Sermon Tone Analysis

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.

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?