1. Ephesians
Have you ever been reading in your New Testament and felt totally lost? You’ve heard before that Paul wrote some letters. And you’ve read cool things in these letters. But where did these letters come from? How were they written, why were they written, when were they written? It’s enough to make your head spin! This month we’re going to start a series called Hitchhiker’s Guide to Paul’s letters and as we all know, the first rule of the Hitchhiker’s Guide is: Don’t Panic! (Remember your towel)
We’re going to break these writings of Paul down to understand them better. So we’ll take this series in three chunks that represent the 3 different categories of Pauline letters:
- ROOKIES
- ROADS and
- PRISON BARS
These are the different contexts from which Paul wrote different letters:
- ROOKIES refers to letters Paul wrote to young apprentices leading church plants or groups of church plants: 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus
- ROADS refers to letters Paul wrote while on the road during his missionary journeys. These include 1 & 2 Corinthians, Romans, Galatians, and 1 & 2 Thessalonians.
- PRISON BARS refers to letters Paul wrote from Prison, not including 2 Timothy. These will be the ones we start our series with: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and Philemon.
I’m excited about this series because I think it will fill in background that we as Bible readers need to get more out of our Bible reading. And just like the title suggests, we’re going to be more like hitchhikers or tourists, than permanent residents for a month. I’m not going to move in to these letters, we’re just passing through like tourists, seeing the highlights, and I’ll be the tour guide. The hope is, later, you WILL move into some of these letters for long term study – Because you got the lay of the land in this series, the context, the reasons for writing, the history, the people the geography… you’ll get more than you ever have. Read it this week. So today, this will be your hitchhikers guide to Ephesians. Let’s do this like true journalists in W5 style, WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN – leaving off the WHY because that will be answered by the other 4.
Let’s start with… WHEN
Ephesians was written during Paul’s first imprisonment in Rome around 61 A.D. This writing happens near the tail end of an amazing career of missionary activity, spanning 3 decades and the entire Mediterranean. All the prison epistles (BTW an epistle is another word for “letter” not the wife of an apostle – common misunderstanding.) are written with a refined calm edge to them because they come after a lot of reflection and maturing in Paul. His earlier letters, written from the Road, are more feisty, impassioned and pleading. But these four, written from Prison near the end of Paul’s life are like well thought out treatises – especially Ephesians. They were meant to be read like encyclical letters – already Paul wanted his letters to be copies and read for encouragement by multiple churches. So when did Paul first have contact with Ephesus? It was at the tail end of his second journey(*describe) around 54 AD he made his first stop in Ephesus. He had urgent business in Jerusalem so he can’t stay long, but he vows to come back. It was as Paul first got there that an eloquent, fiery Jew named Apollos showed up in Ephesus and started teaching about Jesus – but he must have not been around Jerusalem when the church was launched at Pentecost. How do we know that? Because he was making disciples of Jesus but he wasn’t aware of the promised Holy Spirit or the new birth that was offered in the new Kingdom era whe birthed. Paul comes back from Jerusalem visiting churches and no doubt he has Ephesus in mind as a key center to establish the Gospel. This time, a small band of Christians who don’t this, but it’s likely these are converts from Apollos teaching. So Paul explains that not only did Jesus establish a new way life for our sins, he also promised TOGETHER. And these disciples gladly receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and a church is officially established in Ephesus. A But those 12 people were about to rattle a whole town and a whole province. Now, let’s talk about this town: when the church was it’s not surprising that he finds anything about the Holy Spirit. Luke doesn’t say of life and law down his the Holy Spirit to help us live the new life . mere 12 people strong.
drama. It seated almost twice as many people as Key arena and it didn’t have a sound system! Ephesus was right on the Western coast of Turkey with an important harbor. It was a cultural and economic hub and at the center of that hub was the cult of Artemis. Artemis was the Greek goddess of the hunt and fertility Her images were everywhere. People traveled from all over the Roman empire to venerate her and take in the cult prostitutes and ceremonies and buy idols. It was a destination like Disneyland where people would by buy Mickey Mouse dolls. In the center of the town was the Temple of Artemis which was awe-inspiring. Over 400 feet long by 200 feet wide, the whole building was bigger than a football field, it was supported by 127 columns over 60 feet tall made entirely of marble. It’s listed as one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. All that stands today is a single column. This temple is at the heart of a Ephesus that stemmed directly started his church planting they got antagonistic and so Paul from a guy nicknamed the TYRANT. as we know, a religious building of any kind. It was just a public meeting place where Paul knew the Gospel could rub up against the culture and have a transforming So every day, during the siesta time, he would teach about Jesus. He years straight… seeker services at a neutral site. A community center where there was debate and the vital exchange of ideas. And talk about transforming impact years Luke records: Ephesus was the most important Roman city in Asia at that time, about the size of Tacoma. And among the wonders that still stand from that metropolis are the Amphitheater seated 25,000 people for civic events and s – the Roman’s called her Diana miniature Artemis statues like we n ers his huge controversy in ed from Paul’s ministry. Paul efforts in the went to preach elsewhere. He rented a lecture hall This wasn’t a church he rented. It wasn’t spel did this for 2 e 4 which Diana. Synagogue but . wasn’t, so far impact. impact! After two 5 “People throughout the province of Asia – both Jews and Greeks – heard the Lord’s message.” It started to wreck with the local economy. Imagine the entire state of Nevada turned to Christ. Do you think that the casinos would still be taking in huge amounts of money thrown away on get rich quick schemes or materialism? Would the sex industry where prostitutes advertise on every street corner still be thriving? Would the quickie marriages, quickie divorce business continue to thrive? The answer is no. The entire economy of the SIN CITY would take a huge hit if people confessed Christ and turned from SIN, wouldn’t it?! Of course! In Ephesus, the Word of Christ had spread so far and so many lives were genuinely changed by the power of God that they start burning all the trappings of Artemis worship, magic books and idols. It got so bad that a local silversmith who made idols of Artemis called his subcontractors together and said: This is getting out of hand! Paul is convincing people that idols are not gods at all. And he’s not just getting traction here in town, even the people from all over the province are being affected and… (here he sort of changes gears and puts on the Martyr hat, like this is totally selfless on his part) And as you know none of us wants the Great Artemis to lose prestige! We must defend her honor! As if this had nothing to do with the money! Well, the tradesmen whose livelihoods were on the line, listen to this speech and go marching into the streets shouting, “great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” And a riot breaks out against the Christians. They storm into the theater shouting for hours! “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!” And it’s like a total mob thing, going on… people don’t even know why they’re there. Now, Paul wanted to go in and address the Ephesian crowd but the church members held him back thinking he would probably be killed. The crowd finally dispersed and that’s when Paul decided he ought to leave town. I think that’s kind of funny actually... there’s a town and an entire province is in chaos and the economy is in the toilet and he’s thinking: “my work here is done.” Of course, he’s not happy about the chaos and he’s not afraid of persecution. He was even ready to march into an angry mob! It’s just that he had already resolved to leave before this whole thing happened. So really he probably thinks, it’s time that things are allowed to settle down and to let the church establish deep roots now that they’ve established a thriving New Community and vital presence in key urban center. You can just imagine the affection and intimacy between Paul and this church. I mean, they had been through the wars together. The rejection by the Jews, the fights with the Artemis cult, the city merchants, the amazing victories and God’s work spreading. So when Paul comes back through about a year l way home to Jerusalem to visit the Ephesian elders. It’s one of the most moving scenes in scripture when Paul gives them a far that shows just how close they had become. I can read the whole thing in Acts 20 Ephesians): Acts 20:22-38 22 "And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me God's grace. "Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again. 26 Therefore, I declare to you today that I am innocent of the blood of all men. 27 For I have not hesitated to proclaim to you the whole will of God. .. 32 "Now I commit you to God and to the word of his grace… When he had said this, he knelt down with all of them and prayed. 37 They all wept as they embraced him and kissed him. 38 What grieved later in 58, he makes a special stop on this I’ll read you some select portions (which is technically the FIRST letter to the I only know that in every city the — the task of testifying to the gospel of o 6 ater farewell speech but you 7 them most was his statement that they would never see his face again. Then they accompanied him to the ship. So that’s the beginning of the Ephesian church. Now let’s talk about WHO That is, who wrote this letter. Well you may think it should go without saying that Paul wrote the letter. It has his name on it in the fist verse. But when secular scholarship took a skeptical look at the bible in the 1800’s they started to question that assumption. The reasons: - ONE, they noted that Ephesians has some unique phrases in it that Paul doesn’t use elsewhere. And that his style seems to be different, less impassioned than his other letters. In response we can say that we’re treading on thin and very subjective ice when we think we know what words an author would or would not use. And there may be reasons for his different tone here that I’ll explain in a second. - TWO, they note that Paul has no personal salutations in this letter which is strange given what we just learned about how close he was to them and how long he ministered in this town. Romans for example has no less than 27 shout outs from Paul to personal friends. Why ZERO in Ephesians? The answer that Paul didn’t write it, it was too premature. A better answer maybe in discovering WHO it was written TO. o When you look at your bible footnotes for Ephesians 1, you’ll probably see a note that tells you that the earliest manuscripts do not contain the words, in Ephesus. The best copies of Ephesians simply begins: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints, the faithful in Christ Jesus…” and it leaves out Ephesus. o Things get even more complicated when we look at Colossians later where Paul tells them to pass the letter on to the Laodician church and to read the letter Paul wrote to them. But we have no letter to the Laodiceans – unless our Ephesians IS that letter. o So we know that Paul intended his letters to circulate. We know that Tychicus was the bearer of both Colossians AND Ephesians. So it’s not hard to imagine that this letter to the Ephesians was written in a general form suitable for all the churches in western Turkey which would include Laodicea, and others. Ephesians perhaps got tagged in the opening because it was the capital city and the largest church in the area. o This would then explain why there’s no personal greetings. If it was going to a larger audience, Paul would keep the personal notes to a minimum. 8 So it’s still a mystery as to who this was exactly written to, but about whether it was written by Paul is clear. Whoever wrote this letter carries on the themes of Paul’s other letters and does so in amazingly powerful ways. So the man who wrote it is either Paul or a super-Paul for whom we have no evidence. Reasonable people therefore conclude that it was written by Paul as it says. And NOTE he identifies himself as Paul the apostle. A guy who didn’t get an itch to preach and decided to start a new religion. No, this is a guy selected by Jesus, commissioned by him on the road to Damascus. So we don’t read this letter as one guy venting personal opinions but as a man carrying the weight of authority and inspiration of Jesus Christ himself… And that leads us to WHAT As it, what is in the letter. What’s it about? In a word, Ephesians is about the CHURCH. And when you read Ephesians this week perhaps you’ll see how defective some of our understanding of the gospel is. Because we tend in our circles to so emphasize personal salvation from sin that we fail to note that God saves us to bring us into a New Community. So we tend to talk about Jesus and Me. And we emphasize that Jesus died to take away our sin, but deemphasize that Jesus died to make a people for his very own. And yet, the gospel is not about a privatized faith and Christian individualism. It’s about how through Christ God takes individuals and makes them new in order to knit them into a New Community. And this new community is called to stand out in stark relief against a broken world. The Ephesians Paul breaks down how God’s community dream stand out in 5 parts. God’s New community is characterized by: - LIFE over DEATH – 1:3 – 2:10 - UNITY AND RECONCILIATION over DIVISION AND ALIENATION 2:11 – 3:21 - WHOLENESS AND PEACE over CORRUPTION AND MALICE 4:1 – 5:20 - LOVE AND SUBMISSION over SELFISHNESS AND PRIDE 5:21 – 6:9 - CONFRONTATION OF EVIL over COMPROMISE WITH EVIL 6:10 – 6:24 Read this all in one sitting and it will pop out at you. We are brought into the CHURCH as a NEW Community. Yes, each part is vitally connected to the head, but each part is nothing without the Body. I’m studying the world religions these days and friends, can I say that ethically, they’re all mostly the same. Sure, Jesus said some things that truly transcend all other moral codes… but mostly on that score, he was reminding rather than inventing. 9 And when that’s all that the Ephesian church had, then they were really not much better off than Buddhists. They had good ethical teaching, but they lacked the Holy Spirit. There was just 12 of them struggling along. But then Holy Spirit came and infused that community with power! Knit them together into a Family that showed Christ’s work by their love for one another, by their new hope, by their new relationships. And to that end, he writes them a powerful reminder. Let me just read you the pivotal prayer in the middle that hinges the theology of new life and the practicum of new life TOGETHER. And as I do, I want you to imagine we’re the Ephesian elders gathered by the sea saying Good By to our brother Paul for the last time. And maybe this is a form of the prayer he prayed for us then. And when it comes to all the pronouns, “YOU” read them in your head as YOU ALL.. because it’s the plural form in the Greek. For he intends for them to be God’s Dream of a New Community TOGETHER. Eph 3:14-21 14 When I think of the wisdom and scope of God's plan, I fall to my knees and pray to the Father, 15 the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth. 16 I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources he will give you mighty inner strength through his Holy Spirit. 17 And I pray that Christ will be more and more at home in your hearts as you trust in him. May your roots go down deep into the soil of God's marvelous love. 18 And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love really is. 19 May you experience the love of Christ, though it is so great you will never fully understand it. Then you will be filled with the fullness of life and power that comes from God. 20 Now glory be to God! By his mighty power at work within us, he is able to accomplish infinitely more than we would ever dare to ask or hope. 21 May he be given glory in the church and in Christ Jesus forever and ever through endless ages. Amen. NLT
