Introduction to Ephesians

Introduction

Whenever we think of a city on the forefront of modern culture that offers anything and everything within walking distance, we often think of New York City, right? There are skyscrapers, shopping centers, subway stations and millions of people on their way to work or there to visit! New York City is one of the most diverse cities in the United States as well because of its sheer size and the fact that many people immigrated to this city and have established deep roots to the city. We know that many different religions are practiced in New York City as well. New York is on the cutting edge of society with technology and trends and many people travel there for work to brainstorm or meet for business. We know that New York is the financial hub of our nation and one of the largest cities in the entire world. It is one of the most powerful places on the planet. Ephesus, home of the Ephesians, is similar to New York City in a lot of ways. Ephesus was one of the 3 or 4 largest cities in the entire world during Paul’s time both in the city and when he penned this letter. Ephesus not only was a large city but it also was a very wealthy place due to being a port city and having many businesses intersect and trade within the city itself.

Ephesus was one of the wealthiest cities in the Roman Empire and was a place where many important people lived in addition to retired Roman soldiers. More than anything, though, Ephesus was known for one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world: the Temple of Artemis. As we talked about a couple of months ago during our Revelation Bible Study, this temple was massive! The entire city worshipped Artemis (or Diana - the Roman name of this goddess) minus the Jews and Christians. There were economic benefits for those who worshipped this goddess and you were cast down upon if you did not. Because the Jews did not worship other gods/goddesses, they were despised by many people here. What was unthinkable for many, though, was for a Gentile (non-Jew) to convert to Christianity because of the relationship between church and state. Quite literally, worshipping Artemis was your “civic duty” as a citizen of Ephesus because Artemis was their patron goddess.

So, who was Artemis? Artemis was the Greek goddess of hunting. Many people would worship her because she was also thought to be the goddess of fertility and the moon. These people thought that Artemis was the “patron goddess” of their city. If there was a drought? Worship Artemis. If you couldn’t have a child? Worship Artemis. If you were in danger? Worship Artemis. Now, worshipping Artemis wasn’t exactly free (as we know today, nothing is completely free!). If we look at , we see that Paul’s ministry was creating a significant disturbance to the local silversmiths of Ephesus who used to make their livelihood from selling silver statues. We also see that Paul’s ministry combatted the way of life for many priests of Artemis as well. These priests would sell incantations and amulets to individuals who were in need of help or those who wanted protection for a price. For example, if someone wronged you and you wanted to “get them back”, you could go to the priest and purchase a magical incantation that would cause Artemis to curse this individual. If this happened to you, and you saw your mortal enemy go to the temple priest one day then you would also go to the priest and purchase a blessing to “counter” this curse. Do you see the viscous cycle that people could get wrapped up in? There was so much money involved in this process.

There was a strong belief in magic. Magic is a children’s thing in our world today, but back then it was a very real threat. Individuals believed that they could “manipulate” the gods to work on their behalf. You could pay a fee to the priest and receive an incantation with the name of a god and have him or her do your bidding for you. This is the culture that Paul was walking into at Ephesus! We know that Paul spent more time in Ephesus than he did anywhere else. We think that he lived in Ephesus for 2 1/2 - 3 years (52-54 AD). We see from that he spent some of this time in the Jewish synagogue teaching them about Jesus Christ but he eventually got kicked out because the Jews were hardened to his message. Paul proceeded to go to the hall of Tyrannus and he taught about Jesus Christ to all who would come and listen. This would be equivalent to a modern day library and we find the apostle Paul leading a Bible Study for 2 years in this hall. Paul loved this church and he helped them to stop purchasing these magical incantations from priests (in we see that believers burned their old incantations and books and the value of what they burned was 50,000 coins of silver - modern day equivalence of either $5.5 million or $1.5 billion depending on what kind of silver (talent or denari) we are talking about here).

This is why we see the word “power” come up so often in the letter to the Ephesians! The reason this is the case is because Christian converts in Ephesus are coming to the realization that they have to face having faith in Christ without the help of magic. Paul will handle various questions to Christian life in the book of Ephesians, but first Paul gives them a blessing and convinces them that they are in fact blessed in Christ Jesus from the get go as he shows them that we are blessed by God because He chose us.

Ephesians 1:1–14 NASB95

1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. 3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love 5 He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 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 on us. In all wisdom and insight 9 He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His kind intention which He purposed in Him 10 with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth. In Him 11 also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to His purpose who works all things after the counsel of His will, 12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. 13 In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, 14 who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.

Paul’s introduction (1-2)

Whenever people introduce themselves today, they often give their title or relationship that they have with someone. Depending on the situation I could say that I am the pastor of Morgan Baptist Church or that I am Lindsey’s husband. This helps whoever I am talking with associate me with a place or person that can establish some common ground. What we see in Scripture (especially on Wednesday nights with our study through Revelation) is a very similar story. Paul in verse 1 states that he is an apostle of Jesus Christ! What a way to introduce yourself to a group of people! You might be wondering why Paul would write a letter to this church if he had spent nearly 3 years there himself? This church had fallen in some areas and we see Paul give them some very powerful and critical truths in this letter! We see in verse 1 that this letter is addressed to those who are “at Ephesus”. We also see Paul write a letter to the Colossians and the letter of Philemon to a member of the church of Colossae. Why would Paul write 3 letters to two cities that are less than 100 miles away from one another? What we see is that the words “at Ephesus” are not listed in all the manuscripts of Ephesians. Because of this, Ephesians is thought to have been a circular letter mean to to have been read by the believers there and then passed on - this is something that we see Paul do often as he talks about a letter to the church of Laodicea in Colossians. Daniel Akin (President of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary) believes that this letter was a circular letter addressed to various churches in Asia Minor in the general vicinity of Ephesus.

This is important for us to note as we read this letter because the message is not strictly for the believers in Ephesus. Additionally, there seems to be a strong connection between Colossians and Ephesians. If you’ve ever read both back to back then you’ve probably noticed that it seems like they say the same thing from time to time. This is because 26.5% of the wording from Colossians appears in Ephesians! (As we go through Ephesians, it would be a great idea to read through Colossians sometime in the coming weeks.) So Paul writes this letter for the church in Ephesus to read and then share with other Christians in the area, what is the big deal about this? 3 things: 1st, Paul is in prison as he writes this letter. Prison was by no means a pleasant thing, however the general consensus is that Paul was not in a typical jail cell during this time but rather under house arrest and chained to a Roman guard 24/7. Can we even imagine being chained to someone 24/7? Think of being chained to someone like Paul who wouldn’t stop talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ! As a Roman guard you would simply want him to stop talking yet we see Paul pen letter after letter and desiring to continue to share the Gospel even while he was in chains.

Paul writes this letter and from the get go he addresses the believers here as faithful to Christ Jesus. Ephesus had many strong Christian leaders to preach and teach at various house churches in the city. Pricilla, Aquila, Apollos, Timothy and Paul all come to mind here. Later we see that John would teach in Ephesus as well. This church had great men of faith preaching and instructing them for years and years, yet we see in that they had lost their first love. They were great at spotting false teachers, but they conducted their lives with cold hearts because they had lost their first love. We can be at fault in this regard as well, can we not? We can hear convicting messages from men like John Piper and David Platt, we can go to concerts and retreats and hear wonderful messages and powerful worship but in a matter of days we abandon our love for Christ. We must always be mindful and careful of serving Jesus like a machine - do we “play” church on Sunday morning or do we genuinely desire to be “Christ-like”? Jesus tells the Ephesian church in to repent. This is the message for us when it comes to losing our love for Jesus today. Praise God, though, that He is a relentless and forgiving God. What we see Paul do in Ephesians is proclaim that Christ is Lord over the universe and then unpack what the role of the Church is.

So, are you ready for today’s sermon?

So, as we dive into the meat of

You are Chosen (3-6)

If you were here last week as we went through then some of this will be a repeat, however if there was ever a message that the Church needs to hear more and more of it would be regarding our purpose as Christians. We see in verses 3-6 that we are chosen as Christians. We are a people of God and we receive spiritual blessings as well! From eternity to eternity, God works all thing according to His perfect plan. As a child, one of the things that humans love to do is ask “why”. Why do we have to do this? Why do we have to go there? Why do I have to learn this? These questions eventually evolve into deeper ones such as: Why do I have to go to church? Why do I believe in Jesus Christ? We love to ask these “why” questions and many times we would love nothing more than to have these questions answered for us and to be able to see the entire plan right before our eyes! What do we see in Scripture, though?

Psalm 119:105 NASB95

105 Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.

If you consider the practical application of this verse, this is not a lot of light, is it? A lamp gives off some light, but not enough to see everything and a path by nature is narrow and does not involve everything in our vicinity. What we see is that there is a plan, reminds us that God works all things together for good! However, we are unable to see the entire plan. We are guided by the Spirit along the process. Praise God that He has a plan. Before time began, He knew us. Before time began, He knew that Jesus would die on a cross. Before time began, He knew that we would accept His Son as our Savior and Lord. We talked in about the process of Adoption in the Roman world and the benefits that this process brought to the adopted son. Now at this time you might be quick to say, “Well, didn’t I choose God?” Of course, you did and you did this freely! But only because God chose you before the very foundation of the Earth. As we mentioned last Sunday night, just because a Christian is chosen does not mean that they have the license to sin however they please. If you are a new creation then you act differently! How do we show that we have been set free from sin and death? By bearing fruit. We are called to live a holy lifestyle because we have been called by the Creator Himself. This calling should cause us to be humble, not to boast.

What is the purpose of God calling us? That the praise given to God would increase! As shows us

Psalm 66:2 NASB95

2 Sing the glory of His name; Make His praise glorious.

The whole earth is commanded to give God praise. The greatest thing that we can do as Christians is to live a holy life that reflects Christ to those around us. The greatest gift that we can give to another person is to love them and to reflect the love of Jesus to them. We honor God by living a holy lifestyle.

You are Redeemed (7-10)

Not only should we praise God the Father for choosing us in eternity past but we should also praise God the Son for what He did for us on the cross as He redeemed us! In , Paul writes:

Colossians 1:14 NASB95

14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

Colossians 1:13–14 NASB95

13 For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

We know that we have been redeemed and set free from the penalty of sin, however we often overlook the cost - the life of Jesus Christ. We can come to our church building each and every week and open up our Bibles in order to learn more about God, however it can be easy to forget that our entire faith is built upon the Son of God taking our place on Calvary. There is power in the blood of Jesus Christ! There is also forgiveness in the name of Jesus.

We can all relate to feeling guilty of something in our lives, can we not? Whether it be a child stealing a cookie from the cookie jar or a high school student cheating on an exam, we know the power that guilt can have on our lives! Redemption is linked with forgiveness. We have been forgiven of all of our sin, past, present and future because of what Christ did for us. We see in an account of a woman pouring expensive oil to anoint Jesus in adoration. The Pharisees, meanwhile, did not seek Jesus out for forgiveness because they thought that they were “good enough”. Jesus commended this woman though because she knew how much she had been forgiven. People who do not realize where they stand before a holy God will not praise Jesus Christ like this because they see Him as a “fall back option” or as a “plan B” to use just in case their good doesn’t balance out their bad.

We also see that there is Grace in being Redeemed. Not only is there a little bit of grace but we see in verse 7 that He lavished grace on us. As John Newton put it, it is Amazing Grace! We simply do not have words to describe the grace that we receive.

We also see that we have wisdom and insight. We all know some very intelligent individuals. Maybe a teacher you had in high school or a college professor. Perhaps a scientist or engineer, even! What we see in Scripture is that we, as believers, receive wisdom and insight/understanding that the rest of the world does not have. We see things differently and we are able to go through life with a different perspective than a non-Christian. Praise God for redemption and for the blessings of forgiveness, grace, wisdom and understanding that we receive from Christ’s sacrifice!

You are Assured (11-14)

The great preacher, Dwight L. Moody, once said this regarding assurance: “There is no doubt about assurance in the Word of God. A person said to me some time ago: "I think it is great presumption for a person to say she is saved." I asked her if she was saved. "I belong to a church," she sobbed. "But are you saved?" "I believe it would be presumption in me to-say that I was saved." "Well I think it is a greater presumption for any one to say: 'I don't know if I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ,' because it is written, "He that believes in me has everlasting life." It is clearly stated that we have assurance.”

We have talked about the assurance we have as Believers numerous times. We know that the Holy Spirit acts as a sort of “downpayment” and our future payment is coming. We know that the Spirit is not something promised to us in Heaven but something that we experience immediately as Christians! How do we have this hope and future? Because this was a part of God’s plan and will from the start. Before time began, this was the way that things were going to work! The word predestine occurs 6 times in the New Testament and 2 of those occurrences are in . I told you a couple of weeks ago that if a word is not in our text, we’re not going to put it in the text, however if a word like this is present in our text, we must talk about it.

From a human perspective, we have believed and put our hope in Christ (as verse 12 shows us). Verse 13 adds emphasis to this point as it shows us that this assurance transpires whenever we believe in Him. There is mystery in this action, but we see that there is sovereignty of God and responsibility of man. People only receive salvation whenever they hear the Gospel and believe in Christ! This is a huge call to missions on our end of things, is it not? How can people believe in Christ as Savior if they never hear the Word? We might think that “someone else will do that job!” but we see in that the entire world stands guilty of treason before a holy God. Someone must do something! We must share the Word with those around us and we must help those who are on the front lines doing this on a daily basis. We just wrapped up our Annie Armstrong offering to help out North American Missions (we nearly doubled our goal!!). However, this does not mean that our “mission” is completed or that we can take a break. Far from it! As we looked at the Great Commission a couple of months ago, we have a call from Jesus Christ to share the Gospel with those around us. Regardless of the cost. Regardless of the time. Regardless of the situation or how you are feeling. We have a command from the King to share this good news. Faith comes by hearing the Word - if we say that we care for human life and that we want to represent our King well, missions and evangelism will not simply be a “Christmas and Easter” offering but will be a part of our daily lives.

Paul hits on how we can be assured by the Spirit and assurance is something difficult for us to realize fully. We can say that we understand it, but how often do we mess something up and feel like we have to go back and be “re-saved”? Certainly whenever we mess up and sin we ask for forgiveness and repentance and we turn away from our sin and seek God, however we can be fully assured that our salvation never needs to be in question because of 3 things. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit, God promised the Holy Spirit and the Spirit guarantees our inheritance.

We talked about how a seal represents authority/ownership last Sunday night as we looked at grace. We see that Paul makes the points several times that the Holy Spirit dwells with Believers! Our seal, as Christians, is not external but internal. No one else and nothing else can remove our seal that is in our hearts!

1.

We can have assurance because the Holy Spirit was something that was promised in the Old Testament ( and come to mind). God’s plan is perfect and we see in that the Holy Spirit was poured out for Believers. Because of this, we can have hope that we receive the Holy Spirit today. We recognize the difference in lives before and after Jesus Christ. This difference is because of the Holy Spirit!

2.

Paul moves from “we” in verse 11-12 (talking to his Jewish audience) to “you also” in verse 13 (talking to his gentile audience) to “our” inheritance. This is something that all groups share in equally! God has reconciled all people, black, white, brown, red through His Son. Some people like to think of the guarantee of the Spirit like an engagement ring as it acts as a promise of something to come. However, our culture has taken something as serious as marriage and boiled it down to feelings and desires. Our culture does not see marriage as a lifelong commitment. Because of this, a better understanding of what the Holy Spirit does is that it acts as a down payment on a house. We know that we make a purchase of a home and then begin to make payments on the home. We immediately move into this home, though. We do not have to wait for something in the future even though it is not completely paid off. The future and the present merge and we move into our home and continue to make payments on it. Likewise, the Holy Spirit comes down and enters our life immediately as Christians and we know that one day we will receive our full inheritance in glory!

Paul moves from “we” in verse 11-12 (talking to his Jewish audience) to “you also” in verse 13 (talking to his gentile audience) to “our” inheritance. This is something that all groups share in equally! God has reconciled all people, black, white, brown, red through His Son.

As Paul wraps up this passage, he emphasizes that all of this is done for the praise of His glory (v. 14)!

Conclusion

As Paul wraps up this passage, he emphasizes that all of this is done for the praise of His glory (v. 14)! There is nothing left for us to do than to praise God for what He has done in our lives. God is calling us to share this good news with the nations and for every tribe and tongue to declare that Jesus Christ is Lord! Let that be our call to action today.

God the Father has chosen us. God the Son has redeemed us. God the Spirit has assured us!

In the words of Moody once again, “There cannot be any peace where there is uncertainty.”

We are made for praise and as we continue our study of Ephesians we will see Paul address several questions about things like church, prayer, marriage, parenting and being united as a Body of Christ. It is my prayer that we meditate on these words and apply them to our lives in order to worship our Savior for who He is and what He has done.