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Ephesians │ Msg 1128 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: It may surprise you to hear this, but I don't
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Speaker 1: think I feel more emotional about any New Testament book
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Speaker 1: than I do about the letter to the Ephesians. All
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Speaker 1: kinds of feelings are aroused within me when I allow
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Speaker 1: my memory to take me back a few years to
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Speaker 1: encounters I've had with other people in this particular letter.
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Speaker 1: Let me explain what I mean. If I go way
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Speaker 1: back to the early 1950s, I go to the period
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Speaker 1: of time in my life when I first began to
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Speaker 1: do serious Bible study. And you guessed it. It was
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Speaker 1: in the letter to the Ephesians that that took place.
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Speaker 1: I guess you could say I cut my teeth spiritually
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Speaker 1: on the Ephesian letter. And so I feel a lot
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Speaker 1: of exhilaration when I think about this particular six-chapter passage
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Speaker 1: small yet potent book of the Bible. Next, I would
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Speaker 1: go a little further in this direction now into the
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Speaker 1: late 50s and early 60s. I recall feelings of great
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Speaker 1: encouragement from Ephesians as I sat under a nationally known
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Speaker 1: Bible teacher for a two-week period of time in a
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Speaker 1: lectureship of 16 to 18 hours out of Ephesians And
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Speaker 1: it was even followed by an examination, which was all
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Speaker 1: a part of a great eye-opening experience for me personally
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Speaker 1: and for many other individuals who were involved in that
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Speaker 1: same lectureship. And I'd be less than honest if I
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Speaker 1: didn't also admit that I have reminders when I get
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Speaker 1: to Ephesians of feelings of boredom and terrible disappointment, where
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Speaker 1: for almost four years a certain individual preached out of
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Speaker 1: the book of Ephesians. Six chapters, four years, dry, dull,
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Speaker 1: drawn out, theoretical, verse by verse, verb by verb, Greek
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Speaker 1: term by Greek term analysis of Ephesians. It was good
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Speaker 1: news for the first century man, I guess was the
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Speaker 1: best we could say, But it wasn't a great deal
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Speaker 1: of good news for us living in the 20th century.
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Speaker 1: Sometimes I thought I would gag on Ephesians. On some
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Speaker 1: particular times, half verses would take up a 50 to
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Speaker 1: 60 minute sermon. Sorry, but I don't think that's good exposition.
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Speaker 1: And I remember being bored to tears wondering if I
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Speaker 1: would ever again be interested in the letter to the Ephesians.
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Speaker 1: Believe it or not, it's taken me years to get
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Speaker 1: over that mental hang-up of those years of boredom and disappointment.
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Speaker 1: And then I've had feelings of exasperation and irritation as
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Speaker 1: I have heard a particular prophet of prosperity over television
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Speaker 1: using the letter to the Ephesians, maybe I should say
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Speaker 1: abusing the letter of Ephesians as he promoted his cause,
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Speaker 1: that if you follow him, you would get rich. And
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Speaker 1: he drew such verses as 1-7, the riches of God's grace. 1-18,
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Speaker 1: the riches of the glory of God's inheritance for the saints. 2-7, again,
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Speaker 1: the riches of God's grace. 3-8, the riches of Christ.
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Speaker 1: He really milked that one. There are riches that are
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Speaker 1: available to all who will follow my teaching. And again, 3.16,
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Speaker 1: the riches of God's glory where you would be strengthened
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Speaker 1: with wealth in the inner man. And I remember thinking, oh,
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Speaker 1: what an abuse. What an abominable twisting of the message
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Speaker 1: of Ephesians. And then, as is true of many of us,
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Speaker 1: I have Memories of delight and joy, where on several
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Speaker 1: occasions I've been involved in personal discipleship groups and Bible
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Speaker 1: study groups with various men down through the years. And
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Speaker 1: not infrequently, the letter to the Ephesians has been the
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Speaker 1: basis of our discussion together. And at times, some of
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Speaker 1: the richest cream from heaven was poured into our cup.
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Speaker 1: And this is true of many of you as well.
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Speaker 1: So I have the whole spectrum of emotions when I
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Speaker 1: open my Bible to this wonderful book that can be
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Speaker 1: abused and has been and in the future will be,
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Speaker 1: but thank God, more often than not, has been a
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Speaker 1: source of incredible strength to many in the church of
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. Enough of that. Some introductory information about the
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Speaker 1: letter itself. Let me cover three bases just to kind
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Speaker 1: of get our foot in the door. First, the writer
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Speaker 1: and the approximate time in which the letter was written.
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Speaker 1: Paul says in chapter 1, verse 1, that he wrote it.
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Speaker 1: Or at least he says by signing his name to it,
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Speaker 1: it's his letter. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus... In
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Speaker 1: chapter 3, for this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of
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Speaker 1: Christ Jesus, and he goes on to describe or to
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Speaker 1: explain his thoughts there. But he twice puts his name
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Speaker 1: on the letter. Believe it or not, critics still wonder
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Speaker 1: about the authorship of Ephesians. Nevertheless, Paul's name appears directly
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Speaker 1: in it on two occasions, and it is implied on
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Speaker 1: several other occasions. When was it written? It was written
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Speaker 1: in the early 60 era. A.D. 60. If you go
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Speaker 1: back for just a moment to Acts 28, verse 30
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Speaker 1: and following, you'll see the setting in which it was written.
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Speaker 1: Paul has finished the journeys. He has been taken under
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Speaker 1: arrest in Rome and he is chained to a Roman
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Speaker 1: soldier For a two-year period of time in this house arrest,
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Speaker 1: and Luke writes in Acts 28, 30, the last two
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Speaker 1: verses of the book, Paul stayed two full years in
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Speaker 1: his own rented quarters and was welcoming all who came
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Speaker 1: to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning
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Speaker 1: the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness unhindered. So while
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Speaker 1: he may have been chained and truly under arrest, he
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Speaker 1: still had freedom. Not only freedom to visit with those
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Speaker 1: who came and left, freedom in that encounter, but also
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Speaker 1: freedom to write. He wrote four letters during this two-year period,
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Speaker 1: and they bear the title, The Prison Letters, The Prison Epistles.
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Speaker 1: One was Ephesians, the one that we're looking at at
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Speaker 1: this time, Another one was Philippians, that's the next in
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Speaker 1: our study, and then Colossians, and then the fourth is Philemon,
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Speaker 1: the smallest of the letters, the one chapter of Paul's letters, Philemon.
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Speaker 1: The prison epistles were written during that two-year period of time. Now,
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Speaker 1: back to the book of Ephesians, chapter 1, the recipients
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Speaker 1: and their location, these two things are mentioned in this
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Speaker 1: first part of the letter. He says, Paul, an apostle
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Speaker 1: by the will of God to the saints at Ephesus. Again,
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Speaker 1: it's not guesswork. Paul tells us who got the letter
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Speaker 1: and where they were living. They were the saints. Don't
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Speaker 1: think of saints like it's used today. Think of saints
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Speaker 1: like real people, like you are, like I am. Human,
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Speaker 1: garden variety, ordinary, sinful people saved by the grace of God.
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Speaker 1: This term really means set apart for God's use. Set
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Speaker 1: apart for God's purpose. So the letter is written not
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Speaker 1: to the unsaved. You shouldn't really use it as an
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Speaker 1: evangelistic tool. There are some great verses in it that
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Speaker 1: we use in evangelism. But it's truth for the saint.
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Speaker 1: Truth for those set apart. And it originally is written
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Speaker 1: to those that are at Ephesus and not just to
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Speaker 1: all Christians at Ephesus, but to those who are faithful
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Speaker 1: in Christ Jesus. A little background would be helpful, I think.
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Speaker 1: It was for me to review it. I won't have
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Speaker 1: you turn back to it, but it all is sort
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Speaker 1: of rooted in Acts 18. Paul has been in Corinth
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Speaker 1: for a year and a half, a little more than that.
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Speaker 1: And then he's led by the Spirit of God to
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Speaker 1: leave Corinth and to make his way through Jerusalem. Back
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Speaker 1: to Antioch. Well, when he leaves Corinth, he takes with
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Speaker 1: him two people. Their names are Aquila and Priscilla. Very
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Speaker 1: commanding kind of people. Strong people. So strong that en
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Speaker 1: route back home, he stops at Ephesus. which is one
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Speaker 1: of those westernmost towns in what we call today the
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Speaker 1: land of Turkey. He stopped in Ephesus and he left
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Speaker 1: Aquila and Priscilla there. They really did the groundwork in
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Speaker 1: founding the church at Ephesus. He left them there and
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Speaker 1: then he went on. And then Acts 19 says he
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Speaker 1: came back and spent three years helping in the foundational
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Speaker 1: work of that church there at Ephesus. So the people
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Speaker 1: in the church at Ephesus have an illustrious background. In fact,
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Speaker 1: they had three very famous pastor types. They had Paul,
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Speaker 1: they had Timothy, and they had, toward the end of
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Speaker 1: the first century, John the Apostle. Not to mention Aquila
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Speaker 1: and Priscilla, who worked in tandem with one another. Now
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Speaker 1: you might think, my, what a... What a Bible belt.
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Speaker 1: What a tremendous place to live to be under that
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Speaker 1: kind of teaching for those many years. Not only the
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Speaker 1: three years of Paul, but the numerous years that Timothy
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Speaker 1: and then later John ministered there. But that's not the
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Speaker 1: kind of city Ephesus was. Some helpful background information is
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Speaker 1: given us regarding Ephesus by a number of writers. I've
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Speaker 1: chosen William Barclay. to guide us for a few moments.
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Speaker 1: Just listen to what he says about the city. It
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Speaker 1: was the market of Asia Minor. Again, that's the land
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Speaker 1: of Turkey today. It was the market of Turkey. It
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Speaker 1: was an Assize town, A-S-S-I-Z-E, Assize town. That's to say,
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Speaker 1: at certain specific times, the Roman governor came there and
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Speaker 1: all great cases of justice were tried. She knew the pomp,
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Speaker 1: the color, the panoply, and the pageantry of Roman power
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Speaker 1: and Roman justice. She was also the seat of the
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Speaker 1: Pan-Ionian Games. Think of our Olympic Games today. The whole
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Speaker 1: country came to see these games. To be the president
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Speaker 1: of these games, to be responsible for their organization and
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Speaker 1: their running, was a greatly coveted honor. She was also
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Speaker 1: the home of criminals. The temple of Diana possessed the
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Speaker 1: right of asylum. That is to say, if any criminal
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Speaker 1: could reach the area around the temple, he was safe.
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Speaker 1: That's a fun thought, isn't it? Inevitably, therefore, Ephesus had
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Speaker 1: become the home of the cutthroats and the swindlers. Please
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Speaker 1: notice swindlers and the lawbreakers and the criminals of the
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Speaker 1: ancient world. There were all kinds of tough types, thugs,
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Speaker 1: criminals that found asylum in the city of Ephesus. Great
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Speaker 1: place to raise a little family. She was a center
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Speaker 1: of pagan superstition. But the greatest glory of Ephesus was
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Speaker 1: the temple of Artemis or Diana. One of the seven
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Speaker 1: wonders of the world, and I'll save you the specifics,
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Speaker 1: he describes how big it was. It had the great
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Speaker 1: altar that had been carved by the greatest of all
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Speaker 1: Greek sculptors. The image of Artemis herself was not beautiful.
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Speaker 1: It was a black, squat, many-breasted figure to signify fertility.
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Speaker 1: It was so old that no one knew where it
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Speaker 1: had come from or even of what material it was
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Speaker 1: made of. The story had it that it had fallen
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Speaker 1: from heaven. The greatest glory of Ephesus was that she
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Speaker 1: was the guardian of the most famous pagan temple in
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Speaker 1: the world. That was the glory of the place. Paul, Timothy, Aquila, Priscilla,
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Speaker 1: John ministered in a place like that. A busy metropolis
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Speaker 1: committed to a pagan worship. It was there in a
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Speaker 1: city just like ours, just like the city where you live.
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Speaker 1: It was a city just like this that Paul put
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Speaker 1: down the roots and wrote this letter of Ephesians. The
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Speaker 1: theme of the letter, well, look at chapter 1, verse 3.
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Speaker 1: Blessed be the God and Father... of our Lord Jesus Christ,
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Speaker 1: not Artemis, not Diana, not some squat figure sitting in
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Speaker 1: a temple, but blessed be the Father of our Lord
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Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing
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Speaker 1: in the heavenlies in Christ. I think I would call
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Speaker 1: verse 3 a statement of theme. The Christian's riches in Christ...
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Speaker 1: And all the way through the letter, he brings to
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Speaker 1: our attention our spiritual wealth. Listen, friends, it has nothing
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Speaker 1: to do with material wealth. Nothing. You get no special
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Speaker 1: lining of your pocket by learning Ephesians or by following
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Speaker 1: its precepts. You get no automatic raise at work if
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Speaker 1: you will follow these principles. But you will be enriched
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Speaker 1: deeply in your life As you uncover the jewels, the gems,
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Speaker 1: the riches that are hidden in the mine of Ephesians.
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Speaker 1: Drop down to verse 7. In Christ we have redemption
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Speaker 1: through his blood. The forgiveness of our trespasses according to
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Speaker 1: the riches of his grace which he lavished. Made abundant
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Speaker 1: upon us. Beautiful wording, isn't it? Many people compare the
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Speaker 1: letter to the Ephesians with the letter to the Colossians.
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Speaker 1: They are similar, but when it comes to purpose, there
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Speaker 1: is a distinction. In Colossians, you roll up your sleeves
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Speaker 1: and you fight because Paul is fighting against a subtle
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Speaker 1: heresy of the day. We'll deal with it when we
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Speaker 1: get into Colossians. But Paul isn't fighting in Ephesians. He's declaring.
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Speaker 1: He's declaring. He's rising above the smoke of battle and
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Speaker 1: he is declaring to the Christian the value of our
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Speaker 1: position in Christ. He leaves the fight till later. But
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Speaker 1: right now he says, you can live in a hostile
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Speaker 1: society if you live in light of these riches that
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Speaker 1: are yours in Christ. I love it that he steps
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Speaker 1: out of the combat zone and makes a declaration. Early
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Speaker 1: on in my ministry, I was reproved by a very fine,
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Speaker 1: godly man who had many years on me in ministry.
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Speaker 1: He warned me as he heard me preach in my
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Speaker 1: days in New England. He says, just be careful, Chuck,
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Speaker 1: that you're not always fighting battles. I know you're a
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Speaker 1: passionate kind of guy, and I know that you care
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Speaker 1: for the truth, but be careful that you declare our
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Speaker 1: hope in Christ. And not just roll up your sleeves
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Speaker 1: and fight. I suppose I'd had too much Colossians and
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Speaker 1: not enough Ephesians when I think back on that. A
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Speaker 1: very good word. He said to me, we not only
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Speaker 1: have a battle that's raging in which we must fight,
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Speaker 1: but we have truth to declare. Declare the truth. Proclaim it.
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Speaker 1: And at times, don't try to defend it. Just proclaim.
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Speaker 1: Give them the truth. Some of it, God is very able,
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Speaker 1: all alone, to defend for himself. Now, the letter at
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Speaker 1: a glance, I've given you an outline, which the more
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Speaker 1: I look at it, the more confusing it seems. And
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Speaker 1: so I tell you for sure it is not, for
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Speaker 1: one thing, it isn't copied from any other. That's obvious
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Speaker 1: from the crazy way it looks. But the second thing
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Speaker 1: I would say is that it is not inspired. So
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Speaker 1: now that I've completely... demoralize the chart. Let's look at
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Speaker 1: it for a few moments, shall we? I think the
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Speaker 1: letter does fall into two parts. The first section is
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Speaker 1: chapters 1 to 3. The second is the last three chapters.
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Speaker 1: The first section is more theoretical. It's our position in Christ.
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Speaker 1: What does that mean? Suddenly I think I'm tossing out
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Speaker 1: terms that aren't too clear to the person that's not initiated.
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Speaker 1: There are certain truths that are real but you don't
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Speaker 1: experience them. There are other truths that are just as real,
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Speaker 1: but you traffic in them. In the last three chapters,
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Speaker 1: there are truths set forth in which we live and
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Speaker 1: move and walk and work. But the first three chapters,
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Speaker 1: you don't touch them. You don't get a handle on
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Speaker 1: them in a sense of the practical life. You just
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Speaker 1: claim them because they're true. That's what we have in
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Speaker 1: Christ in our position. The last three chapters, there is
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Speaker 1: a whole lot more practical information, as we will see.
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Speaker 1: The first three chapters are vertical. They keep looking up
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Speaker 1: to our God, and we need that. They are doctrinal
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Speaker 1: in nature. The last three chapters are horizontal that deal
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Speaker 1: with our duty. In the first three chapters there are
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Speaker 1: very few commands for example. While reading the letter this
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Speaker 1: week I noticed very very few commands but the last
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Speaker 1: three chapters filled with admonition. Do this. Watch that. Stop this.
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Speaker 1: Start that. Be filled. Put on the armor. Fight the fight.
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Speaker 1: All of that. That's the last part of the letter.
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Speaker 1: But the first part, he's just equipping you. You're getting
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Speaker 1: a sort of a well-rounded education in the Christian life
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Speaker 1: in Ephesians. And first of all, you get information for
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Speaker 1: your head. And then toward the end of the book,
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Speaker 1: you get information For your feet. To put it into practice.
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Speaker 1: That kind of thing. Let's kind of go through the
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Speaker 1: chapters piece by piece. Shall we? Just briefly and yet
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Speaker 1: deep enough to kind of get the overview. In chapter
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Speaker 1: 1 we have all that God has done for us.
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Speaker 1: And the emphasis is on his sovereignty. Let me point
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Speaker 1: out a few verses. He chose us. Verse 4. Before
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Speaker 1: the foundation of the world. He chose us. Not that
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Speaker 1: we should sort of run wild and free and toss
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Speaker 1: out the name of Jesus from time to time, but
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Speaker 1: he chose us that we should be holy and blameless
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Speaker 1: before him. Verse 5 says he predestined us to adoption
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Speaker 1: as sons through Jesus Christ himself. Verse 7 says we
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Speaker 1: have redemption through his blood. We have forgiveness through Of
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Speaker 1: our trespasses according to the riches of his grace lavished
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Speaker 1: upon us. Verse 9 says he made known to us
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Speaker 1: the mystery of his will. We'll deal with the mystery
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Speaker 1: more in chapter 3. Again according to his kind intention.
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Speaker 1: I don't get a brusque abrasive God out of chapter
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Speaker 1: 1 of Ephesians. I don't find sovereignty perfect. kind of
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Speaker 1: squaring off with me, ready to punch my lights out
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Speaker 1: if I disagree with it. I find kindness in sovereignty.
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Speaker 1: I find warmth. I find open arms from heaven. I
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Speaker 1: find a loving, lavishing God welcoming me. We've been sold
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Speaker 1: a bill of goods regarding the sovereignty of God. It
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Speaker 1: is often preached with a deep frown and a long
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Speaker 1: index finger driving us Punching us in our chest saying
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Speaker 1: you better get this straight. But the Ephesians one passage
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Speaker 1: that I read is an open arm gesture. In fact
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Speaker 1: it offers an inheritance. Verse 11. We have obtained an
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Speaker 1: inheritance having been predestined. According to his purpose who works
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Speaker 1: all things after the counsel of his will. All things.
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Speaker 1: You see. It is impossible to think of God as
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Speaker 1: almost sovereign. That's like saying you are almost married. There
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Speaker 1: is no such thing. You either are or you aren't.
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Speaker 1: You either have been married or you have not been married.
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Speaker 1: It's just like that. I prefer to illustrate it in
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Speaker 1: the operating room. That's like saying It's almost sterile. How
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Speaker 1: would you like to be under a local and you
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Speaker 1: hear a nurse say, and the doc says, is it
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Speaker 1: all ready? It's almost sterile. You may go ahead. Wait.
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Speaker 1: Hold it. Don't mess. Don't do it. Don't cut. I've
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Speaker 1: always had this deep-seated fear of being under a local
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Speaker 1: and hearing the doctor say something like, oops. I always
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Speaker 1: have this terrible feeling. It's kind of in my mind.
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Speaker 1: I think he would say that if it were almost.
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Speaker 1: God is not almost sovereign. Where he goes at times.
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Speaker 1: How in the world did that happen down there? I
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Speaker 1: can't imagine. That is not the God of heaven. He's
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Speaker 1: not biting his nails. Sitting on the edge of heaven.
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Speaker 1: Swinging his legs. Wondering what in the world am I
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Speaker 1: going to do with America? Help Gabriel. That's crazy. If
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Speaker 1: I read correctly that he has worked all things after
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Speaker 1: the counsel of his will and he's got it wired,
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Speaker 1: he's put it together, and no, I don't understand it.
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Speaker 1: Someday it'll be put together for all of us and
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Speaker 1: we'll grasp it. Until then, it is a theoretical, positional
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Speaker 1: truth that we hang on to. I, for one, find
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Speaker 1: an enormous amount of comfort in it. I am driven
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Speaker 1: in gratitude to God for it. So is Paul. He
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Speaker 1: ends the chapter in prayer. Verses 15 to 23, one
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Speaker 1: of the grandest prayers you'll ever read. You want to
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Speaker 1: know how to pray? I mean, free of a lot
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Speaker 1: of shallow, superficial God talk that you picked up in
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Speaker 1: other places. If you really want to learn to pray
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Speaker 1: God's kind of prayer, I mean this kind that's in Scripture,
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Speaker 1: get a hold of the prayers of Scripture. You'll find
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Speaker 1: two great ones in Ephesians. One is the end of
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Speaker 1: chapter 1. The other is toward the end of chapter 3.
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Speaker 1: We'll be there in a minute. Now chapter 2, we
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Speaker 1: have all that Christ has done in us. And the
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Speaker 1: doctrine here is reconciliation. Great doctrine. Chapter 2 includes some
25:31
Speaker 1: of the finest declaration of depravity you'll read anywhere in
25:34
Speaker 1: the Bible. He gets us so low, so dark, so
25:40
Speaker 1: depraved that there's no hope. And then he says, but
25:45
Speaker 1: Christ died. I love it. Look at how it reads.
25:49
Speaker 1: You were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which
25:52
Speaker 1: you formerly walked according to the course of this world,
25:56
Speaker 1: according to the prince of the power of the air,
25:58
Speaker 1: of the spirit that is now working in the sons
26:00
Speaker 1: of disobedience. Among them, we too all formerly lived in
26:08
Speaker 1: the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the
26:12
Speaker 1: flesh and of the mind. We were by nature children
26:16
Speaker 1: of wrath, even as the rest, but God. Great contrast.
26:24
Speaker 1: Rich in mercy because of his great love with which
26:28
Speaker 1: he loved us, even when we were dead in that filth.
26:34
Speaker 1: Dead in our transgressions made us alive together. See, this
26:39
Speaker 1: is what he's done in us because of Christ. Made
26:42
Speaker 1: us alive together with Christ. and raised us up with
26:46
Speaker 1: him and seated us with him. You say, wait, wait, wait,
26:50
Speaker 1: wait a minute. I'm not seated with Christ. No, remember
26:54
Speaker 1: this is positional. Theoretically, that's the way God sees us. Theoretically,
27:00
Speaker 1: he sees us as raised with Christ, ascended and seated
27:04
Speaker 1: with Christ in the heavenlies. Positionally, we could not be
27:08
Speaker 1: better off. Now, practically speaking, we haven't put it all together.
27:14
Speaker 1: that is, in flesh and blood. But theoretically, it's true.
27:19
Speaker 1: Believe me, the whole thrust of Ephesians is to get
27:22
Speaker 1: us to live like our position says we are. That's
27:26
Speaker 1: the hope of Paul in writing the letter. These people
27:29
Speaker 1: living in the milieu of that kind of Ephesian lifestyle
27:33
Speaker 1: in a hostile society, he's saying, you can live above
27:36
Speaker 1: all of that. You were just as bad as any
27:39
Speaker 1: of those people today worshiping at that temple, but God
27:42
Speaker 1: came to your rescue. And if that isn't enough, verse 11,
27:47
Speaker 1: he says, go back, let's remember. And he doesn't let
27:49
Speaker 1: them forget their depravity. Remember that formerly you, Gentiles in
27:54
Speaker 1: the flesh, who were called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision,
28:00
Speaker 1: which is performed in the flesh by human hands. Remember,
28:04
Speaker 1: you were at that time, look at the list, separate
28:07
Speaker 1: from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel. Strangers to
28:13
Speaker 1: the covenants of promise. Having no hope without God in
28:19
Speaker 1: the world. But now in Christ. There it is again.
28:26
Speaker 1: It's a life preserver. He throws it out in the
28:30
Speaker 1: ocean of depravity. There it is. In Christ.
28:34
Speaker 2: Grab hold.
28:35
Speaker 1: All of you that are sinking. Get in. Hang on.
28:39
Speaker 1: Christ is there. Take him. It's a rescue kind of statement.
28:45
Speaker 1: Now in Christ, you who were formerly far off have
28:49
Speaker 1: been brought near by your own works. No way. By
28:53
Speaker 1: the blood of Christ. He himself is our peace. Beautiful,
29:01
Speaker 1: isn't it? He made both groups into one. We can't
29:06
Speaker 1: appreciate that. We've never known a time when that wasn't true.
29:09
Speaker 1: But believe me, the Jew of that first century could
29:12
Speaker 1: appreciate that. But more than that, the Gentile could. He
29:15
Speaker 1: had a nickname. Dog. How would you like to be
29:21
Speaker 1: known as the dog of civilization? And when these Jews
29:25
Speaker 1: came with their pious words from the scrolls of the
29:27
Speaker 1: Old Testament, they looked at those Gentiles like, out to lunch. Dogs.
29:33
Speaker 2: Dogs.
29:34
Speaker 1: And all of a sudden, Christ comes, tosses out the
29:37
Speaker 1: life preserver and says, I'm your peace. I've broken down
29:42
Speaker 1: the wall. I've reconciled this whole thing so that we're
29:47
Speaker 1: all one. Verse 15, abolishing in my flesh the enmity,
29:53
Speaker 1: which is the law of commandments. that in myself I
29:57
Speaker 1: might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace.
30:03
Speaker 1: The barrier is down, friends. There's no longer a wall.
30:07
Speaker 1: There's no longer a distinction in the body of Jesus Christ.
30:11
Speaker 1: There isn't any longer Jew and Gentile separation. In Christ,
30:15
Speaker 1: we are one. And he comes to a great climax,
30:18
Speaker 1: sort of a doxology at the end of chapter 2.
30:20
Speaker 1: In chapter 3... He mentions this mystery, which we've hinted
30:27
Speaker 1: at in chapter 2, but into 3 it's developed. The
30:30
Speaker 1: mystery is presented here, and really the third chapter is
30:34
Speaker 1: what the mystery means to us. And let me read
30:38
Speaker 1: a few words. For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner
30:40
Speaker 1: of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles, if
30:43
Speaker 1: indeed you've heard of the stewardship of God's grace which
30:46
Speaker 1: was given to me for you, by revelation there was
30:49
Speaker 1: made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before
30:53
Speaker 1: in brief. And by referring to this, when you read,
30:57
Speaker 1: you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,
31:02
Speaker 1: which in other generations was not made known to the
31:05
Speaker 1: sons of men as it has now been revealed to
31:09
Speaker 1: his holy apostles and prophets in the spirit. What is
31:14
Speaker 1: this musterion? We get the word mystery from the Greek
31:18
Speaker 1: term itself. What is the musterion? Well, to be specific,
31:24
Speaker 1: verse 6 says, the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members
31:30
Speaker 1: of the body, fellow partakers of the promise in Christ
31:35
Speaker 1: Jesus through the gospel. That's the mystery. Mystery in the
31:41
Speaker 1: days of this writing was not a riddle, kind of
31:51
Speaker 1: a mystery, not a Alfred Hitchcock kind of a whodunit mystery.
31:57
Speaker 1: It wasn't something like we know today. It was like
32:01
Speaker 1: our word secret, secret. It was hush, don't tell, keep
32:09
Speaker 1: it to yourself. Until finally when it leaked out to
32:14
Speaker 1: those that could grasp it, it became well known. It
32:18
Speaker 1: was a secret held back in the days of the
32:20
Speaker 1: Old Testament. held for that special time when Christ came
32:25
Speaker 1: to release the secret for all to know. And the
32:30
Speaker 1: one who had the privilege of carrying the secret to
32:33
Speaker 1: the world was Paul. What a choice ministry. Isn't it
32:38
Speaker 1: great to know your calling in life? Some of you
32:42
Speaker 1: don't know your calling, and so you're currently in sort
32:45
Speaker 1: of a state of confusion. You'd be hard-pressed if someone
32:49
Speaker 1: asked you to write on a piece of paper what
32:52
Speaker 1: What's your mission in life? Why were you brought into
32:57
Speaker 1: life and what are your goals? I love to ask
33:00
Speaker 1: that to collegians when I'm on a university campus. Where
33:04
Speaker 1: are you going? Usually I get a profound answer like lunch.
33:09
Speaker 1: It's about how far they thought ahead or maybe on
33:11
Speaker 1: a date. No, where are you going in life? What's
33:15
Speaker 1: your purpose for being here? Paul would tell you, verse 7,
33:20
Speaker 1: I have been made a minister Of this mystery. It's
33:27
Speaker 1: God's gift of grace which was given to me. I
33:30
Speaker 1: have been given this secret. That there's no longer a
33:34
Speaker 1: wall between Jew and Gentile. But faith in Jesus Christ
33:38
Speaker 1: has torn down the wall. Gentile and Jew alike can worship.
33:42
Speaker 1: In this wonderful thing called the body. The body of Christ.
33:48
Speaker 1: And when he gets very honest about it. He admits
33:52
Speaker 1: in verse 8, to me, the very least of all saints,
33:59
Speaker 1: this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the
34:03
Speaker 1: unfathomable riches of Christ. Now, I tell you, when you
34:08
Speaker 1: think of that calling, you can imagine how thrilling it
34:12
Speaker 1: must have been for him to come into those pockets
34:15
Speaker 1: of paganism, And tell the Gentiles that they can know
34:21
Speaker 1: the forgiveness of sins, faith in Christ, hope for tomorrow,
34:28
Speaker 1: and the same place in God's scale of righteousness as
34:32
Speaker 1: the believing Jew. Think of the eyes that must have
34:37
Speaker 1: lit up under Paul's ministry. Just remember back to the
34:41
Speaker 1: days that it all dawned in your life. Remember the
34:45
Speaker 1: messenger who told you about the Savior. Can you recall?
34:49
Speaker 1: The man or the woman or the Sunday school teacher
34:52
Speaker 1: or the mother or father or the pastor who took
34:57
Speaker 1: God's word and opened the book and told you from
35:01
Speaker 1: print on the page of God's book about the love
35:04
Speaker 1: of God and how faith in Christ could bring you
35:07
Speaker 1: into right standing with God. Remember those initial moments? Well,
35:12
Speaker 1: you might think you are the one that had the
35:14
Speaker 1: greatest excitement, but I'll tell you from the other side,
35:17
Speaker 1: there is nothing quite like the thrill of being a
35:20
Speaker 1: minister of that kind of information. You share the truth
35:26
Speaker 1: and you will watch eyes just kind of pop open
35:31
Speaker 1: and heads will shake and sometimes tears will roll down
35:34
Speaker 1: the cheek and other times people look as if to say,
35:39
Speaker 1: I can't believe it. That is too good to be true.
35:43
Speaker 1: Paul was a minister to the Gentiles, telling them, you
35:46
Speaker 1: have the same standing before God as the believing Jew.
35:50
Speaker 1: That's the mystery. And when he gets to the end
35:52
Speaker 1: of the chapter, he comes again in prayer, bowing his
35:55
Speaker 1: knees to the Father, from whom every family in heaven
35:59
Speaker 1: and on earth derives its name, that he would grant
36:01
Speaker 1: them the riches of his glory. Again, the end of
36:04
Speaker 1: this chapter. Again, another doxology to him who was able
36:07
Speaker 1: to do exceeding, verse 20, exceeding abundantly beyond all we
36:11
Speaker 1: ask or think, according to the power that works within us,
36:15
Speaker 1: he's able to do all of that. To him be
36:17
Speaker 1: the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to
36:20
Speaker 1: all generation forever and ever. Now you get to the
36:23
Speaker 1: second major section. Well, you come to the practical side
36:27
Speaker 1: of it. So much for theory. Look at how he
36:30
Speaker 1: begins this second section. I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord.
36:36
Speaker 1: So I picked up Paul's own word and I've called
36:39
Speaker 1: chapter four, the walk of the prisoner. Calls himself a
36:43
Speaker 1: prisoner again a little later on in this book, over
36:46
Speaker 1: in chapter 6. Talks about being an ambassador who is
36:51
Speaker 1: in chains. We'll see that a little later. But the
36:55
Speaker 1: walk of the prisoner. I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord,
37:01
Speaker 1: entreat you to walk in a manner worthy of the
37:03
Speaker 1: calling with which you have been called. How is that? Humility, gentleness, patience,
37:10
Speaker 1: showing forbearance to one another in love. being diligent to
37:14
Speaker 1: preserve the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace.
37:19
Speaker 1: There is, now he describes the unity. There's one body,
37:23
Speaker 1: there's one spirit, there's one hope, there's one Lord, there's
37:27
Speaker 1: one faith, there's one baptism, one God and Father who
37:31
Speaker 1: is over all, through all, and in all. All of
37:37
Speaker 1: that he offers to the Gentile. And then the Gentile,
37:42
Speaker 1: as he begins to grasp that as a believer, comes
37:45
Speaker 1: to realize that he is the member of a body.
37:48
Speaker 1: The body has gifts. And the gifts are not unlike
37:52
Speaker 1: the members of our human body. Fingers and hands and
37:56
Speaker 1: arms and feet and legs and torso and organs within
38:00
Speaker 1: and eyes and ears and just the same kind of members.
38:04
Speaker 1: And this grace gift, verse 7, was given to... to
38:12
Speaker 1: each one of us. And if you'll look at verse 11,
38:16
Speaker 1: you'll see some of those gifts listed. Some were given
38:19
Speaker 1: the gift of apostleship and some prophets and some evangelists,
38:23
Speaker 1: some pastors and teachers. Why? Well, verse 12, the greatest
38:30
Speaker 1: statement on the purpose of the church is verses 12
38:33
Speaker 1: to 16. You wonder why the church is in existence?
38:36
Speaker 1: Read those verses, those five verses, 12 to 16. Part
38:42
Speaker 1: of a wrap-up of them is verse 12. The gifts
38:45
Speaker 1: are given for the equipping of the saints, for the
38:48
Speaker 1: work of service, for the building up of the body
38:51
Speaker 1: of Christ. Now, verse 17 says, don't walk like you
38:58
Speaker 1: used to. Now that you have gifted people around you,
39:02
Speaker 1: and now that you've been given a gift, now that
39:04
Speaker 1: you're a member of the body, don't walk any longer
39:07
Speaker 1: as the Gentiles used to walk. In the futility of
39:11
Speaker 1: your mind, darkened in understanding, excluded from the life of God.
39:16
Speaker 1: You didn't learn Christ this way, verse 20 says. Therefore, 25,
39:21
Speaker 1: he lists a number of things that would be a
39:23
Speaker 1: part of our changed life as we walk the walk
39:25
Speaker 1: of a prisoner of Christ. Look at several of them.
39:29
Speaker 1: Verse 25. start telling the truth, quit lying. 26, get
39:36
Speaker 1: a hold of your anger, control it. 28, don't steal.
39:48
Speaker 1: Watch out for the punctuation in verse 28. You can
39:51
Speaker 1: miss it. If you overlook the punctuation, it reads, let
39:53
Speaker 1: him who steals, steal. No longer rather let him labor,
39:57
Speaker 1: performing with his own hands. That's not what it says.
39:59
Speaker 1: You've got to put in there that semicolon, let him
40:01
Speaker 1: who steals, steal no longer. But rather let him labor.
40:05
Speaker 1: One of the ways to solve a thief or the
40:08
Speaker 1: whole problem of kleptomania is to put him to work.
40:11
Speaker 1: Make him work hard. Pounding on rocks is one way
40:15
Speaker 1: to do it. Some have to do it that way.
40:17
Speaker 1: Others are adolescents. They need to learn how to work
40:20
Speaker 1: hard with their hands rather than rip off Disneyland when
40:23
Speaker 1: they go through there and shoplift here and there. Put
40:26
Speaker 1: them to work. Work hard. Labor. There's a positive side
40:31
Speaker 1: to the negative. No longer steal work. Performing with his
40:37
Speaker 1: own hands what is good. And then verse 29, get
40:40
Speaker 1: a hold of your tongue. Now that you're walking like
40:43
Speaker 1: a prisoner of Christ, don't let those unwholesome words proceed
40:46
Speaker 1: from your mouth. I suggest that verse 29 go by
40:49
Speaker 1: every telephone in the Christian family. It will do wonders
40:55
Speaker 1: to your telephone conversations. Most people talk too much on
41:00
Speaker 1: the telephone anyway, but I can't find telephones in verse 29,
41:03
Speaker 1: so I've got to go on. I did want to
41:05
Speaker 1: lay that on you because I think one of the
41:07
Speaker 1: places where unwholesome words are done most often are inside
41:11
Speaker 1: the telephone speaker. We have a lot of teenagers at home,
41:15
Speaker 1: so I don't have a lot of time on the
41:16
Speaker 1: telephone anyway. But if you do, watch the unwholesome words
41:20
Speaker 1: that proceed from your mouth. And then he wraps it
41:23
Speaker 1: up by saying, don't grieve the Holy Spirit. Be kind
41:26
Speaker 1: to one another, tenderhearted and forgiving. Chapter five is, well,
41:31
Speaker 1: I've called it the life of the imitator. Maybe you've
41:33
Speaker 1: never seen verse one to be imitators of God. Talk
41:37
Speaker 1: about a command. The word is mimic. mimic God as
41:43
Speaker 1: beloved children. And the entire chapter 5 on into the
41:47
Speaker 1: first nine verses of chapter 6 tells you about the
41:50
Speaker 1: life of God on earth, lived in three realms. Among
41:56
Speaker 1: the world, in the home, and on the job. They're
42:03
Speaker 1: all right there for you to read. The finest passage
42:06
Speaker 1: in the letters is on marriage, on the husband-wife relationship,
42:11
Speaker 1: is right here in chapter 5, and you often hear
42:13
Speaker 1: it at weddings. It's beautiful information. Now, finally, he says
42:19
Speaker 1: in verse 10 of chapter 6, Be strong in the
42:21
Speaker 1: Lord in the strength of his might, and you'll find
42:24
Speaker 1: here something found nowhere else in the New Testament, the
42:27
Speaker 1: armor of God. Put on the full armor of God,
42:31
Speaker 1: verse 11, you may be able to stand against the
42:34
Speaker 1: schemes of the devil. He describes the scheming of the
42:37
Speaker 1: devil here. And then he describes the armor. There's a shield.
42:43
Speaker 1: There's a helmet. There's a sword. There's prayer. There's even
42:50
Speaker 1: the shotting of the feet, the breastplate of righteousness. There's
42:54
Speaker 1: a girdle of truth around your loins. He's got it
42:59
Speaker 1: all here for you. It's obviously not physical equipment. It's
43:03
Speaker 1: mental equipment. And if you take the time to study
43:06
Speaker 1: that carefully, you'll see, as it wraps up with prayer,
43:09
Speaker 1: how each one relates to some facet of our warfare.
43:13
Speaker 1: So we've got the fight of the warrior at the
43:16
Speaker 1: end of the letter. Now, if I were to put
43:19
Speaker 1: all of the letter to the Ephesians together under some
43:24
Speaker 1: major truths, I would come up with these four. Not
43:29
Speaker 1: that they're the only four, but they're four major truths. First,
43:34
Speaker 1: God chose us in him before creation. One four. All
43:41
Speaker 1: four of these are rather mind-boggling, by the way. God
43:45
Speaker 1: chose us in him before there was a creation. We're
43:49
Speaker 1: not an afterthought when it comes to God's plan. We're
43:53
Speaker 1: a forethought. The second, and it's one that we emphasized
43:59
Speaker 1: earlier today out of Hebrews 7, Christ brings us to
44:05
Speaker 1: God by his blood. That's chapter 2, 13 to 15.
44:10
Speaker 1: I would say that is a major truth that's presented
44:13
Speaker 1: in the letter to the Ephesians. Christ brings us to
44:16
Speaker 1: God by his blood. The first one is God chose
44:20
Speaker 1: us in him before creation. And then the great mystery
44:26
Speaker 1: in chapter 3 is a third great truth of the book.
44:29
Speaker 1: Gentiles and Jews have been given equal status. That's headline
44:34
Speaker 1: information to first century folks. It's also encouraging to us
44:40
Speaker 1: living today. Gentiles and Jews have been given equal status.
44:44
Speaker 1: And then the fourth great truth, and it's developed all
44:47
Speaker 1: the way through the last three chapters. The church is
44:50
Speaker 1: a body comprised of various parts. All of them important.
44:57
Speaker 1: I hope you are learning that as a Christian. Now
45:01
Speaker 1: the church is not really a body of superstars where
45:06
Speaker 1: many people watch a few. It is a ministering body
45:10
Speaker 1: where all of us working together as individual parts, each
45:14
Speaker 1: one important, have a part in the function of our
45:17
Speaker 1: healthy body. I met one of our men who had
45:23
Speaker 1: been on a recent missionary trip down south and he
45:27
Speaker 1: came back, maybe you've seen Chet, he's got a He's
45:30
Speaker 1: got a foot that's all bandaged up. And I looked
45:33
Speaker 1: down and I said, oh, what in the world happened?
45:35
Speaker 1: He said, well, I broke three toes. I said, I
45:37
Speaker 1: thought I'd broken a whole foot, but it was just
45:39
Speaker 1: really three toes. And he said, oh, hurt all over.
45:44
Speaker 1: It was really simple. Just three toes. Three little simple toes. Well,
45:48
Speaker 1: they weren't too little. One was rather sizable, as I recall.
45:51
Speaker 1: And then the big one, the second, the third. Broke
45:54
Speaker 1: all three of them. Somebody dropped a 300-plus pound beam
45:57
Speaker 1: on his foot and cracked those three toes. And guess what?
46:02
Speaker 1: The whole body kind of limps until those things heal.
46:07
Speaker 1: There's three toes. You are a toe, perhaps, in the
46:11
Speaker 1: body of Christ. Maybe you don't feel very attractive. Let's
46:16
Speaker 1: face it. Maybe you aren't very attractive. Welcome to the club.
46:21
Speaker 1: Exactly how you feel. Amazing. Some folks come, visit our church,
46:26
Speaker 1: and they want to see me, of all things. And
46:28
Speaker 1: I've had little kids walk up with their parents and
46:30
Speaker 1: they say, that's him?
46:33
Speaker 2: Oh, gosh.
46:34
Speaker 1: It's a great moment. I feel like Roger Dangerfield at times,
46:40
Speaker 1: you know, Rodney Dangerfield. You may be a toe. You
46:45
Speaker 1: may be a kidney. I don't know. But it would
46:50
Speaker 1: be tough to live without you. It's awful tough to
46:54
Speaker 1: live when you're out of sorts. You affect the body.
47:00
Speaker 1: Not all are eyes and mouths and ears and hands.
47:05
Speaker 1: You are a part of the body and you're important. Well,
47:11
Speaker 1: I think Ephesians leaves with us three very practical things.
47:16
Speaker 1: It reminds us that we operate under the headship of Christ,
47:21
Speaker 1: not under a pastor. Not under some evangelist. Not under
47:27
Speaker 1: some denominational organization. We operate under the headship of Jesus Christ.
47:35
Speaker 1: Chapter 1 through chapter 3. He is the head, the
47:40
Speaker 1: exalted one. Ephesians declares it. Second, Ephesians teaches that we
47:48
Speaker 1: belong to a body. We are not an independent pack
47:53
Speaker 1: of lone rangers. We are a body. I like the
47:58
Speaker 1: way Ann Ortlund illustrates it. She says you can have
48:02
Speaker 1: a bag of marbles or you can have a bag
48:06
Speaker 1: of grapes. And if you have a bag of marbles
48:09
Speaker 1: and you shake them up together, they make a little
48:11
Speaker 1: noise and clang together. They stay separate and they're independent.
48:16
Speaker 1: Just hard as a marble. If you have a bag
48:18
Speaker 1: of grapes, you shake it up and Squeeze it a
48:22
Speaker 1: little bag starts to drip because you're mingling together. The
48:28
Speaker 1: church is a bag of grapes, not a bag of marbles.
48:33
Speaker 1: And we are members of one another, not independent entities
48:37
Speaker 1: that don't need each other and aren't impacted by each other.
48:41
Speaker 1: Ephesians teaches us that. Third, it assures us we can
48:46
Speaker 1: stand against the enemy. We've got the armor it takes.
48:52
Speaker 1: We're not on our own. Thank goodness. What a wonderful thought.
48:57
Speaker 1: In the battle called life, we don't have to kind
49:02
Speaker 1: of whistle through the dark and hope somehow that the
49:07
Speaker 1: enemy will go away. The enemy's not going away and
49:11
Speaker 1: we are perfectly equipped to handle him. No need to
49:15
Speaker 1: be intimidated. Ephesians says we've got an armor and all
49:19
Speaker 1: we need to do is put it on and stand
49:21
Speaker 1: firm against him. We can do that. It's a great letter.
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Speaker 1: Let's bow for prayer, shall we? Father, we need a
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Speaker 1: reminder such as this in the middle of this season.
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Speaker 1: when we otherwise would be more laid back, when we
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Speaker 1: would sort of let things come as they arrive and
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Speaker 1: sort of react rather than live on the offensive. We
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Speaker 1: need to be reminded that you have selected us. You
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Speaker 1: have picked us out and graciously put us in your plan.
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Speaker 1: Thank you. why you've chosen us, we will never understand,
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Speaker 1: but we do accept it. We're grateful for our adoption
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Speaker 1: and this beautiful body that you have blended together using
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Speaker 1: every kind of temperament and personality, every kind of gift
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Speaker 1: to minister to one another, some in public ways, but
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Speaker 1: more in private and quiet ways. Uh, And yet you
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Speaker 1: have designed the bodies so that each one has equal
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Speaker 1: honor for he has been given an equal part in
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Speaker 1: the function of our growth. Thank you. And Father, it
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Speaker 1: would be unfortunate for us to leave thinking that we
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Speaker 1: have all this in ourselves. We have a very real
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Speaker 1: enemy who has also heard every word that's been said
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Speaker 1: in this study. So we'd ask that you would firm
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Speaker 1: us up in the armor of God, cause us to
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Speaker 1: walk in that kind of equipment so that we're able
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Speaker 1: to handle the impact of the enemy when it comes.
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Speaker 1: We're grateful to be your sheep. We're grateful that you
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Speaker 1: have called us your children. Without your power, we have
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Speaker 1: no possible hope. to survive. But in Christ, we are
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Speaker 1: rich and equipped and fulfilled. Thank you for the whole
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Speaker 1: time of this evening. In the name of Christ, we
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Speaker 1: thank you. Amen.
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Speaker 2: The preceding message, Ephesians, True Portrait of the Church, was
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Speaker 2: copyrighted in 1982 and the sound recording was copyrighted in
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Speaker 2: 2012 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide.