Ephesians - Let's Begin Series

Ephesians: Finding our Identity in Christ

Ephesians 1:1-2

Pastor Jefferson M. Williams

1-10-2026

Best Student

In the 1980s, the most sought after guitar teacher in New York was Joe Satriani. He was known for taking guitar “heroes” and teaching them how to play with technical precision.

Stevie Via walked into his first lesson already known as a prodigy. Joe asked him if he knew the notes on the entire fretboard. He said he didn’t know the notes.

What he wanted to say was that he wasn’t very good at memorizing and he didn’t think he could do it.

Joe told him not to come back for another lesson until he had the entire fretboard memorized.

As Stevie was walking up the stairs, Joe’s mother was coming down the stairs and asked, “How was the lesson?” From the basement, Joe yelled, “My best student doesn’t know his fretboard!”

Stevie said he stopped dead in his tracks. He knew he was good but he had assumed that Joe had other guitar players like him. He said it redefined the way he thought about himself.

The next week, he returned with the fretboard memorized and the rest is history. He has played with Alice Cooper, Whitesnake, David Lee Roth, as well as a thriving solo career. He has been nominated for 15 Grammys and won three. He was the devil’s guitar player in the movie CrossRoads. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Berklee. And, in a full circle moment, I will see Stevie and Joe together May 3rd in Chicago.

Stevie didn’t understand who he was. Once he did, he was able to do things he didn’t think possible.

In a conversation with my dear friend Dr. Genie Burnett, who is a Christian psychologist, last week, we agreed that most of our issues as Christians is that we don’t know who we are in Christ. We don’t know our true identity and what that means.

That is the reason that we start the book of Ephesians this morning. The book of Ephesians will help us understand our identity in Christ, it will strengthen our faith, encourage us to fight the darkness, and walk the walk of holiness.

One commentator writes, “The letter to the Ephesians is one of the most influential documents in the history of the Christian church.”

Calvin calls Paul’s letter to the Ephesians the queen of all his letters, with only Romans topping it as the king.

Theologian John Mackey had a lifelong love for the book of Ephesians, calling it the “greatest, maturest and most relevant of all Paul’s works…this letter is pure music, what we read here is truth that sings….”

R. Kent Hughes adds, “Ephesians – carefully, reverently, prayerfully considered – will change our lives. It is not so much a question of what we will do with the epistle, but what it will do with us.”

Whether you have read the book of Ephesians 50 times, as some of us have, or can’t find it in your Bible, I believe that God is going to do something amazing this spring as we study His Word.

This morning, we will explore the book’s author, recipients, and greetings.

Prayer.

The Author - Paul

“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.”

The author of this letter is Paul. That is the name that God gave him. Before that, he was known as Saul.

He was born into a Jewish family from the tribe of Benjamin. He grew up in Tarsus and was educated under the famous rabbi Gamaliel. He was also a Roman citizen.

He was a strict Pharisee who persecuted the church. In fact, we first meet him in the Bible as he is holding the coats of the men who were stoning Steven, one of the first “deacons “ of the church.

He hated Christians and even went from town to town rounding up men, women, and children. It was on one of these missions, that he had an experience that changed his life and direction forever.

One the road to the city of Damascus, he had an encounter with the risen Jesus:

“…suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”

“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.

“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” (Acts 9:3-5)

He was blinded by the light and wandered into Damascus with the help of his companions. A Christian named Ananias, who was initially afraid of Paul, was directed by God to go and pray for him and when he did: