church) of King Jesus. Ephesians teaches us that God will “sum up under one head all things in Christ, everything in heaven and earth” through the “administration of the fullness of the times” that is worked out through:

  • TRANSFORMED PEOPLE

  • TRANSFORMED FAMILY

  • TRANSFORMED CHURCH

  • TRANSFORMED CULTURE

The BIG IDEA in Ephesians is that God is doing the work through people! That is the hardest pill for most Christians to swallow: that God will manifest Christ’s victory over the dark powers through redeemed people. But this is the mighty revelation that Paul urges us to receive. Changed people change the world!

EPHESIANS: PAUL’S EPIC VISION FOR VICTORY (4)

EASTER: APRIL 20, 2025 | STEVE PIXLER


Ephesians 1:15–23 (ESV): 15 For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, 16 I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers, 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may:

  1. give you the Spirit of WISDOM and of REVELATION in the KNOWLEDGE of him,

  2. 18 having the eyes of your hearts ENLIGHTENED,

  3. that you may KNOW:

    1. what is the HOPE to which he has called you, (*resurrection)

    2. what are the riches of his glorious INHERITANCE in the saints, (*new creation)

    3. 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his POWER toward us who believe,

…according to the WORKING (*energizing) of his great MIGHT 20 that he WORKED in Christ:

  1. when he RAISED him from the DEAD (*power over the grave, under the earth, demonic power)

  2. and seated him at his right hand in THE HEAVENLY PLACES, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion (*principalities and powers), and above every name that is named (*names invoked in worship and allegiance), not only in this age but also in the one to come.

  3. 22 And he put all things (*ta panta, the universe, the cosmos) under his feet

  4. and gave him as HEAD over all things (*ta panta, the universe, the cosmos) to the church, 23 which is his body, the FULLNESS of him who fills all in all. (*filled with glory)

Jesus died and descended into hell to proclaim his victory over demons, evil spirits that exploit the power of death to enslave humans, to take the keys to death, hell and the grave and to rescue his people from Hades.

Jesus rose and ascended into heaven, received all authority in heaven and earth, thus deauthorizing and dethroning the powers that ruled the nations as false gods since Babel.

But what Jesus did at the cross was done for you and me. Jesus died as us, rose as us and ascended as us. Look at how Paul put it:

Ephesians 2:1–10 (ESV): 1 And you were DEAD in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were DEAD in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—6 and RAISED US UP WITH HIM and SEATED US WITH HIM in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

Jesus did not die, rise again and ascend into heaven for him. He did it for you! And as you. We always celebrate Easter as being about Jesus, about his resurrection. But, in reality, Easter is about your death, about your resurrection, about your ascension into the heavens with Christ.

 

EPHESIANS: PAUL’S EPIC VISION FOR VICTORY (3)

APRIL 13, 2025 | STEVE PIXLER

 

MESSAGE SLIDES

NOTES

Ephesians 1:1–14 (ESV): 1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

1. Let’s look first at what God did in eternity past, before time began:

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, 4 even as he CHOSE US in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love 5 he PREDESTINED US for ADOPTION to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, 6 to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in the Beloved.

God “blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,” and he did so by (1) finishing the work from the foundation of the world; by (2) finishing the work within history at the cross; and by (3) finishing the future in advance and pulling the future (the age to come) back into history through the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit.

What did God finish in eternity past?

  • He chose us in him before the foundation of the world

  • He predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ

Who is the “us”? As Paul will show us, the “us” is Jews and Gentiles gathered together in the one body of Christ. This is the “mystery” that Paul shares. But Paul is determined that the Ephesians (and we) understand that the gospel of Jewish-Gentile inclusion (which is the catalyst for the RECONCILIATION of heaven and earth) was not an innovation that Paul dreamed up. No, the alignment of heaven and earth through RECONCILIATION of Jews and Gentiles (and thus all people!) was always God’s eternal, mysterious plan.

Before time began, Jews and Gentiles were (1) chosen; (2) predestined; and (3) adopted. However, that predestined reality had to be actualized within time and space. Thus the incarnation.

2. Let’s look at what God did within history at the cross:

7 In him we have REDEMPTION through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan (administration) for the fullness of time, to unite (align under one head) all things in him (Christ), things in heaven and things on earth.

When Christ came to earth, he came to finish the finished work. Here is what he did:

  • He “redeemed” us through his blood. Literally, Christ bought us back from the dominion of sin and death. Through the infinite price of his life, he purchased our salvation.

  • He secured “the forgiveness of our trespasses,” removing the penalty of sin, which was death. Through death, Christ delivered us from death.

  • He “lavished upon us” the “riches of his grace” by “making known to us the mystery of his will,” which was all done “according to his purpose.” God put us “in the know," made us “insiders” and brought us “in the loop.” God demonstrated his love for us by calling us his friends and sharing with us his secrets.

At the cross, Jesus pulled the finished work of God into time and space and accomplished fully all that was needed for our salvation. When Jesus cried, “It is finished!” he meant it! Jesus ascended into heaven, presented himself spotless by the eternal Spirit. (Hebrews 9:14), and then poured out the Spirit into believers—so that the finished work could be finished in them!

3. Let’s look at what God accomplished already in the future and pulled back into time and planted within history through the Holy Spirit:

11 In him we have OBTAINED an INHERITANCE, having been predestined according to the purpose of him who WORKS all things according to the counsel of his will, 12 so that WE who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of his glory. 13 In him YOU also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the GUARANTEE of our INHERITANCE until we acquire (REDEEM) POSSESSION of it, to the praise of his glory.

God’s works were finished from the foundation of the world. (Hebrews 4:3) But before time began, God finished his work and predestined the outcome. Then, at the cross, God finished the finished work within time and space. Finally, God pulled back into time “the power of the age to come” (Hebrews 6:5), the Holy Spirit, and he is now “working” the finished work in us.

Here’s how Jesus brought the finished future into the present:

  • In Christ, “we have obtained an inheritance.” The inheritance is “the promise [made] to Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world” (Romans 4:13). The inheritance is the new creation, which is this creation resurrected and born again. The inheritance is “the kingdom of God,” which is God co-ruling with humans over the reconciled–heaven–and–earth cosmos.

  • We have been “predestined according to the purpose of him who WORKS all things according to the counsel of his will,” which means that God has not only guaranteed the future, but he is producing (working) the future within the present in us.

  • By the power of the Holy Spirit, God’s “energy” working in us, we (1) “heard the word”; (2) "believed in him”; and (3) were “sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.”

  • The Holy Spirit given to us is “the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire (redeem) possession of it” through the resurrection of the dead. The Holy Spirit was have received is our “inheritance–in–miniature.” “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) The Holy Spirit is a sample of the world to come, the seeds of the world to come, the assurance that the world to come has already come in us, and what has come in us is coming until it fully comes.

  • All of this is for one ultimate purpose: the praise of his glory!

So, what do we do with what we know? Paul will tell us later in Ephesians that we are “walk worthy” of this vocation. We are to walk out what God works out within us. We must align our faith with the finished work of Christ: finished before time, finished within time and finished at the fullness of time. Live it out!

EPHESIANS: PAUL’S EPIC VISION FOR VICTORY (2)

APRIL 6, 2025 | STEVE PIXLER


Ephesians 1:7–10 (ESV): 7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 MAKING KNOWN to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ 10 as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him [Christ], things in heaven and things on earth.

NOTES

There are seven “time coordinates” that we must understand in order to grasp the backstory behind Paul’s cosmo–theology in Ephesians:

  1. Creation

    1. Divine Council (third heaven)

    2. Guardian angels (second heaven)

    3. Humans (first heaven and earth)

  2. Fall

    1. Fall of Satan and his angels

    2. Fall of Adam and Eve

    3. Fall of creation

  3. Mt. Hermon

    1. The Sons of God and the daughters of men

    2. Nephilim

    3. Flood

  4. Babel

    1. Nimrod and rebellion

    2. Confusion and scattering

    3. 70 nations and the principalities and powers

  5. Mt. Sinai

    1. Israel formed as a holy nation

    2. Israel rejects personal communion with God

    3. Law given by angels

  6. Exile

    1. God departs from the temple

    2. Temple destroyed

    3. Israel handed over to the powers

  7. Ascension

    1. Christ defeats death

    2. Christ receives all authority

    3. The Great Commission