Untitled Sermon
Ephesians - notes
Great pyramid at Giza, Egypt -the oldest buildings in existence. It is 456 ft. high, nearly 4500 years old. It is the largest and oldest of all of the ancient pyramids. Made of some 2 million stone blocks that weigh around 2 to 30 tons each.
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made of some 2 million stone blocks that weigh around 2 to 30 tons each.
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Hanging gardens of Babylon - built around 600 BC. Herodotus claimed that the walls stretched for 56 miles, 80 feet thick and reached 320 feet high. Records state that it was destroyed by an earthquake in 1st century
Mausoleum at Halicarnassus - Halicarnassus was built in 351 BCE and rose to around 135 feet high. Its status as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world doesn’t derive from its size or strength, but because of the intricacies of the sculpture reliefs it had to adorn its four walls. There were 36 columns and 10-foot statues of Greeks battling Amazons, marble chariots and step pyramids leading to the pinnacle of the structure.
the words at Ephesus are absent from some of the best MSS
yet grammar almost certainly requires a place-name in the original.
Here both ideas may be included; they are believers and their calling is to faithfulness.
The faithful (pistoi), a term often used for Christians in the New Testament, may mean those who have faith, or those who show fidelity.
the phrase in Christ Jesus
used eleven times in verses 1–14 alone
Christians not only have faith in him; their life is in him. As the root in the soil, the branch in the vine (cf. John 15:1ff.), the fish in the sea, the bird in the air, so the place of the Christian’s life is in Christ.
. We have a pointed juxtaposition of two phrases as Paul addresses his readers in Colossians 1:2 as ‘in Christ’ and ‘in Colossae’. There is the implication that wherever Christians may be, in whatever difficult environment, threatened by materialism or paganism, in danger of being engulfed by the power of the state or overwhelmed by the pressures of non-Christian life, they are in Christ.
Now, after his brief greeting, and before he expresses his thanks for the welfare of those to whom he is writing (vv. 15–16), the apostle goes straight into a great paean of praise—one long sentence, impossible to analyse, in which each successive thought crowds in on the one before. There is no predetermined order in the enumeration of the blessings; the contemplation of one leads naturally to the next—election from the very beginning; sonship by adoption; redemption, which means forgiveness; insight into God’s all-embracing purpose; the privilege (both for Jews and Gentiles) of becoming his people; and the sealing of the Spirit, which is the guarantee of the final inheritance. Three particular notes sound right through this great doxology. First, from eternity to eternity God works all things according to his perfect plan. All history, all people, all that exists in heaven and on earth are included in his purpose. Past, present and future are all embraced in this doxology, and the work of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Secondly, that purpose is fulfilled in Christ, and thus in him every blessing that men and women can have is found. Thirdly, its goal is the very practical one, that God’s people should live ‘to the praise of his glorious grace’ (v. 6).
The Greek translated who has blessed is an aorist participle, which may refer to a particular occasion in the past when those blessings were first received, or when he brought them to humanity; but the tense is not of necessity to be pressed. With every spiritual blessing suggests that from him comes one continuous flow of blessing, and this is to be conceived, not chiefly in terms of the material gifts of which we think most readily, but in terms of the spiritual that transcend but include the material, for the true appreciation of the things we see is dependent on our enjoyment of the things of the Spirit.
This is made clearer still by the defining phrase that follows, in the heavenly places. The phrase speaks of an ‘invisible spiritual environment, as contrasted with the visible, tangible environment we call earth. It is the realm of all the unseen forces, good and evil, which struggle to dominate the individual and corporate life’ of humanity (Caird). Five times the phrase is used in this letter. Christ is said to be exalted to be ‘in the heavenly places’ (1:20); the wisdom of God is being made known to the principalities and powers ‘in the heavenly places’ (3:10); the same phrase is used of the sphere of the spiritual conflict against the forces of evil (6:12); and, most closely connected with the subject here, in 2:6 Christians are said to be ‘raised up’ and made to ‘sit with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus’. Their life is lifted above the commonplace. It is in the world, but it is also in heaven, unlimited by the material things that pass away (cf. Phil. 3:20). Life now, if it is life in Christ, is in the heavenly realm.
In the New Testament the principle of election is confirmed, but there is no longer a national limitation—a truth that this letter later develops and expounds. This doctrine of election, or predestination, is not raised as a subject of controversy or speculation. It is not set in opposition to the self-evident fact of human free will. It involves a paradox that the New Testament does not seek to resolve, and that our finite minds cannot fathom. Paul emphasizes both the sovereign purpose of God and our free will. He took the gospel of grace and offered it to all. Then to those who had accepted the gospel he set forward the doctrine of election for two reasons, both of which we find linked similarly together in John 15:16; Romans 8:29; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Timothy 1:9 and 1 Peter 1:2. Firstly, Christians need to realize that their faith rests completely on the work of God and not on the unsteady foundation of anything in themselves. It is all the Lord’s work, and in accordance with his plan, a plan that reaches back before the foundation of the world. There is, therefore, no place for human boasting. Secondly, God has chosen us that we should be holy and blameless before him (cf. 5:27 and Col. 1:22). Election is not simply to salvation, but to holiness of life. We were ‘created in Christ Jesus’, 2:10 is to express it, ‘for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them’. We were ‘predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son’ (Rom. 8:29).
PAUL’S DESCRIPTION OF THOSE TO WHOM HE IS WRITING. They are “the saints which are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus.” 1. Saints. The title of all Christians—not attributing any personal merit to them, but simply recalling their prerogatives and obligations. It reminded them that God had made them His own; that they were “holy” because they belonged to Him. The temple had once been “holy,” not because of its magnitude, its stateliness, and the costly materials of which it was built, but because it was the house of God; and the tabernacle, which was erected in the wilderness, though a much meaner structure, was just as “holy” as the temple of Solomon, with its marble courts and its profusion of cedar and brass and silver and gold. The altars were “holy,” because they were erected for the service of God. The sacrifices were “holy,” because they were offered to Him. The priests were “holy” because they were divinely chosen to discharge the functions of the temple service. The Sabbath was “holy,” because God had placed His hand upon it, and separated its hours from common use. The whole Jewish people were “holy,” because they were organized into a nation, not for the common purposes which have been the ends of the national existence of other races, but to receive in trust for all mankind exceptional revelations of the character and will of God. And now, according to Paul’s conception, every Christian man was a temple, a sacrifice, a priest; his whole life was a sabbath; he belonged to an elect race; he was the subject of an invisible and Divine kingdom; he was a “saint,” i.e., one whom God has set apart for Himself. The act of consecration is God’s act, not ours. Our part, is subordinate and secondary. We have only to submit to the authority of the Divine claim, and to receive the dignity conferred by the Divine love. 2. Faithful. Those who have faith have also fidelity; faith guarantees fidelity. 3. In Christ Jesus. One of Paul’s characteristic phrases—the keynote of this Epistle.