Sermon Tone Analysis

Date and Place of Writing

Paul mentions that he is a “prisoner of Christ” (3:1), a “prisoner in the Lord” (4:1), and “an emissary in chains” (6:20), which is not merely a metaphor (cf. 2 Cor 11:23; Phil 1:7, 13, 17; Col 4:3, 10, 18).

This suggests that Paul was actually being detained when he wrote this epistle.

Paul was detained around 58-59 AD in Cesarea.

During his trial before Festus he appealed to the emperor and was sent to Rome where he was placed under house arrest.

Therefore, most scholars hold the date of Ephesians around 60-61 AD before his first trial in Rome.

The Recipients

First, they are the saints.

Paul is not referring to some spiritual elite within the congregation, a minority of exceptionally holy Christians, but rather to all God’s people.

Secondly, they are also faithful.

The adjective pistos can have either an active meaning (‘trusting’, ‘having faith’) or a passive (‘trustworthy’, ‘being faithful’).

Thirdly, Paul’s readers are in Christ Jesus.

The key expression of the letter is expressed in the the first verse.

To be ‘in Christ’ is to be personally and vitally united to Christ, as branches are to the vine and members are to the body, therefore, also to Christ’s people.

Fourthly, readers are in Ephesus.

Originally a Greek colony, Ephesus was not the capital of the Roman province of Asia and a busy commercial port.

It was also the headquarters for the cult goddess Diana (or Artemis) whose temple, after being destroyed in the middle of the fourth century BC, had gradually been rebuilt to become one of the seven wonders of the world.

They are saints because they belong to God; they are believers because the have trusted Christ; and they have two homes, for they reside equally ‘in Christ’ and ‘in Ephesus.’

All Christian people are Saints and Believers, and live both in Christ and in the secular world, or ‘in the heavenlies’ and on earth.

Many of our spiritual troubles arise from our failure to remember that we are citizens of two Kingdoms.

We tend to either pursue Christ and withdraw from the World, or to become preoccupied with the world and forget that we are also in Christ.

Illustration

Long Rope with a small part of one end painted red.

We spend so much of our lives focused on this small time span, and we give remarkably little thought to what really counts - eternity.

NEW LIFE: Ephesians 1:3-4:10

Key Theme of Ephesians 1:3-14: God’s Masterpiece of His Purpose displayed in every Spiritual Blessing.

1.

The purpose of His masterpiece is from Eternity to Eternity

Main Purpose: From Eternity to Eternity God works all things according to His perfect plan and for His own glory.

BLESSED (write on white board)

Ephesians 1-6

BLESSED: Eulogy (Doxology): Praising someone, or something highly, typically someone who has just died.

What do you usually include in a Eulogy?

1. a brief overview of their life, including milestones.

2. Your favorite memories with them including a specific anecdote or two.

3. Details about their relationships with close family and friends.

4. Any significant accomplishments related to career, interests or hobbies.

Note: At my Uncles funeral to my surprised I looked down at the order of events and realized right before the family was to walk in that I was to read the obituary.

I quickly scanned the page to insure that I had all the facts about my uncles life that were summed up on a couple of paragraphs.

When it comes to Eulogizing our God their are not enough pages in all the books of History to do it justice.

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 the text according to the working of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

The Beginning of this paragraph starts with the word, Blessed (Eulogetos) this expression is used only of God.

Blessed: to be made holy; consecrated; held in reverence, honored in worship, of or enjoying happiness; bringing pleasure, contentment, or good fortune.

Blessed in the NT

In the NT we see the strong spiritual content, as revealed in the Beatitudes (Mt.

5:3-11) however, eulogetos is used only of Christ and God.

*The source of all blessings is not of the world.

SOURCE (WRITE)

Main Idea: The source of all blessings comes the transcendent God.

Transcendent: God is outside and beyond humanity’s full experience.

“With every Spiritual Blessing”

This is to be conceived of as one continuous flow of blessings, and is not to be conceived of as material gifts of which we think most readily, but in terms of the spiritual blessings 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.

Therefore, God initiated it set forth for himself the subject of almost every main verb in these verses.

v. 13-14 gives all the attention and focus on what God has done in Christ at the beginning of the periods: in so far as he chose us… In love he predestined us… which he bestowed on us … which he lavished upon us,” etc., and at the end of the periods: “In Christ… before him … glory of his grace … with the promised Holy Spirit … to the praise and of his glory.”

*The place of blessings is not of this world.

PLACE (WRITE)

Key Idea: The Place of all blessings is in the Heavenly Places

We know that He existed before the foundation of the world.

The Heavenly Places

Now Paul leads us into the invisible spiritual environment, as contrasted with the visible, tangible environment we call earth.

It is the realm of all unseen forces, good and evil, which struggle to dominate the individual and corporate life of humanity.

“In the Heavenly Places,” this phrase is used 5 times

1:20 “that he worked in Christ according to the working of his great might.”

Christ is said to be exalted and to be in the heavenly places.

The place that Paul is talking about is neither sky, nor grace, nor glory, nor any literal spatial abode, but rather the unseen world of spiritual reality.

The five uses of heavenly in Ephesians indicate that ‘the heavenlies’ are teh sphere in which the ‘principalities and powers’ continue to operate, in which Christ reigns supreme and his people reign with him.

*The Cause of all Blessings is not of this World.

CAUSE (WRITE)

ELECTION: is the first Foundational cause of all blessings.

“He Chose is an ordinary term for choosing, or selecting something or someone.”

For example, Jesus “chose” twelve men to be his disciples; they did not”choose” him.

Throughout the whole process it is God initiating in redeeming His people from transgressions, and that this is only accomplished in union with Christ.

ELECT (WRITE)

The Doctrine of Election

The doctrine of election thread runs throughout all of scripture.

Israel was the chosen race not for any merit, but to be the means of the fulfilling of the eternal purpose of God (Deut.

7:6-8; Isa.

42:1; 43:20-21).

In the NT. the principle of election is confirmed, but there is no longer any national limitations - a truth that later develops and expounds.

This doctrine of election, 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.

PROBLEMS WITH FREE WILL

Spontaneous Choice

This view is called the Humanist view of free will, which is the most prevalent view of human freedom that we find in our culture and the church as well.

This view is defined as our ability to make choices spontaneously.

That is, the choices we make are in no wise conditioned or determined by anything other than our own spontaneous action by the person.

Thoughts on Free Will are as Follows.

No Moral Significance: If our choices are purely spontaneously, without any prior inclination or disposition, then in a sense we are saying that there is not reason for the choice.

There is not motive for the choice; it just happens.

A Rational Impossibility: Alice in Wonderland when Alice, in her travels, comes to the fork in the road, she asks the Cheshire Cat, “which road should I take?”

And the Cheshire Cat replies by saying: “That depends.

Where are you going?” Alice says, “I don’t know.”

Then what does he say?

“Then I guess it doesn’t matter.”

If you have no intent, no plan, no desire to get anywhgere, what difference does it make whether you take the left or the right?

The Freedom of the Will(Johnathan Edwards) Edwards says that free will is “the mind choosing.”

What he is saying is that, though he distinguishes between the mind and the will, the two are inseparably related.

We do not make moral choices without the mind approving the direction of our choice.

The Strongest Desire Free moral agents always act according to the strongest inclination they have at the moment of choice.