Why Study Ephesians?
This morning we’re beginning a study of Ephesians. We’ll spend thirty weeks this year going through this letter. We’ve spent the bulk of the last two years on Sunday mornings covering large portions of Scripture, going through Matthew and Acts one chapter a week. It’s important to study large portions of Scripture in order to see the overarching scope of what God is saying. But it’s also important to study smaller bits in order to see the precious gems that make up each paragraph and sentence and phrase and word.
Trees, in all their shapes and sizes, in all their beauty and diversity, in all their durability and strength, are what make up the grandeur and glory of a forest. In our study of Ephesians, we’re going to walk slowly among the trees in order to see and enjoy the riches of this letter.
We spent most of 2016 studying Matthew and Galatians in order to see who Jesus is, what he did, what he said, and what his gospel is. We spent most of 2017 studying Acts in order to see the early church, what they said and did. In 2018, I want us to study Ephesians in order to consider the glory of the church. If Acts tells us what the church did, Ephesians will tell us what the church is. Ephesians is one of the clearest expressions of a theology of the church in the New Testament. It’ll help us understand who we are as members of the church of Jesus Christ.
What Is the Church?
What is the church according to Ephesians? The church is a display of God’s glory. How does the church display the glory of God? Through the uniting of Jew and Gentile into one body. The mystery and glory of the church is that “the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (3:4-6). God’s mysterious plan has been unveiled. In the church, Jews and Gentiles are on equal footing before God.
Paul was called to “bring this plan to light…so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known” (3:9-10). God’s plan all along was to unite Jew and Gentile in one body in order to display his wisdom. The church is meant to reveal the character and glory of God. It does this by becoming a place where all ethnic divisions are removed. In other words, as one theologian says, “The racial unity of the church is the demonstration of God’s glory.”
As we go through Ephesians, we’ll come back to this theme of ethnic unity again and again because it’s all over this letter. The glory in uniting Jew and Gentile in one body is lost on us because we’re all Gentiles and so we don’t understand and feel the weight of the ethnic divisions that exist between Jew and Gentile. But Paul did. The mostly Jewish early church did. They wrestled with the reality that their Jewish Messiah came to save not only them, but also the Gentiles, and with the reality that he didn’t intend to merely remove the hostility between them, but to create one new people made up of both Jew and Gentile. This was mind-boggling to the early Christians. But, in Ephesians, Paul teaches them and us how God did it, why he did it, and what the implications are for the church.
Because ethnic unity in the church is such a central theme in Ephesians, we’ll consider how this applies to our church and our lives throughout our study of this letter. There is still racial and ethnic disunity in the church today. Most Gentile congregations are divided out, though unintentionally so, by ethnicity. This is why people think that it’s weird for a white person to go to a black church or a black person to go to a white church or an Asian person to go to a Hispanic church or a Hispanic person to go to a white church. But the glory of God doesn’t shine through the church when the church is segregated by skin color. The glory of God shines when diverse peoples gather together around Jesus and his word, loving and serving one another for his sake.
Themes, Sections, and Praise of Ephesians
The glory of God revealed in the church is a main theme of Ephesians. Other important themes are the sovereignty of God, the grace of God, the mystery of God’s ways, the supremacy of Christ over all things, the spiritual battle we face against demonic forces, and our ethical obligation as believers in Christ.
The letter can be neatly divided into two sections. Chapters one through three tell us how God created the church. Chapters four through six tell us how God wants the church to live. The first half of the letter is about doctrine, or theology, the second half is about duties, or ethics.
Both Catholics and Protestants view Ephesians, alongside Romans, to be the most influential letter in the New Testament. The great French Reformer John Calvin said that Ephesians was his favorite letter. The great Scottish Reformer John Knox had his wife read him Calvin’s sermons on Ephesians while he lay on this deathbed. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the great English preacher of the last century, said, “There is nothing more sublime (i.e. beautiful) in the whole range of Scripture than this Epistle to the Ephesians.” This little letter has had a big impact on the church for hundreds of years. May that be true for our church this year.
Who Wrote This Letter?
Our study this morning will seek to answer three questions: who wrote this letter (v. 1a), who was this letter written to (v. 1b), and what does the author want the recipients to have (v. 2). Let’s read the text and then answer these questions (1:1-2).
The first word of the letter tells us who the author is, “Paul.” Paul, of course, used to be Saul, a young zealous Pharisee who was rounding up Christians, throwing them in jail, and having them killed. He was a persecutor of the church and was full of rage against the church. But Jesus had different plans for Saul. When Saul was going to Damascus to capture Christians, Jesus went and captured Saul. Jesus’ glory blinded him into submission. and Saul was never the same. He went from persecutor of Jesus’ church to an apostle in Jesus’ church.
In verse 1, he tells us, as he usually does, that he’s an “apostle of Jesus Christ.” What is an “apostle”? “Apostle” is the title that Jesus used for his special representatives. He had lots of followers, but out of them he chose twelve and named them “apostles.” Luke 6:13, “He called his disciples and chose from them twelve, whom he named apostles.” An apostle is someone who is personally chosen and commissioned by Jesus and given authority to teach in his name.
The title “apostle” was reserved for the Twelve and one or two others whom the risen Christ had personally appeared to. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 9:1, “Am I not an apostle? Have I not seen Jesus our Lord?”
Paul, as an apostle, was a chosen representative of the risen Jesus and therefore he carried the authority of the risen Jesus. This is why he could say things like, “If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are a command of the Lord. If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized” (1 Cor. 14:37-38).
This means that when the apostles speak to us in their letters, their writings carry the authority of Jesus. They’re backed by Jesus himself. Not anyone could sign up to be an apostle. Apostleship was a gift from God. This is why Paul says next that he’s an apostle “by the will of God.” Paul didn’t choose to be an apostle. It was God’s will, God’s decision, to give Paul authority in the church. The ultimate authority behind what Paul says is therefore God, not Paul.
This means that if we’re living outside of the apostle’s teaching, we’re living outside of the will of God. This is easy to accept when it comes to things like, “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God” (2:8). Or, “In (Jesus) we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses” (1:7). But much harder when we read things like “God chose us in (Christ) before the foundation of the world” (1:4). Or that we used to follow “the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience…and were by nature children of wrath” (2:2-3). Or that there should “be no filthiness nor foolish talk nor crude joking, which are out of place…For you may be sure that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous, has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God” (5:4-5). Or that wives should submit to their husbands and husbands should love their wives sacrificially (5:22, 25).
The point is that there are lots of things in the Bible that we don’t want to or like to hear. There are things that cut against the grain of our culture and our desires. But before we reject any part of Scripture, we need to understand exactly what we’re rejecting. We’re rejecting the authority of the apostles, which is the same as rejecting the authority of the risen Christ. To reject what Paul says is to reject the Jesus who authorized Paul to speak as his special representative.
This is why Paul states clearly at the beginning of most of his letters that he’s “an apostle of Jesus Christ.” And why he’s quick to add that it wasn’t his idea. It was rather “by the will of God.” This first verse of Ephesians means that we don’t get to pick and choose which things we agree with and which things we don’t. If an apostle wrote it, it carries Jesus’ authority. We’re, therefore, called to receive it, trust it, obey it, and teach it to others.
Who Was this Letter Written To?
The next part of verse one tells us who Paul wrote this letter to. When he says that he’s writing to “the saints,” he doesn’t mean that he’s only writing to some spiritual elite class or some exceptionally holy people. “Saints” is used throughout the New Testament to refer to all Christians. Why is this? Is it because Christians are more holy than others? No, of course not. Christians, like non-Christians, are born dead in sin and are by nature under the wrath of God (2:1, 3). But, unlike non-Christians, the Christian has had their sins removed and God’s wrath satisfied by trusting in the work of Jesus on the cross on their behalf. And not only are their sins removed, they’re also clothed with the righteousness of Christ. His perfection is credited to their account through faith. So when God looks at them, he doesn’t see dirty robes stained with sin. Instead, he sees the white robe of Jesus’ righteousness. He sees them as holy. He sees them as saints, or holy ones, because they’re covered with Jesus’ holiness. The status of sainthood is available for all who’ll trust in Christ and turn from themselves and their sin.
The specific saints that Paul is writing to are “in Ephesus.” Ephesus was one of the largest and most important cities in the Roman Empire. It was a city of over 200,000 people on the western coast of modern day Turkey. Its claim to fame was the temple of Artemis. The temple was larger than a football field, made out of marble, and considered one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. Ephesus was thus a center of false worship. Ephesus was also a center for magic and sorcery, making it a hotbed for demonic activity. This is why Paul has much to say in Ephesians about spiritual warfare and the supremacy of Christ over the spiritual world.
These “saints” live somewhere else as well. Paul describes them as “faithful in Christ Jesus.” They thus have two homes. They live “in Ephesus” and “in Christ.” They live physically in Ephesus and they live spiritually in Christ. This is true for all of us. John Stott notes, “Many of our spiritual troubles arise from our failure to remember that we are citizens of two kingdoms. We tend either to pursue Christ and withdraw from the world, or to become preoccupied with the world and forget that we are also in Christ.” Do you think much of your dual citizenship? Do you tend to find your identity in where you live physically instead of where you live spiritually? Or do you tend to disengage from the world in order to appear more spiritual?
What Does Paul Want the Ephesian Christians to Have?
Verse 2 tells us what Paul wants the saints in Ephesus to have. There’s no verb used here, but Paul probably means, “May grace and peace be to you.” He wants them to appreciate and accept God’s grace and peace. Grace in the New Testament refers to God’s undeserved favor given to sinners through Jesus’ sacrifice. This isn’t a religious cliché or throw-away word for Paul. “It is the gospel in one word.” In Christ, God gives us what we do not deserve. This is grace.
“Grace” indicates God’s saving initiative. “Peace” indicates what he’s taken the initiative to do, namely, to reconcile sinners to himself and to one another. “Peace” therefore isn’t so much an emotion or feeling as it is a reality. In other words, peace is what happens when we’re reconciled with God. Romans 5:1, “Since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
We all want peace of mind and peace in our hearts. But that only comes after God has made peace with us by justifying us by grace, through faith. Peace in our hearts is the result of peace with God. Justification creates peace and sustains peace. If you struggle to find peace, remember what God has given you in Christ. Remember his grace. Remember his love. Remember his promises. Rest in his arms. He’ll never let you go. He’ll protect you from the onslaught of doubt and fear and anxiety and all the schemes of the evil one. May grace and peace come to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.