We're going to begin a
study of the book of Ephesians. In your handout, one of the things that I mention
about this epistle, it has been called "the queen of the epistles" because of
the very lofty ideas contained in chapter one. And also because it deals with the church as a spiritual entity rather than a physical one The book of Acts talks a lot about the
church. The where, and when, and how of the church, the movement of the missionaries, how to do things, what they did, where they went, how many people were
baptized. The physical establishment of the church. The book
of Ephesians talks about the church in spiritual tones. We have several objections, not objections but objectives. I hope there aren't any objections, but objectives. The first one is to become familiar with the
teachings that are contained in this particular epistle. You might not think of
it but the plan of salvation, if you were in the class on Christian doctrine,
remember, we talked about the plan of salvation. The plan of salvation is
really talked about in the book of Ephesians. The plan of salvation from
God's perspective is discussed at length here, so that's one of the advantages of
studying this epistle. Another objective is that you have a greater appreciation
for the church and its centrality and God's purpose for man. It seems to be the
style today, the fad today, that the thinking that, "We really don't need
the church." There's some sort of bias against organized religion. The younger
generation seems to be rejecting religious bodies that are organized. They
say "I'm spiritual but I'm not religious." I don't know how you could
do that. I don't know how you could eliminate religion, structure. God is a
God of structure, just take a look at what he's created and you'll see that God
is a God of structure. So, if the God who structured this entire universe,
doesn't structure the church, it doesn't make any sense doesn't it? So
hopefully this book, or this epistle, will raise your appreciation for
God's view and God's purpose for the body, called the church. Thirdly,
that you become sensitized to the great difference between the physical realm
and the spiritual realm in which you live simultaneously as Christians. The
great problem with Christianity, or the great challenge of Christianity, is that
we live in two worlds at the same time. It's that constant dichotomy. Two things,
two pressures, on us all the time. We live in a spiritual realm, but we also live in a
physical realm and we do both at the same time. The book of Ephesians
helps us with that struggle. Hopefully by the end of the class, I hope
that you'll have a clearer view of God, a clearer view of his church, the very
real blessings and the power that we have as Christians. We know
that Paul is the author of this epistle and wrote it as a result of his visits
to this place, Ephesus. Before we actually begin the text, I thought it
would be helpful if we briefly reviewed Paul's ministry, since much of it
is interwoven with the work that he did in this area. The handouts that
you have will help you kind of follow that chronologically. We don't have a lot of information about
Paul before he became an apostle. From his birth to around 31 A.D., his early life
in Tarsus and Jerusalem. We know that he traced his lineage to the tribe of
Benjamin. He was born in Tarsus, as a Roman citizen. Interesting thing about
Tarsus, when the Romans took over there was a choice. "If you fight us,
we'll come in and we'll do to you what we did to every
other city, every other province, every other area, but if you cooperate with us
we'll give you Roman citizenship." So Paul was born in a city and born as a
Roman citizen, for that cork of history, Acts chapter 16. Tarsus was a
city of learning and this is where Paul became acquainted with Greek learning
and language, as well as, various religious cults. He received this formal
education at the feet of Gamaliel, a great Jewish teacher in Jerusalem. Again, the Bible
talks about that in Acts chapter 7 and Galatians chapter 1, verse 13. As a young
man, he was given authority to direct the persecution of the Christians as a
member of the local synagogue, Sanhedrin, or council. He cast
his vote against Christians in order to imprison or execute them. We'll talk about that
in Acts chapter 26. We think that his family was of some prominence in
Jerusalem, since we see that when he himself was imprisoned, he sent his
nephew directly to the Roman leaders to inform them of a plot. This may not
have been possible without a certain position of influence in that society, of
that time. We don't have a whole lot of other information about his early years
other than that, he was probably and there is debate about this, nothing in the Bible,
again, speculation, probably a widower, since he encourages the unmarried.
When you use the term "unmarried" you're talking about widows, widowers, divorce. That term covered that group of people. If you were talking about
people who had never married you, talked about virgins. Virgins were people who had
never married. So he talks about the unmarried at Corinth to remain as he was,
unmarried, 1st Corinthians 7, for the sake of peace in times of persecution. One of
the arguments for this theory is that he refers to himself as such and you had
to be married in order to be on the council, in the synagogue, or in the
Sanhedrin. If you were not married you were not allowed to be part of that.
Either way, it changes nothing about his doctrine or teaching, just some
historical speculation. We know very little of his looks, 1st
Corinthians 2 and 2nd Corinthians 10, suggests that his physical appearance was
not impressive. Some non-biblical, but historical writings, the acts of Paul
for example, or the book of Thella, say that he was short and balding, that's
why he's my favorite apostle. He had crooked legs, he was
bowlegged, but had a healthy body, bushy eyebrows that joined. He had a hooked nose. In other words, he looked like a Jewish person. All the
Hollywood images of the Apostles, these tall guys, 5' 11" or 6' 1", with dark brown hair. If you're over 6-foot, you
were a giant in those days. He was a Jewish looking man: small, dark complexion.
They also write that despite his humble physical appearance, he was full of grace
and sometimes had the face of an angel. Again, non-biblical, historical
writing. From 32 to 34 A.D., in that period, his conversion and early ministry. Of
course, most of our knowledge of him begins with his conversion on the road to
Damascus, very familiar story. He had received official orders to go
there and arrest Christians, Acts 9. He was acquainted with Christianity and
Christians, but as a persecutor. He was there when Stephen was martyred, Acts 7, and
when the church was being persecuted Acts 8. On his way to Damascus, he had an
encounter with Jesus Christ. I want to read Acts. As I say, we're not
going to read all of these passages here, we don't have the
time. It says, "And it came about that as he journeyed he was approaching Damascus,
and suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him; and he fell to the ground and
heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?" And he says, "Who
art thou Lord?" and He said "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting, but rise and
enter the city, and it shall be told you what you must do." The men who
traveled with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul got up from the ground, and though his eyes were open, he could see nothing;
and leading him by the hand, they brought him into Damascus. And he was three days
without sight, and neither ate nor drank." So he fasted and prayed for three days,
that's what a Jew would do, a pious Jew. And was sent to him by the Lord, a man
named Ananias, was sent to him by the Lord, to teach him the nature of his
ministry, which would be to preach the gospel to the Gentiles,
Acts chapter 9. So after his conversion and healing, he began his ministry,
preaching to the Jews in Damascus. He was quite successful at this. During this
period, he also spent time in the desert, devoting himself to prayer and study,
Galatians chapter 1. And eventually he had to escape from Damascus because of
the pressure he was receiving from Jews. He was not very popular among the Jews. He
was the leader of the the persecutors and now he becomes a defender of the
persecuted, so he was not popular with the Jews. In 35 AD, he tries to associate
with the Apostles. After his escape from Damascus, he returns to Jerusalem, tries to
associate with the Apostles and be recognized by them, in Acts 9. They were
skeptical at first, which would be normal but with Barnabas' reference and
commendation of his conversion and work, he was accepted by them and began to
teach and preach. Doesn't that sound familiar, even to this
day? A preacher comes, you hire a preacher, you hire an
associate minister, whatever it is. You hire a youth minister, someone to work in
the church, and they can have a degree, and they can have this and that, but
in my experience when the elders are looking through the person's background, where he worked. The key, a document that
they're looking for, are letters of recommendation from other elders and other churches, vouching for the stability of this individual as a
minister and as a Christian. Nothing has changed, in the
same way, Barnabas provides that word of approval so that he can be accepted.
Again, he's threatened and has to escape and leaves for a time. In 36
to 42 A.D., he has returned to Tarsus, 6 years. So after he leaves Jerusalem, he
returns to his hometown of Tarsus, spends several years preaching and teaching
there. Some scholars call this "the silent period" of his ministry. Not 6
months, 6 years. Then 42 to 44 A.D., teaches at Antioch. The church at Antioch
was the first to have a mixture of Jewish and non-Jewish Christians. Having
been formed as Christians were escaping the persecution in Jerusalem, they formed a
church in Antioch. So this created some strain, this was a new mixture, Jews and
Gentiles together under one head, one religion. So Barnabas recruits Paul to
come with him to teach and preach at this place. Because of
his understanding of Gentile customs, Greek thinking, and the fact that he is a Jew, well-trained in the scriptures. The
perfect match for this particular church. 44 A.D., he helps with the collection for
Jerusalem. About this time, Jerusalem and the surrounding area suffered famine
conditions, a collection is taken up to help out and Barnabas and Saul were put
in charge of bringing it to Jerusalem for distribution, Acts chapter 11. I want
you to notice, it's a long time between the time that he sees Jesus and
Jesus gives him his ministry, and he actually starts that ministry. There's a
long period of training, a long period of development there, before he actually
begins his ministry. By 45 A.D., we are into the missionary journeys. Most
of the last half of the book of Acts described Paul's three missionary
journeys, Acts 13:1 and following. It's during the second of these journeys that
he first visits the city where he will eventually establish a congregation, in
Acts chapter 18. His three journeys took him over ever-widening loops around
the Mediterranean area, where he would establish churches on the way out, and then revisit and strengthen those churches on the way back to Antioch and
Jerusalem. 58 to 60 A.D., his imprisonment at Caesarea. One of Paul's ongoing
problems was the attacks of Jewish leaders, jealous of his success, and fear
that their religion would be defiled or displaced. On one of his returns to
Jerusalem, they create a riot and they caused him to be imprisoned by the Roman
authorities. He remains in a Roman jail for two years, while local rulers, like
Felix, Festus, and Agrippa, hold him captive in order to appease the Jewish
leaders. Ultimately, Paul appeals his case to Caesar, which he was allowed to
do as a Roman citizen, and was sent to Rome for trial. 60 to 61 A.D., his trip to
Rome. This trip, by ship, to Rome was interrupted by a shipwreck and they
stayed on the island of Malta. Eventually in the spring of 61 A.D., Paul
arrives, under guard in Rome. Again, read about that in Acts chapter 28. It was
ironic because, one of Paul's goals was to go to Rome, the capital of the empire,
and preach the gospel. The Lord assured him that that would happen, but
not exactly in the way he thought it would happen. I'm always reminded
that, isn't that the way it happens in our own lives? So many times we asked God
for something and it happened, but not exactly the way we thought it was going
to happen. Same process here for Paul, the Apostle. 61 to 63 A.D., Roman house
arrest. Luke tells us, in Acts 28, that Paul was under a type of house arrest
for two years, awaiting trial. However during this time, he taught many, who
visited him, especially the Jewish leaders in Rome, who ultimately rejected
him and his teaching anyway. He did, however, have great success with many
Gentiles in Rome, including other prisoners and guards in his circle.
Onesimus, Colossians chapter 4:9, the Praetorian guard, we talked about in
Philippians 1. While he's in prison, he writes several letters to different
churches. We call them "the prison epistles". From these
letters, we have remaining, Ephesians, the letter to the Ephesians,
Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. In 63 A.D., he's released
from prison. It seems that he won his case when he appears before Caesar
because, we see Paul visiting other churches after his arrest and
imprisonment in Rome the first time. Between 64 and 66 A.D., he revisits the
churches. Now, this period is less clear than his previous activities.
There's no biblical evidence, but there are some historical writings, for example,
the letter of Clement in 95 A.D., says that he did visit Spain but, after
his first Roman imprisonment. From his writings, we do find out that during
this time he revisits established congregations. Doesn't it make sense?
He's been out of circulation for two years. He writes to these churches. He's
concerned about them. His desire, when he was in full missionary mode, was to just
keep pushing the boundaries to get to Spain. Now after being out of circulation
for two years, his concern is for those churches have already been established. So
from his writings, we find out that he visited several congregations. For
example, he spent time in Crete, Titus chapter 1 verse 3, a large
island in the Mediterranean. He went to Ephesus, 1st Timothy 1. He
traveled to Corinth, 2nd Timothy 4. He stopped at Troas, again, 2nd Timothy 4. And he went to my Letus 2nd Timothy 4. So during this brief period
of freedom, it's believed that he wrote the first letter to Timothy and also the
letter to Titus. 67 A.D., Paul is martyred in Rome. In 64 A.D., Nero, the Emperor, burned
down the city of Rome. To divert blame from himself, he blamed Christians
for starting the blaze. They were already unpopular, so it was easy to begin
their persecution. Multitudes of Roman citizens were arrested and put to death
during this time. Paul, as they recognized a religious leader, was also rearrested. They had a record of him, they
knew who he was, he was famous, and probably, next to Peter, the most
well-known of the Apostles. It's from his cell, awaiting
execution, that he writes his final letter to Timothy, that would be 2nd
Timothy, and then he was beheaded soon after. Thus ended the life of one
of the great servants of the Lord. First lesson on Ephesians,
just a very quick overview of the life of Paul, who wrote the letter to this
particular church. Let's talk about Paul in Ephesus. We have a few minutes left. Now the story of Paul's visits to Ephesus and the establishment of the
church begins in Acts chapter 18. In Acts chapter 18:18 - 21, Paul is on his
second missionary journey on his way home from Athens in Greece. He visits
briefly, to an enthusiastic response, and leaves Aquila and Priscilla there in
order to return home to report on his work. There were no conversions at this
time. In Acts chapter 18, it says "Now a certain Jew named
Apollos, an Alexandrian by birth, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus; and he was
mighty in the Scriptures. This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord;
and being fervent in the spirit, he was speaking and teaching accurately the
things concerning Jesus, being acquainted only with the baptism of John;" that's the
key idea right there, "and he began to speak out boldly in the synagogue. But
when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained to him the
way of God more accurately. And when he wanted to go across to Achaia, the
brethren encouraged him and wrote to the disciples to welcome him; and when he
had arrived, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace, for he
powerfully refuted the Jews in public, demonstrating by the Scriptures that
Jesus was the Christ." So Apollos, this teacher, comes to Ephesus. Remember, Paul has
already visited once, no conversions. He preaches to the same people that Paul
did and we find the result of his preaching in the next chapter, but Luke
writes that Paul's friends, Aquila and Priscilla, take Apollos aside, and they
teach him more accurately the way of God. Again, only in the next chapter, do we get
some idea of what Apollos was taught by Aquila and Priscilla. So in Acts
chapter 19, Paul returns for a second visit to Ephesus and now he
establishes the church. He finds the twelve disciples, believers who have been
taught by Apollos. They were not taught by Paul, they were
not taught by Aquila or Priscilla. That means, they had been taught by Apollos.
So Paul learns that they have been incorrectly taught and he learns this by
asking about their conversion. Again, people say "What do you do when someone
new comes to the church?" You don't know their
background and they would like to be part of the church, or they'd
like to be... What question do you ask them? I asked them always the same
question. "Tell me about your religious background." Just tell me about...
I'm not asking "Do you believe in the creation in seven days?" Those are important biblical doctrines, but that's not exactly what I want to
know. I want to know your religious background. "How did you become a Christian? Are you
even a Christian?" That's the starting point. "Did you
believe in Jesus? Did you repent of your sins? Were you baptized?"
Paul does the same thing, tell me about... they're saying
"Yeah, we're with the Lord. We're Christian." Paul says "Tell me
about your religious background." Part of the basic Christian
gospel is that through Christ and his baptism, the Holy Spirit is received. Acts
chapter 2 verse 38. Peter says,"Repent be baptized in the name of Jesus, every one of
you, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the
Holy Spirit." So their answer shows what Apollo's taught them, was the message of
John the Baptist. Because Paul asks them, "Have you received the spirit?" So they
say, "Well, we didn't even know there was a spirit." So there's something, a big hole, in
and what they've been taught and they've been taught John's message, John the
Baptist. John's message was to repent and be baptized in preparation for the
kingdom that was coming. This is what Apollos has taught them. The message of the gospel is
that the kingdom of God has come, and it's come with power. And those who
repent and are baptized in Jesus's name, are forgiven and receive the Holy Spirit. We don't put a lot of emphasis on the "receive the Holy Spirit" part, usually
when we quote Acts 2:38 or, that section of Scripture, we're always talking about
making sure that baptism is by immersion, which it is. But we focus on
that, or the forgiveness of sins. But, do you realize that in the first century,
the thing that really excited people about the gospel was not the idea of
forgiveness of sins, it was the idea that they would receive the spirit, because, the Spirit is what powers the resurrection, Romans 8, verse 9 to
11. To Jews, the fact that the Holy Spirit was given through Christ, was the
big issue about the gospel. It's what they had been
promised by the prophets. If you were a Jew and you look back at
your history and the history of the promises made to you, the Spirit was
given, but it was given very few times and to very few people. Some of the kings,
some of the judges: Samuel, Sampson, the prophets; Isaiah,
"The Spirit was upon me." David, by the spirit, defeated Goliath. The spirit came upon certain individuals, for a time. Even David in
one of the psalm said "Don't take your spirit from me." The promise to the
Jews, was when the Messiah would come, the spirit would be given to everybody, male, female, free, slave. Everybody would get the Spirit and everybody would have the Spirit all the
time. That was the exciting part of the promise. So Paul says to these people, "Did you receive the spirit?" They say "We don't..... the spirit? We've
never even heard of the spirit." There obviously was a hole, that big, in
what they had been taught. So this is what Paul teaches these men and what
Aquila and Priscilla taught Apollos, after they had heard him speak. You
wonder, "What did they teach him? Well, they taught him that repentance and baptism in
Jesus' name brings forgiveness. So far, a similar message to
John and the gift of the Spirit. The regenerating power of the
Spirit comes at that moment. Note that the disciples are rebaptised in
Acts chapter 19. In verse 4 it says, "Paul said,
"John baptized with baptism of repentance, telling people to believe in him
who was coming after him, that is, Jesus.' And when they heard this, they were
baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. And when Paul had laid his hands upon
them, the Holy Spirit came on them and they began speaking with tongues and
prophesying and they were in all about twelve men." So these men received not
only the indwelling of the Spirit, through baptism in Jesus name, but also
the empowerment of the Spirit through the laying on of hands of the Apostle
Paul. So they were rebaptised, why? Because they were baptized in the right way,
John's baptism was by immersion, but they were baptized for the wrong reason. John the Baptist's promise of the kingdom. Somebody says at
this point: "Why weren't the Apostles rebaptised?" The answer to that is: All those
baptized by John the Baptist, when he was preaching, were not rebaptised when
Christ's baptism was begun on Pentecost. Someone will say, "Well, why not?"
Because, John's baptism up until Pentecost fulfilled all righteousness.
Isn't that what Jesus said? So Apollos was one of these, as were the Apostles. They had
John's baptism at the time when John's baptism fulfilled all righteousness up to
the cross. But once Peter preached at Pentecost, however, only Christ's baptism
was valid. And anybody still receiving John's baptism needed to be rebaptized. We have an example of this here in Acts chapter 19. In our doctrines class, we always stress the idea: you have to be baptized in the
right way, by immersion, for the correct reason. There
are many reasons in the Bible: for forgiveness of sins, to receive the Holy
Spirit, to become a member of the church, to put on Christ. There are all
kinds of metaphors that are used that talk about salvation. One of the problems
that we have sometimes, is that we talk about salvation in only one term. We
only use one metaphor, one idea to talk about salvation. But the Bible, the New
Testament, talks about salvation using many ideas. Let me ask you this: Someone
who's born again, is that person saved? Yes or no? Yes? Raise your hand, yes. Someone
who's born again is saved. Of course! Can an unsaved person be born again? Well, no.
That term "born again": In John 3, does he mention there, anywhere, forgiveness of
sins? No, he uses the imagery of being born again,
to refer to salvation. Let's use Acts. Those who repent and are baptized in the name of Jesus, receive forgiveness of sin.
Would you say that someone who has been forgiven of their sins, would you say that
that person is saved? Oh yeah, sure. Do you notice that in Acts 2, the author
does not mention the idea of "born again"? You go to Galatians 3 and he says, "All
those who are baptized into Christ have put on Christ. Other imagery, the
putting on of Christ. Would you say that someone who has put on Christ is saved? The
Bible says so. But in Galatians 3, the author doesn't mention forgiveness of
sins. The author doesn't mention born again. He refers to the idea of salvation
using the image, putting on Christ. In Romans 6:3, Paul talks about those who
are buried with Christ in baptism, are raised again. Would you say
that someone who has been buried with Christ and resurrected through baptism,
would you say that that person is saved? Yeah, but in Romans chapter 6 verse 3, he
doesn't mention forgiveness of sins. He doesn't mention... Do you get the point
I'm making here? The Bible talks about salvation using a variety of images.
And we tend to only use one image, forgiveness of sins. Well that's true, but
there are many other... Anybody who comes up to me and says, "Well, I was born again in
the water and the Spirit." That person is my brother. That person was baptized in
the name of Jesus. He's just using a different imagery, biblical imagery, to
describe his salvation. Would you say that someone who obeys
the gospel is saved? Come on, commit. Well yeah. Mark 16:16, "Those who believe and are baptized, will be saved." That's obedience.
If someone says, "Well, I obeyed the gospel." Is that person saved? Yes. In Mark 16, does he mention, at all, forgiveness of sin, new life, putting
on... It doesn't mention those images. He just says, "Those who obey Christ, those
who believe and are baptized will be saved." Those who obey the gospel, they're
the ones who are saved. So I'm getting across the idea that: If you became a
Christian, if you use a certain imagery that the Bible uses to describe your
salvation, then you you've been baptized for the right reason. If you say to me, "I was saved because I obeyed the gospel." Amen, you're saved. If
you come up to me and say "Well, I'm saved because I
have the the new life. I was born again in the water in the Spirit."
That's right. John 3, you're one of us. If someone says, "I appeal to God for a clear conscience in baptism." 1 Peter, is
that person saved? Absolutely. Why? Because he is being baptized for a biblical
reason. Now, the opposite is true as well. If the person says, "Well, I was baptized
because it was my birthday." No. "I'm saved because I came forward and was baptized
because my big brother came." No. "I wanted to take communion. I was always
embarrassed, every time the plate came to me, I had to skip
over and pass the bread to the guy next to me, so I wanted to be able to take the
communion." No. That's what I mean. If you are baptized, immersed, because that's
baptism, that's biblical baptism. If you're immersed for the right reason,
and there are many, "I obeyed the gospel, I was born again, I put on Christ." All those different metaphors, all those different images, then you've been
baptized in the correct way, for a biblical reason. But if you're not
baptized, in other words, "I'm sprinkled as a baby." Then you
you have not been baptized the correct way. Acts 19 is a tremendous help to
us because, it gives us a historical example of individuals who were sincere,
absolutely sincere, who desired to know Christ, to desire to be and and want
Christ. Except, and they were even baptized the correct way by immersion, but
for the incorrect reason. And so Paul... Twelve people, Paul could have
said, "You know what, close enough." Close enough is good in horseshoes, I think, but not in the doctrine of salvation. So here we see the
baptism of these twelve men. This is the beginning of the church at Ephesus. One of the lessons we learn from the beginning of this church is: you need to be
baptized the right way for the right reason to become a Christian. Next
week, we're going to continue and, hopefully, get actually
into the text itself
