Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Every Christian must “walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called!”

Paul the prisoner for the Lord, passionately urged the Ephesians to change the way they thought and lived in light of God the Father’s election to salvation in accordance with the gospel.

Why such an urgent plea from the Apostle Paul?

In the past I’ve told you about the beauty seen in the ruins of Ephesus, in fact, I showed actual photos of the ancient ruins taken when I visited Turkey.

But I must now address the ugliness of Ephesus when it was a live and thriving city.

Why such an urgent plea from the Apostle Paul?

In the past I’ve told you about the beauty seen in the ruins of Ephesus, in fact, I showed actual photos of the ancient ruins taken when I visited Turkey.

But I must now address the ugliness of Ephesus when it was a live and thriving city.

Ephesus was one of the most dissolute and evil of all the cities; in fact some mentioned that it was the most evil city in all of Asia Minor.

Some of you may be thinking, I thought Corinth was the worst city.

Corinth was a wicked place also, but it was located in Greece, not Asia Minor.

Greece was a different location and smaller land mass than Asia Minor.

Back to my point, Ephesus was really a religious center.

There were multiple temples and idols, but it was the particular focus of Diana, and other name for Diana was Artemis.

Her temple was one of the seven wonders of the known world at the time.

One would think with the name Diana or Artemis this idol would be beautiful in design.

But Artemis was a big, dark, ugly thing, that looked like something between a cow and a wolf – hideous in its design.

Artemis was a big, dark, ugly thing, that looked like something between a cow and a wolf – hideous in its design.

It supposedly fell out of heaven, and so they worshiped this big dark thing.

But the temple of Diana was also an art museum with few equals.

They had their collections of great works of art.

In addition, it was an asylum for criminals.

One quarter mile around the circumference of the temple of Diana was a free zone of sorts for any criminal so you can imagine the kind of crowd that collected there.

Lastly, it was the greatest bank in the world.

A sacred temple like this was a good place for a bank, because in those days security was very primitive.

The bank locks lack any real protection, so the best place to put a bank was in the middle of a temple.

Why a bank in the temple?

Because people would be fearful do anything due to the reprisal of the gods, which the citizens of Ephesus lived in fear of.

So they made temples into banks, so it was a place where there was a lot of money.

primitive.

The bank locks lack any real protection, so the best place to put a bank was in the middle of a temple.

Why a bank in the temple?

Because people would be fearful do anything due to the reprisal of the gods, which the citizens of Ephesus lived in fear of.

So they made temples into banks, so it was a place where there was a lot of money.

Pilgrims, by the thousands, came to this place not because of its wonder and beauty, but because of the worship that went on there was perverse and perverted making it very popular.

Like today all you have to do is invent a religion where sex is the key thing, and you’ll have a whole bunch of people eager to get involved and become religious, and that’s exactly what happened.

The goddess of Ephesus, Diana, was worshiped as a sex goddess.

The place was packed with eunuchs, who were made eunuchs in order to accommodate that kind of activity, and there were thousands of priestesses and temple prostitutes, singers, dancers, all in the midst of the occurrence of the deepest and darkest sexual activities.

One writer says the worship was a kind of hysteria, where the people with shouts and music worked themselves into frenzies of shameless sexual activity, including self-mutilation.

Heraclitus said the temple was, and I quote, “The darkness of vileness.

The morals were lower than animals, and the inhabitants of Ephesus were fit only to be drowned,” end quote.

This was Ephesus with all of its wonder and artist beauty, but the reality was it was dark and ugly.

Of course, in the book of Acts we are told about the revolt of the silversmiths where there was a terrible riot that broke out due to the lost of businesses.

The Apostle Paul and others came in and shut down all the businesses, these business people couldn’t sell their little gods because many of the Ephesians were turning to Jesus Christ.

In the midst of all of this darkness, the little church in Ephesus was an island in a cesspool.

Ephesus was a vile, sinful world for those early Christians to live in, and so the Apostle Paul says to them in verse 17, “You’ve got to be different.

You’ve got to be different.

You can’t walk like they walk; you can’t do what they do.”

Living the new life is tough, but living the new life is necessary.

You’ve got to put off that old man, that old lifestyle.

The Title of my sermon is: No Longer Live as Americans Live

I have two points:

Exhortation to Live Differently (vs.

17)

Description of the Condition and Lifestyle of Non-Christians (vss.

18-19)

Exhortation to Live Differently (vs.17)

The Apostle Paul begins by addressing the Ephesians in a most solemn manner.

He wants to call attention to something that is of vital importance to them.

‘Now this I say, and testify in the Lord.’

He is not content with saying ‘This I say therefore’; that would be strong, but he adds to it—‘This I say, and testify in the Lord.’

What does he mean by this word testify?

The word really means solemnly to enjoin, to entreat with seriousness.

It is as though he were invoking a witness.

When you give a testimony you are bearing witness to something.

A person is put in a witness-stand and he testifies.

And that is exactly what the Apostle is saying.

And that is exactly what the Apostle is saying.

He is anxious that they should not think for a moment that he is merely stating his own personal opinion, for there were people then (as there are now) who were only too ready to say, That is only Paul’s opinion; that is what Paul thinks.

He is anxious that they should not think for a moment that he is merely stating his own personal opinion, for there were people then (as there are now) who were only too ready to say, That is only Paul’s opinion; that is what Paul thinks.

By that expression ‘in the Lord’ he does not mean so much that he is invoking the Lord as his witness although you do find that sometimes in the Scripture—‘As God is my witness’, a person says, or ‘In the presence of God’.

But here it does not mean exactly that.

“in the Lord...” What Paul means is he is testifying to this as one who is in the Lord; he is one who is in communion with the Lord.

In other words, he is speaking with the full authority of an Apostle.

In other words he is speaking with the full authority of an Apostle.

In other words, he is speaking with the full authority of an Apostle.

To what, then, is he testifying?

What is this injunction which he puts to them in such a solemn manner, having arrested their attention, and having made them realise that they are listening to the word of the living God?

To what, then, is he testifying?

What is this injunction which he puts to them in such a solemn manner, having arrested their attention, and having made them realise that they are listening to the word of the living God?

To what, then, is he testifying?

What is this injunction which he puts to them in such a solemn manner, having arrested their attention, and having made them realize that they are listening to the word of the living God?

With an urgent solemn plea, Paul says, “that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do…”

To what, then, is he testifying?

What is this injunction which he puts to them in such a solemn manner, having arrested their attention, and having made them realize that they are listening to the word of the living God?

With an urgent solemn plea, Paul says, “that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do…” The walk, as used in Scripture, means the whole of a man’s life, inward and outward.

We must remember that our walk is not confined to the outward, it involves the inward also.

A man is as he thinks, and his walk in life tells you what he is thinking, because his walk is an expression of his worldview.

The walk, as used in Scripture, means the whole of a man’s life, inward and outward.

We must remember that our walk is not confined to the outward, it involves the inward also.

A man is as he thinks, and his walk in life tells you what he is thinking, because his walk is an expression of his worldview.

Paul says, “in the futility of their minds.”

The word for "futility" suggests being void of useful aims or goals.

It means something which is aimless, pointless, lacking direction, it does not bring you to any goal, and of course it leads in the end to utter futility, to that which is absolutely empty.

It means, therefore, something which is aimless, pointless, lacking direction, it does not bring you to any goal, and of course it leads in the end to utter futility, to that which is absolutely empty.

That, then, is his description in general of the life of the pagan Gentile world.

It means, therefore, something which is aimless, pointless, lacking direction, it does not bring you to any goal, and of course it leads in the end to utter futility, to that which is absolutely empty.

That, then, is his description in general of the life of the pagan Gentile world.

Unbelievers failed to attain the true purpose of the mind, namely, to receive God's revelation which would guide them in their conduct.

That, then, is Paul’s description in general of the life of the pagan Gentile world.

If this letter were to have gotten into the hands of non-Christian Gentiles in Ephesus (or elsewhere), it would have been the cause of great offense.