Ephesians 6:21-24

Introduction

Paul is concluding his letter to the church in Ephesus. He loves these people. He cares for them deeply. He is empathetic and feels their struggles, pain and the challenges of following Christ in the first century.

He has penned a primer in this little letter which would help them understand and live their faith more completely. It would be a source of encouragement to them in the inevitable persecution they would face.

Paul loves us as well. He has empathy toward us too. He would, and does even now, consider us brothers and sisters in Christ. We are a family united by Christ and the Holy Spirit who has been poured out into each of our hearts.

We are a real family. Not a pretend one...

It started with Rent-A-Wife, a small Petaluma, California, company created by Karen Donovan to help clients decorate their homes, balance checkbooks, run errands, etc. Donovan, who launched her business through a small ad in the local newspaper, is already thinking big after four months of operation. She wants to hire her father to initiate Rent-A-Husband and her two teens to start Rent-A-Family. "We can do what any family does," the newfangled entrepreneur joked. "We can come over and eat all the food, turn on all the lights, put handprints on the walls, take showers and leave the towels on the floor. When clients are finished with Rent-A-Family, they'll have to call Rent-A-Wife.

Rudyard Kipling once wrote about families, "all of us are we--and everyone else is they." A family shares things like dreams, hopes, possessions, memories, smiles, frowns, and gladness...A family is a clan held together with the glue of love and the cement of mutual respect. A family is shelter from the storm, a friendly port when the waves of life become too wild. No person is ever alone who is a member of a family.

He does not think himself better than his hearers. He is no Christian celebrity. In verses 18-19 he asked them to pray for him. They are a priesthood of believers, both himself and his hearers. Together we minister to and pray for one another.

The bond we have with one another is deep. We need each other. We need the love, encouragement, ministry and prayers that we might offer one another. Your pastor is no closer to God than you.

No Christian celebrity is closer to God than you. Not positionally anyway. Some might have a deeper intimacy than others but that same level of intimacy you see in your spiritual giants is offered to you as well.

Since 1939, Stan Lee has been responsible for creating or co-creating some of the world’s most popular superheroes. His super-human imagination gave birth to Black Panther, Spider-Man, the X-Men, Thor, Iron Man, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, Daredevil and Ant-Man. Of course, the world has no shortage of storytellers, but Lee was something of a mutant in the field. The Avengers series alone has generated more than $10 billion in ticket sales at the box office since 2008. So what set his stories apart from the rest? Lee was able to tap into two deeply rooted human instincts. He explains his secret in a 1984 interview with ET: “The whole formula, if there was one, I think was to say: ‘let’s assume that somebody really could walk on walls like Spider-Man, or turn green and become a monster like The Hulk. That’s a given, we’ll accept that. But, accepting that, what would that person be like in the real world if he really existed? Wouldn’t he still have to worry about making a living? Or people distrusting him? Or having acne and dandruff? Or his girlfriend jilting him? What are the real problems people would have?’ I think that’s what made the books popular.” There it is, super-humans with normal struggles.

You may know the Lord as they know Him. You may enjoy Christ as they do. You may pray as effectively as they pray. It is simply a matter of whether or not you are willing to pay the price and the price is simply time.

Will you spend the time with God to be well acquainted with Him? To know His heart and be in agreement with Him?

Paul loved his church family and considered himself a man among equals while in their midst. Sometimes I think we need to be reminded of the great equity and equality among us.

We used to tach our children red, yellow, black and white, we are all precious in God’s sight. We need to do such teaching again but with the addition of rich or poor, American or not, slave or free…God loves us and we are all equal in His sight…and certainly should be in one another’s sight.

Tychicus

I don’t want to skim over our brother Tychicus. He is the only person named in this letter other than Paul. He is a significant player here in that he carried this letter from Paul to the church in Ephesus. But there is more to his story...

Beloved — He was a beloved brother in the faith. And deeply cared for friend of Paul. This makes him significant in itself. You can tell a lot about a man by the company he keeps and what they might say about him.

Faithful Minister — He was a trustworthy, dependable and reliable man who rendered his service to the Lord.

There is more said about him in Acts 20:4; Colossians 4:7; 2 Timothy 4:12 and Titus 3:12 From these passages we see he from Asia, a man of high character and trusted companion of Paul.

We have a crisis of celebrity in the church today. We lift up those who are especially gifted and celebrate them, often times to a fault.

But the church is truly built upon the likes of Tychicus. These are the men and women who quietly and without fanfare, this side of heaven, serve the Lord and usher in the Kingdom of God to untold millions of people.

This is my church. It is composed of people just like me. It will be friendly if I am. It will do a great work if I work. It will make generous gifts to many causes if I am generous. It will bring others into its fellowship if I bring them. Its seats will be filled if I fill them. It will be a church of loyalty and love, of faith and service. If I who make it what it is, am filled with these, Therefore, with God’s help, I dedicate myself to the task of being all these things I want my church to be.

And it is the prayers of the likes of Tychicus which has precipitated the great revivals of faith in the history of the church.

We can make it without the celebrities but we would be in a world of trouble without the foot soldiers like Tychicus. He was sent to bear news of the work of Paul and how the church might specifically pray for the ministry he was doing.

He was sent to encourage the people in their hearts.

Paul’s Closing Words

Peace, Love and Grace — Paul has expounded upon the meaning of these three words throughout the letter and now he prays that his hearers might practically and actually experience all three in their life.

Peace — May you have no worries or fears. May you have a state of life in which all is well because of your relationship with Christ, even in the midst of whatever troubles may come.

Love — The agape of God. The unmerited, unconditional love of God. May you know it, feel it and rest in it at all times.

Grace — The unmerited favor of God. May you realize and believe that we are saved by God’s grace alone and not of any works we do.

That grace is for those who love the Lord Jesus incorruptibly. This is how a true Christian loves Christ.

Incorruptibly — An undying love which cannot be destroyed or corrupted in any way.

When we become Christians our lives change in a number of ways. Our attitude toward sin changes for sure but we also have a deep love of Christ birthed in our heart. A deep love without end.

Conclusion

I think this is what Paul really wrote this book to emphasize and illicit from is…incorruptible love for Christ.

“Though” and “through” differ only by one small letter—the letter “r.”  In American Sign Language, “r” is made by crossing the middle finger over the index finger.  But crossed fingers have a history as sign language that far predates ASL.  In the first centuries of the Church, when Christianity was wholly illegal and Christians were vigorously persecuted, believers found ways to communicate their faith in subtle ways.  Accompanying a greeting or farewell, crossed fingers were a code sign, identifying Christians to one another as “people of the cross.”  The crossed fingers were a mute symbol for the cross of Christ and the redemption Christ’s death on that cross brought to all people.

So that we might be saved, understand our salvation and live a life of love and awe before Him. So that we might love the Lord incorruptibly.