“Living Right in a World Gone Wrong”

Studies from Paul’s Letter to the Ephesians

Welcome To Ephesus!

Ephesians 1:1&2

In February of this year, Carol and I had the joy of going on a Caribbean Cruise in celebration of our 25^th anniversary.  It was a fabulous experience, one that I hope we can repeat sometime.  We had never been on a cruise, and had never been to the tropical waters off America’s south east coast.  It was amazing!  The water was so clear, the sand so white, the air so warm.

One of the few extras that we indulged in was snorkeling.  After a quick training lesson, we were given a live vest, flippers and a mask, to which was attached a mouthpiece with a tube that extended up over the shoulder.  When placed in the mouth, you could float on your belly, place your face in the water, breath through the tube, and see the beauty of the undersea world.  It was a wonderful experience.  Brightly colored fish would swim up to your mask and the scurry away.  At one point, while gliding over a sunken airplane, I found myself surrounded by dozens of fish that moved so effortlessly, without any extra equipment, and it reminded me that I was just a clumsy visitor in a foreign world.  I didn’t belong under the water – I was completely out of my element.

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Sometimes I look at the world around me and we feel like I am living in a foreign world.  With the deterioration of basic values and common sense, it can leave us wondering what happened to the world we thought we knew.  We talk about the existence of absolute truth and that some things are just “right” and other things are “wrong,” and we get looked at like we are from Mars or something.  And conversely, when someone comes out with the latest statement of modern “enlightened” thought, it is astounding in its absurdness!

This week I heard about an internet company that has 480,000 customers who are looking to cheat on their spouse.  The number of customers double every year.  The company slogan is “when monogamy becomes monotony.”  The company president said, “this is not a sleazy sight, it’s not pornography, it is simply responding to the fact that monogamy is a failed experiment, and we need to move on.”  He says, “there’s nothing immoral about what we do, we’re just giving people what they want.”

Whether you call yourself a Christian or not, whether you are a believer in the claims of the Bible and of Jesus Christ or not, it’s hard to look around sometimes and feel like the world in which we live is just falling apart at the seems.  What used to be considered the outrageous is now commonplace, and the situation in the church is no different than in the rest of the world. 

Surveys continue to show that there is little difference in the lifestyle of those who consider themselves to be born again Christians, and those who claim no such relationship with Christ.  In fact, according to a Gallop pole, over 40% of Americans claim to be born again Christians – followers of Christ.  That figure, in light of the continued decline in our culture, led Barna to state, “Never before has the gospel made so many inroads in a culture, but made so little difference.”[i]

Today we are beginning a study of a portion of the Bible that I think can help us out in our situation.  We’re calling this study “Right Living in a World Gone Wrong.”  It is a study of the New Testament book of Ephesians. 

We call it the “book” of Ephesians, but it was actually a letter – perhaps one of the greatest letters ever written.  It has been called, by one author I read this week, “one of the divinest compositions of man.”  It is a letter that is so full of meaning and compassion, encouragement and challenge that it almost preaches itself.  Some people actually believe that it is more a sermon than a letter – but it was indeed a letter, sent by a pastor to a church he had served faithfully for years, and it is filled with a pastor’s love for his people.

I can relate to Paul in these days – We’ve been gone from Gateway for just a couple of weeks, and I have missed you all so much!  I can only imagine how Paul must have cared for and missed these people he had spent so much time with.   If you would, please, turn to the opening words of this letter, we can get started in our study.

Ephesians 1:1 reads,

            Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,

            To the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus.

For the moment, that’s all the further I want us to go.  As we begin the study of this letter it’s important that we understand some of the basic information:  who wrote it, and to whom it was written.

As in all of his letters that we have collected in the Bible, the author identifies himself as Paul, the apostle.  Paul was a man who was born in to a Jewish family from the tribe of Benjamin, in the city of Tarsus.  Our best biographical information about Paul comes from Paul himself – he gives little hints about his life throughout his letters.  He was a highly educated Jewish man, who studied in Jerusalem under the legendary teacher Gamaliel.  He was a very careful and studious observer of the Jewish law, in fact, he was a Pharisee – one of the leading classes of religious and political leaders in the nation of Israel.  He was also a Roman citizen – not something to be taken lightly.   Perhaps Paul’s father, or some other ancestor had been granted Roman citizenship, and it passed from generation to generation.  On two different occasions, when he had been arrested and beaten without a hearing, Paul used his citizenship to demand his rights.  A Jew could be abused at will by a Roman, but there was a saying in the empire that “to be a Roman is to be greater than a king.”  As a citizen, Paul could demand a hearing before the Roman senate, or Caesar himself – which he later did.

There is no recorded encounter of Paul ever meeting Jesus, and they probably never did meet face to face – but as a young man being trained in Jerusalem at about the same time Jesus was doing his ministry, Paul had certainly heard of Him.  Jesus saved some of his sharpest words for the Pharisees, and surely the name “Jesus” was spoken with loathing when they gathered together.  When Jesus was put to death, Paul would have been thrilled by it!  Finally rid of this heretic!

But when some of Jesus’ followers began to preach that Jesus was risen from the dead, and began to attract a large number of followers, Paul was incensed.  He was thrilled when they arrested one of the leaders, a guy named Stephen, and brought him in for questioning.  He was present at the trial of Stephen.  He heard the man challenge the High Priest, and claim that Jesus was the Son of God, and that He had risen from the dead.  Paul was a willing participant as they dragged Stephen out of the court and stoned him to death.  The taste of Christian blood sent the Jewish leaders into frenzy.  A rash of arrests and persecution followed, with Paul at the forefront.  In fact, he later went to the counsel and got letters authorizing him to go to other cities and arrest followers of Jesus.  He was on his way to Damascus, Syria, when he had an encounter with the risen Jesus himself.  He was dramatically changed by that encounter – and he began a new life as a teacher and defender of faith in Jesus Christ.  His outstanding education and his enthusiasm made Paul one of the most important people in the history of the church, and certainly the most prolific and influential writer. 

After his dramatic conversion, Paul went to Arabia for 3 years for study and meditation, and then returned to Jerusalem where he met with Peter, and the other apostles.  Eventually Paul set out on three different trips around the Roman empire, spreading the truth of Jesus Christ and beginning new churches in cities from Israel, to Syria, to Greece, Macedonia and Europe.  It was on his second missionary trip, in the year 53, that Paul first visited Ephesus.[ii]  In Acts 18 we read that when Paul left Corinth in Greece, to head back to Jerusalem, he stopped at the city of Ephesus. 

Ephesus was an important city in the first century world.  It was a major port for the entire region of the Roman Empire known as the Asian Province.  It was no New York or Los Angeles, but it was certainly like our modern day Chicago or New Orleans.  It was a port city, the primary link between the central and western Mediterranean and the middle- and far-east.  It was a wealthy, worldly metropolis, home to great culture and architecture.  Ephesus was home to one of the seven wonders of the world – the temple to the goddess Diana, or Artemis, depending on your Greek or Roman heritage.  People came from all over the empire to participate in the vile worship practices of Artemis.

He stayed only a little while, but he really connected with the people of Ephesus, and the people asked him to stay longer, but he had made a vow to return to Jerusalem and he did.  As he left, he promised to return if he was able, and he left two of his friends, Aquilla and Priscilla, in Ephesus to help establish the new church. 

[Acts 19]

He returned to Ephesus on his third missionary trip, and this time he stayed there and ministered for three years – the longest time he spent in any one city on his journeys.  During that time, Paul carried on meetings at a lecture hall in Ephesus, and for two full years people from all over the province of Asia came to hear him.  The gospel was making so much impact in the area that the people who sold idols stirred up a riot because the conversion of so many to Christianity was hurting their business. After the riot was put down, Paul left Ephesus for Macedonia,  but before he left the area to return to Jerusalem, he sent for the elders of the church in Ephesus to say a last farewell.  That statement is found in Acts 20:17-38.

In that statement he encourages them, challenges them to walk faithfully, and in verse 32 he says, “Now I commit you to God and tot the word of his grace, which can build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified…”  In verse 36 we read that when he had finished his statement, he knelt down with all of them and prayed, and they all wept as they embraced him and kissed him.  What grieved them most was his statement that he would never see them again.

It is apparent that there was a lot of deep love between Paul and these people.  He had spent more time with them than with any other church that he been part of, and it was difficult to leave.  It is no surprise that he later wrote them this incredible letter.

That’s Paul, the author of the letter.  But what about the recipients of the letter?  To whom was it written, and what was the situation?

The recipients are identified in verse 1 of your Scriptures as “the saints in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus.”  In some of your Bibles, you may have a footnote that reads, “some early manuscripts do not have in Ephesus.”  It’s true that the very earliest copies of this letter do not specify a city, but the sentence is written in a way that makes it obvious that a city name was to be inserted.[iii]  One thing you will notice as you read this letter is that it really doesn’t have a lot of specific church issues that it deals with, and does not mention any specific church problems, like the letters to Corinth, for example.  This has lead many scholars to believe that this letter was written by Paul with the idea of being circulated among all the churches in the area around the Province of Asia. 

If you turn to the letter of Colossians chapter 4, and verse 16, you will see some confirmation of this idea.  In the closing words of this letter to the church at Colosse, Paul says, “After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans, and that you in turn read the letter from Leodicea.”  Leodicea was the location of another Asian church, and it is obvious that Paul had made a practice of sending letters to churches with the intent of having them sent along to the other churches in the area.  In fact, Marcion, a church leader from about the 150’s had a copy of the letter that we call Ephesians, and he called it Laodiceans, because his ancient copy had “Leodicea” written in the destination line!  In either case, the recipients, and the message were written to the believers who were reached in the area of Asia when Paul was doing ministry that was based out of the city of Ephesus for his three years there.

I know that this might seem a little too academic for some of us, but I really want you to understand the setting of this amazing letter.  We have gotten away from the art of letter writing in our society.  With telephones, email, text messaging and the hectic pace of life, we have essentially lost the practice of writing letters, and it is a great loss.  A personal letter, written to express the heart of the author, is a great thing.  It is something we can go back and look at later, press into the pages of a book, or keep in a special place in our homes.  Two weeks ago, we were at our family reunion in West Virginia, and we were encouraged to bring mementos from the family past.  One of my uncles brought a collection of letters, post cards and greeting cards that he had inherited from one his aunt.  There were notes from my great uncle when he was in France during World War I, notes from trips to Washington DC in the 1920’s, letters from my great grandfather to his son.  Reading them was a real treat.  You can feel the intimacy between the writer and the receiver.  You can almost hear the voice of your great grandfather across the decades.

I am going to challenge you to do something for the next several weeks.  While we are studying this book, I would like to ask you to read this letter from Paul to the Ephesians through at least once a week.[iv]  There are six chapters, if you read a chapter a day, it will only take 10 minutes at the most per day.  I believe that as you read it, you will find that it speaks to your heart, and you will begin to hear not only the voice of Paul – but the still small voice of the Holy Spirit speaking into your souls.  Please take this challenge – read a chapter a day, six days a week, for the time we are studying it.

There’s another reason you should do this.  Take again at that first verse.  Notice once again who the recipients were.  “The saints…”  What or Who is a “saint?”  If you come from some religious traditions, a saint is a person who lived a holy life, who, after they died, had their life examined carefully to see whether they qualified for sainthood.  If their character and conduct are found to be above reproach, and if they are thought to be responsible for at least two miracles after they have died, then they are made a saint.

That is really a poor definition of “saint.”  A saint is never defined that way in the Bible.  In this letter, you will find Paul using the word “saint” nine times.  Each time, it is written to living, real, normal people, who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ.  The word literally means, “one who has been set apart.” A person who has placed their faith in Jesus as their Savior, and asked him to forgive their sins, and who has experienced the reality of eternal life, and the Holy Spirit living in them, has been set apart from the rest of the world – like a scuba diver, that person exists in an alien environment.  There’s just that uneasiness with the world and it’s direction.  But that “saint” can exist there because they have been given the right equipment to live and breath and impact that world – that equipment is the indwelling Holy Spirit – and in the pages of this letter, we’re going to learn how to live right in a world gone wrong.

If you have believed in Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you are a saint, and this letter is written to you.  That holding place in the Greek is still there, waiting for a city to be identified.  As you read it this week, personalize it.  “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to you, a saint in Mayville, faithful in Christ Jesus.”

If you haven’t made the decision to believe in Jesus Christ, then I would encourage you, like a really zealous and religious man named Paul, and like a group of pagan, worldly people like the Ephesians, to ask Him to reveal Himself to you by His Holy Spirit and His word.  Get into this letter, read it along with us, and see for yourself the amazing life God offers to those who believe in Him.

Prayer