Sermon Tone Analysis

Greetings in Stereo

(Ephesians 1:1-2)

Years ago, an immigrant from Europe was very new to the US and did not understand how everything worked.

Most of us have found ourselves in a new location, new job or some other new experience where we did not know quite what to do, can appreciate his story.

This particular man had a problem with the railroad.

He was seen walking down the tracks in New Jersey and one day, carrying his luggage with him.

An agent who saw him stopped him with threats of arrest if he didn’t cease his trespassing.

Hearing the threat, the man pulled out a perfectly valid ticket from New Jersey to Scranton, Pennsylvania.

He was astounded to learn that the ticket privileged him to ride a train – not merely walk along the right of way of the tracks.

Now, that’s a simple story, folks, but in many ways it is representative of the message of the book of Ephesians.

You see this marvelous book was written to insure that we are not just walking along the tracks in our Christians experience but are riding the train to glory land!

We are about to embark on a stupendous journey that I promise will open up new vistas of Christian experience for even the most mature among us.

Let us hope and pray together all through this study that by the time we are done, each of us will be fully aboard, each enjoying fully the privileges that are ours as a child of God and each living a more full and satisfying life than we ever thought possible.

Let me make a few introductory comments and then we want to consider the first two verses today.

Those verses are Paul’s salutation, but even they contain nuggets worth digging for.

Unlike virtually all of the other NT epistles, the letter to the Ephesians was not written to address any specific problem.

Rather in this epistle the Apostle Paul was at pains to paint the big picture, to depict for all time what God’s wonderful intention for those who know and love Him.

At the time Paul wrote this letter, he had the luxury of time for rather than running all over the known world as he had been doing for the past 20 plus years, he was in prison in Rome.

It was the early 60’s AD.

Paul was likely under house arrest at this time awaiting an appeal to Caesar which was his right as a Roman citizen.

While waiting, he conversed with faithful companions and received news from some of the places where he had ministered.

He also dictated the letters which have come to be known as the prison epistles – Colossians, Philippians, Ephesians and Philemon.

Each is a thoughtful expression of the greatness of the Lord Paul served and of his relevance to everyday life.

Joy and gratitude permeate these letter even though written from jail, giving vast credibility to the message of the Apostle.

Paul was very likely released from this imprisonment, but within a couple of years he was again imprisoned and this time executed at the command of an increasingly licentious emperor, Nero, when he needed a scapegoat for the Roman fire of 64 AD – a fire probably started by Nero himself to clear land for a grand palace – but for which he ordered the brutal execution of many Christians (probably including both Peter and Paul) to divert attention away from himself.

Paul first came to Ephesus near the end of his second missionary journey in the Fall of 52 AD.

He came from Corinth in the company of Aquila and Priscilla, fellow tent-makers turned evangelists.

Paul ministered briefly in the synagogue at Ephesus before going on to Jerusalem, but he left Aquila and Priscilla, who taught the novice Apollos while there.

Paul returned a year later and spent 2-1/2 years, more than at any other place in his ministry – finally leaving in 56 AD.

The church he left behind became one of the great churches of the first century.

It was dominated by Gentile believers, who exhibited an occasional tendency to look down on their Jewish brethren.

The theme of the book is God’s plan to ultimately “sum up” or “unify” all things in Christ as we have seen, but particular emphasis is given to the role of the church in this activity and plan of God.

The book is easily divisible into two main parts – the first three chapters are a magnificent doctrinal treatise on the church, then chapters 4-6 make practical application of that message.

The two parts have variously been called a presentation of believers’ position in Christ followed by a definition of what their practice should be like.

Others have termed the parts our calling and our conduct.

By whatever terms, the book demonstrates in a very practical way how great doctrine should have practical effect in lives and how well-lived lives will have a basis in doctrinal teaching.

With that very brief introduction, let’s begin to look at how Paul addresses his letter.

It follows exactly the normal means by which letters were addressed at that time, but in this case, very practical implications for the living of a content Christian life are evident.

Further, each part of his address has a dual element, hence the title, “An Introduction in Stereo.”

I think you’ll see the beauty of expression as we go.

*I.

Dual Name of Writer*

Paul’s introduction is typical of the time in which he lived.

He includes the name of the writer, the readers and a greeting.

Now as you will note, only one name for the writer is listed here.

He is called Paul, which means “small”.

But that was not the name he was given at birth.

Paul’s birth name was Saul, as most of you will recall from your studies in Acts.

According to Philippians 3:5 he was of the tribe of Benjamin, and the tallest, vainest and most famous of the tribe of Benjamin was none other than King Saul – the first king of Israel.

Now I must admit a prejudice here, but had I been naming a son after a famous Israeli king, I think I would have chosen David, wouldn’t you?

I’d have chosen David who was so clearly a man after God’s own heart.

But Paul’s parents chose Saul – I suspect in honor of the fact that he was first and they wanted their son to be first – to have ambition.

Clearly if that was their intent, they succeeded, for Paul was the image of ambition.

Listen to the list of his accomplishments given in Philippians 3: 4 though I myself have reason for confidence in the flesh also.

If anyone else thinks he has reason for confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.

Listen – in his youth and early manhood, Paul was a proud and accomplished man, and he had every right to be according to the measure of his society.

He was Saul!

But you will recall, as Saul was on his way from Jerusalem to Damascus to run down and persecute more of those new Christians such was his ambition, it took a single moment in time for the Lord to stop Saul in his tracks, knock him on his backside, blind him and a different man emerged.

Listen to the account from Acts 9: 3 Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. 4 And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” 5 And he said, “Who are you, Lord?”

And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.

6 But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one.

8 Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing.

Now I want to tell you, though Saul saw nothing, yet Saul saw everything; he saw reality, Beloved, for he saw the Lord.

I know that because of his reaction here.

This ambitious, proud, confident, verbose, emotional man on a mission went in a single moment from hardnosed, focused campaigner to a whimpering, humbled shell of himself who could only utter, “Who are you, Lord?”

There was no argument, no complaint, no defense, not a single attempt to justify himself, just a simple compliant recognition that he was face-to-face with someone he called “Lord” – don’t you find that interesting?

His submission was immediate and total – so total that a very short time later – sometime after the three days when he received his sight again, he began to go by Paul – “small” -- rather than Saul.

And though the Lord honored him with great suffering as well as great exaltation in the remainder of his life, his name was a constant reminder that he was now Paul – small – no longer strong in his own might, but a submissive servant of one who was so much greater.

I cannot leave this without wondering – have you encountered Christ as Paul did? I’m not suggesting that we all will be stopped in our tracks by a bright light shining out of heaven sent to bring us to our senses, but you see this instance is recorded in Scripture so that we all get the point that what Paul experienced in person, we must all experience by faith if we are really to be a child of God.

It is very easy to be as Paul was – to be living a life that we believe to be honorable, recognized, ambitious, successful from the world’s perspective, but the question is, have you met Christ?

The question isn’t do you have wealth, or fame, or position or success – the question always is, what have you done with Christ?

Jesus says in Luke 9:23, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.

And you see, that is exactly what Saul did on that road to Damascus.

His life took a whole new direction and focus as he says in II Cor.

4: 7) But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.

If you check out the context in II Corinthians, you’ll see that the treasure he is speaking of is the gospel message and that the jars of clay are our earthly bodies.

Paul got it.

His life was about small Paul having the wonderful privilege of representing Christ on earth.

Saul had been cut down to size and his smallness became a medium for God’s biggness; his weakness a channel for God’s power.

*II.

Dual Source of Authority*

The second thing we find in Paul’s greeting is a dual source of authority.

Look at verse 1 with me: 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: This is really quite an interesting designation.

Paul identifies himself as an apostle (a representative) of Christ Jesus, but notes further that this is at the behest of God himself.

Those are his two points of authority.

In this brief statement he is noting both his commission to represent the very earthly Jesus whom he originally hated and persecuted as well as his selection by the heavenly father.

This close connection between heaven and earth, stated directly and by implication, is everywhere evident in the book of Ephesians and is a constant reminder of how close heaven really is (I believe both physically and certainly spiritually), though we often wrongly think of it as so distant.

Now, let’s take the phrase apart.

First we note that Paul is an apostle.

The word apostle literally means a sent one and was used to speak of one specifically empowered to represent another and to deliver a message in his behalf.

He is a designated representative.

The word apostle is used in a couple of ways in the New Testament.

It is sometimes used in a general sense to designate missionaries who went out as representatives of some local church to start other churches.

However, more often the term was assigned a very specific and precise definition referring to those who had been commissioned by Christ personally and face-to-face to carry on the establishment of His Church (capital “C”).

In this usage the term takes on the attributes of an office, and in this sense it is applied to the Twelve apostles who ministered with Jesus during his earthly ministry and later to Paul.

To qualify as an apostle, one had to have seen Christ (as shown by Paul’s claim to the office despite being one “untimely born” [I Cor 15:8] to whom the Lord had appeared apart from his earthly ministry on the road to Damascus), to have been commissioned by Christ, and to have demonstrated the apostolic gifts of teaching and miracles.

Such evidences credibly authenticated the ministry of these individuals.

You will recall that after the defection and death of Judas, the remaining apostles selected another who met those requirements and later Christ specifically designated Paul as we have noted.

The apostolic duties were to preach the gospel as noted in many passages such as I Corinthians 1:17, to teach and pray, as found in Acts 6:4; to work miracles (II Cor.

12:12), to build up other leaders of the church and plant churches (Acts 14:23) and to write the Word of God as we see in Ephesians.