About the Ephesians

Transcript

So, about the Ephesians, this is a fascinating book that was written by the Apostle Paul while he was in prison for two years in Rome. He knew the city and the brethren there quite well, and a search shows Ephesus mentioned 17 times in the Bible. Paul had laboured tirelessly and his love for them was such that he wanted to build them up in their faith. He wanted to help them to realize the riches that they have in Christ so that they could withstand the trials of their faith and be found approved by Christ at his return. Maybe as we have read this book of many writings that, while interesting, we simply blended it in with the other books that he wrote and maybe have failed to recognize that this book was named after the chief ecclesia of this region and was arguably one of the most important ecclesias there, revealing that is revealed in this letter that Paul wrote. Ephesus was what we would probably call today the and quite likely the others had sprung forth from this ecclesian Ephesus. So, to read a letter written to them is quite a gem. In preparing for this series, I also thought of what it can mean for us, whether in this case it was, I prepared it for those in Ghana, but it's equally relevant to us wherever we may be, whether in your case in Boston and on a personal note for me, I know whenever we are not at our ecclesia in Ottawa, my kids always like to log into the Boston Ecclesia and you'll run a very lovely system there that all feel welcome and warmly brought in to your fellowship. So, looking at the weather, whatever ecclesia we are in at this time, the pressures that we face tend to be quite similar. There are those of false doctrines that can so easily slip into the There is a need to fight against the influences of sin in our households and there is that call for us to cling to our faith against the temptations of the world as we strive to be faithful to Christ and these are all themes that are integral parts of Paul's message. So, I pray that as we look at this first off, we would be built up spiritually and strengthened for having looked at Paul's letter written for us. We start by asking when was it written? Likely between AD 60 to 63 while Paul was imprisoned in Rome, he also wrote the letter to the Philippians and Colossians and he had them delivered by Tychicus and Onesimus who were two of Paul's helpers. These brethren are described as faithful ministers. They were his helpers that worked tirelessly alongside him and this letter in particular was thought to have been a circular letter meaning it was passed around to the various ecclesiasticals that were in that region. This is supported by the idea that it has a similar style to Paul's other letters and it doesn't make reference to specific brethren in this one. Ephesians shares a great deal of content with the other letters such as that to the Colossians with some serious evidence that one author is building upon the work of what was previously written. For example, in the letter to the Colossians, Paul writes, All my state shall Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother and a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord, whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, that he might know your estate and comfort your hearts. With Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you, they shall make known unto you all things that are done here. So similarly, in both Ephesians and 2 Timothy, Paul mentions having sent Tychicus to them. In Ephesians 6 verse 21, he says, as I said, all my affairs, but that he shall know all of my affairs and how I do. Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, shall make known unto you all things. And in 2 Timothy 4 verse 12, he says, and Tychicus have I sent to Ephesus. This gives us a vivid picture of Paul being shut up in prison, and he's sending these faithful brethren with letters of comfort and encouragement with pockets of believers everywhere. What was the city of Ephesus like? I'd like us to get to know Ephesus, which today is in a city called Seljuk, which is about 80 kilometers from Izmir in Turkey. I'm sure we might be quite familiar with there being the Aegean Sea, just as you come across from Italy, and then there is what was previously called Asia Minor there, and Turkey is just to the right. It's on the map there. And in this city, it actually used to be further out on the coast. So where you see the diamond, the little diamond there, you might notice it's a little bit inland from the coast. But in the past, this city at that point used to be on the coast. So it was a trading city. As we go through there, the next few minutes, hopefully you'll get an appreciation for this city such that you might feel next time you're reading of Ephesians a bit more of a connection there. We would be familiar with some of the positives and the negatives that come with such a city. Its population was not very big, just about 38,000, which today would be quite small. But at that time, for a city that was a coastal city, it was considered quite large. It was not the primary city of that region, but big enough that there was quite a large population for that time living there. And even today, there are tours that go there just because of its biblical history. Over time, as we said, there have been deposits, the change in the topography. So now that it's a bit more inland, but with it being previously a coastal city, it used to have at that time around about a quarter of a million inhabitants when this book was written. And it was at that time one of the larger Roman cities, which was renowned for being capital city of the Roman government in Asia Minor. Looking at this amphitheater here, nothing compared to maybe the TD gardens that you have in Boston. But for that time, this would have been quite spectacular. You can imagine it being filled with people and all sorts of events being held here. It was also a hub, a place for commerce and exchange of religious ideas. And even the ruins that we see, and these are modern pictures, it speaks of beautiful and elaborate architecture that once exists there, which reflected its past glories. Ephesus was wealthy. It was modern for its time. It was beautiful. So what was the church like there? Well, Acts chapter 19 tells us of Paul's journey to this well-established city. And it had sufficient Jews living there that it had its own synagogue. For example, in Acts chapter 19 at verse 8, we're told that Paul went into the synagogue and he spoke boldly for the space of three months, disputing and persuading the things concerning the kingdom of God. This city had established centers of learning, which, you know, we would call universities today or colleges. And we're told in verse 9 that there was a school of one tyrantus. During this time of Paul's preaching in AD 60, the Christian church was still very small. And it was largely seen as a sect of Judaism. This was a fact I was not familiar with, that when the apostles were going around and starting to convert the early brethren, they were going into the synagogues. They were speaking to the Jews there. And then they would try to share the gospel of Jesus Christ so that those who accept it would come out from being following what we would say is Judaism and recognizing that actually Jesus Christ hadn't opened the way for what we would today call Christianity. So Paul was going into the synagogue. He was speaking with the Jews there and teaching Christ. The Jews were numerous. They were widespread throughout the Roman Empire. And many people viewed the followers of Jesus who they called the way. That was the expression used in Acts chapter 19 verse 23. While other Jews called them the Nazarenes. But while they were coming out from them, they were not seen at this time as so much as a distinct group. They were of Jews that were living there and teaching in the synagogues. Tensions, however, between the two groups started to grow. And this centered on the question of Jesus's identity. Was he the Messiah and divine savior? Or was he a false prophet? This disagreement would soon lead to a sharp and lasting divide between what became the church and the synagogue. But at this time, the split was not yet complete. The apostles still visited the synagogues and the Sabbath preaching to their fellow Jews in hopes of winning converts. But there was distinct challenges to these preaching efforts at this time. Because Ephesus, as much as it had many people living there and it had, you know, center of commerce and a well-established city, it was known for its deep-seated paganism, as we see in Acts chapter 19 verse 13. It says there, I'll read from 13 to 19. Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preached. And then in verse 17, And the man in whom the evil spirit was leapt on them and overcame them and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. And this was known in all to all the Jews and Greeks also dwelling at Ephesus. And fear dwell and fell on them all. And the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. And verse 19, Many of them also which use curious brought their books together and burned them before all men. And they come to the price of them and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. I looked that up and it says that's about 1.2 million US dollars, clearly a lot more than our currency here in Canada. But you can imagine one point something million, one and a quarter million dollars in books being burned by people just because of their conviction that they had at the teaching of Christ by the apostles. This was no small amount. And we can imagine how much work the brethren and the apostles had to do as they sought to convert these newly baptized Jews to the truth of the gospel. There were however other challenges that they faced. Because one of the main challenges was that of the cult of Artemis. Artemis was huge within Ephesus. Establishing the early church in Ephesus was a huge undertaking because this city was so steep in pagan worship. And it's one of its prominent things that they worshiped was the cult of Artemis where the residents worshiped and they blended worship of the goddess, the Roman goddess Diana and Isis of the Egyptians. It had the famed temple of Artemis. And you will remember the riots that happened there when they said they chanted for hours, greatest god, Diana goddess of the Ephesians. This city, it was worse of a cult than anything we would know of today. I don't know, I can't compare it to it being the largest sports event, bigger than probably anything we can imagine today. But it was so deep seated that no one would dare speak against Diana of the Ephesians. It had this famed temple there and worship of this cult pervaded every facet of their life. Even though Rome had quelled some of this worship after conquering the region, Artemis was worshiped as the patroness of young girls and their tradition from childhood to womanhood and marriage. She was also revered and sought after for her role in childbirth. And her adherents, the women of Artemis, played a central and prominent role in Artemis' cult. And it provided a space for women to gather and to celebrate their roles as wives and mothers. I have heard it said that it was probably some of these cultic women that Paul had in mind as he wrote in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 9 and 10 where he said in like manner also that the women adorned themselves in modest apparel with propriety and moderation not with braided hair or gold or pearls or costly clothing but which is proper for women professing godliness with good works. Because you can imagine that the women of Artemis took adorning themselves to a whole new level and it was quite common and it was out of these women they were being brought into the Ecclesia to start that journey to become part of the braid of Christ rather than adherence to Artemis. Even worse, this sect promoted this aspect of promiscuity. There was a blending of ritualistic coupling as part of their worship and as would be expected an Ecclesia in this region would have had its own unique set of challenges. There is something, the advantage we have though of looking at this book of Ephesians is that we get the opportunity of getting a snapshot of another letter that was written to them 30 years later and this occurs in Revelation chapter 2 verse 1 to 7 and that would be the seven churches. Revelations was written 30 to 35 years after the letter to the Ephesians and we ask ourselves what would have changed in this ensuing time after the apostles had labored and sought to carve out a group of believers from this pagan city and from among the Jews who they had met with weekly in the synagogue. Revelation tells us written to the church at Ephesus it says I know your works, your toil and your patient endurance and how you cannot bear with those who are evil and as we read these words you can imagine what John in writing this letter God that God breathed at God's command would have been thinking about of these brethren as he speaks of not bearing with those who are evil but have tested those who call themselves apostles and are not and found them to be false. I know you are enduring patiently and bearing up for my name's sake and you have not grown weary. He says however but I have this against you that you have abandoned the love you had at first remember therefore from where you have fallen repent and do the works you did at first and again as I pause there you can think of the the works that they did in you know giving up all their curious arts and burning 1.25 million words of of their books that were pagan books and how they embraced the truth when they got it this was the early church but they are warned here in revelation remember therefore from where you have fallen repent and do the works you did at first if not I will come to you and remove your lamp stand from its place unless you repent yet you have this you have you hate the works of the Nicolaitans which I also hate he who has an heir let him hear what the spirit says to the churches to the one who conquers I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God so as we read these words we would line by line we would think of the paganism the idolatry the persecution at Ephesus and we can relate to and appreciate the references that Paul would have been making amidst an ecclesia drawn out of a city steeped in witchcraft and a host of false beliefs we could appreciate the apostle Paul commending the brethren for not only the work in the truth which they were doing but they were toiling going through labor when with much pains this is translated literally as a beating they were undertaking being beaten not only physically at times but they were in that sort of pain it is toiling and patiently enduring as we're told in 2nd Corinthians 7 verse 5 he says for when we were coming to Macedonia our flesh had no rest but we were troubled on every side without were fighting within were fears Paul says in 2nd Corinthians 11 at verse 23 to 27 are you ministers of Christ I speak as a fool I am more in labors more abundant in stripes above measures in prisons more frequent in deaths all of the Jews five times received I for the stripes save one thrice was I beaten with rods once was I stoned thrice I suffered shipwreck a night and a day have I been in the deep and he continues on with all the various trials he had gone through while those were not necessarily in Ephesus it gives us an idea of the struggles that the brethren had undergone when they had their first love and they were trying to establish the ecclesia in this region so the Ephesians had to further deal with those not only who were without but we're told they were false prophets there were those who were with them they were described as evil and the church was infiltrated by false apostles make no mistake that false teachings is just as if not more destructive than persecutions that are physical because at least with persecution we know what we're dealing with we're dealing with enemies of the gospel but false prophets were however destroying the faith of many there was for example at this he was a Hellenistic Jewish philosopher who used platonic philosophy to interpret the Torah arguing that Greek philosophy and the Jewish scripture were harmonious it was it was trying to blend these ideas to get into one so that the the thoughts and the ideas of of man could somehow be blended in with what God was God had given them and try to make sense of it all by merging the two things together this was one such example we are told that he viewed the Torah as the ultimate source of truth often using allegory to explain that biblical stories and laws represent profound philosophical concepts such as divine mind the logos and the soul's journey to virtue brethren coming in would have all had all these ideas in mind and you can imagine this early brethren needed to sort through and to remove some of these ideas from the minds of converts and so we're told in second peter chapter 2 verse 1 but there were false prophets also among the people even as there shall be false teachers among you who privilege shall bring in damnable heresies even denying the lord that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction the word damnable means destructive ruin us and the at the straight gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that lead it to destruction that's the same word there and many there be which go in there and also in romans chapter 9 at verse 22 where it says what if god willing to show his wrath and to make his power known endured with much long suffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction or damnation the word for heresies is also the same as sect in the young literal translation it says as much it says and there did come also false prophets among the people as also among you there shall be false teachers who shall bring in destructive sex and the master who brought them who bought them denying sorry who themselves swift quick destruction and many shall follow their destructive waves because of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of so these words show that heresies can bring damnation it brings about sex it divides up understanding and it leads people away from the truth of the gospel paul said in second timothy 2 verse 17 to 18 and their word dot eat as a canker of whom is harmonious and philetus who concerning the truth of earth saying that the resurrection is past already and overthrow the fate of some and so you can see that as time was going on and they're not seeing christ return people start you know just changing their beliefs just a little bit as they go along and say well the resurrection is not doesn't mean quite what it means it's past already maybe christ you'll come back in our hearts or if we translated to today's some of the heresies of today we hear things that go you know i'm i'm not religious i'm just spiritual i can serve god in my own way i don't have to meet with a group you know and and we kind of fit together just our own ideas that come in and slowly they take over the ecclesia they bulwark against this however is that of steadfastness and our brethren in ethesus had to endure they had a real battle on their hands they had to what we're told contends steadfastly or earnestly for the faith that was once delivered to them as jude said so to hear those words of commendation of christ in revelation too that they had endured patiently that they had born up for his name's sake and had not grown weary to it is a wonderful thing to hear is this something that could be said of us brothers and sisters as we are in these last days enduring patiently doesn't mean that we're sitting that we are waiting we are maybe just simply coming to every meeting we might say warming the pews but there's a battle going on there's a battle for very lives that are going on and it's not something that is passive it is something that is active it doesn't mean sitting and without complaining under some mild inconvenience patiently that was used here in this verse it means it's much stronger the concon the strong's concordance says it means steadfastness constancy endurance in the new testament the characteristic of a man who is not swerved from his deliberate deliberate purpose and his loyalty to the faith and piety by even the greatest trials and sufferings and we all in some way if we live this life long enough we'll go through trials we will go through sufferings it might be physical it might be that of our faith but our true metal is tested when we endure suffering steadfastly in the midst of being persecuted the athesians had not budged but as we read in hebrews chapter 11 verse 35 it tells of the sufferings in order of some of her other brethren who it says were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection and james's epistle gives a similar excitation in james one verse two to four where he says counted all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness and let steadfastness have its full effect that you may be perfect and complete lacking in nothing i'd like to circle back therefore to the idea of the nicolaitans because maybe we skipped over that quickly the athesians were commended for their steadfastness as they doggedly held on to their faith amidst persecution they were further commended later in revelations too for hating the deeds or the works of the nicolaitans and so we might ask ourselves who were the nicolaitans they were mentioned in revelations two verse six as well as in revelation two verse 15 as followers of a doctrine that christ condemned in revelation two verse six it is the work of the the works of the nicolaitans that were mentioned and in revelation two verse 16 it mentions the teachings of the nicolaitans so when we look up the meaning of the nicolaitans we see that there are various theories that are put forth regarding the origins of this sect early christian writers like iranius Hippolytus and clement of alexandra describe the nicolaitans as advocating for compromise with pagan practices especially eating food offered to idols and sexual immorality that's one promoting a form of moral laxity teaching that christian freedom allowed participation in sinful or idolatrous acts and finally possibly twisting the idea of christian liberty into an excuse for indulgence those are three points from the nicolaitans that i'm sure if we think about it we might see echoes that are relevant in our times these origins tells us that it was possibly a sect founded by nicolas of antioch one of the seven deacons mentioned in acts chapter six verse five however this may have been a later attribution or misunderstanding as there is no solid evidence that nicolas himself thought heresy the name nicolaitans might also symbolically mean conquerors of the people from the greek nikon which means to conquer and leos means people representing a group that sought to dominate or corrupt the faithful now these ideas that we looked at we're going to see them what the relevance are to us today because what i didn't notice in the letter to the ephesians in revelations is the absence of the threat of physical violence if we look at revelation two verse two to seven we read that it is easily a spiritual battle it is a conquering of the people but not with physical weapons of warfare if so it would have been easy for us as for them to identify and even escape a fight against false ideas spread by false brethren is much more insidious it lulls us to sleep heresies are pervasive and a general eroding of the truth that we know like the serpent that deceived eve we are bitten and often we've not realized that we've been bitten does this sound like us today we read in the serpent saying to eve hat god said this and this was the opening line that led her astray she was deceived but today there are much more deceitful words that are used today this might be seen in a as moral or cultural compromise where believers accept the world's values we tolerate sin for the sake of acceptance we blur the lines between biblical truth and cultural trends for example holiness in marriage or the truth is twisted to seem more modern or inclusive and we ask well did god really mean this the doctrine of the nicolaitans further taught that grace meant believers could do as they please because they were free from the law and we can hear paul's writing in romans shall shall we continue in sin that grace may be abound there's this belief that god's grace eliminates the need for obedience or for moral standards and some modern christians fall into this by saying well god loves me no matter what so sin doesn't matter i'm saved but is that what the bible really says paul warned against this as we read in in in roman's chapter 6 verse 1 to 2 a further point is that in revelation 2 verse 6 he commends the church of ethesus for hating the deeds of the nicolaitans while revelation 2 verse 16 rebukes those in pergamum that's the church of pergamum for having the doctrine of the nicolaitans christ says that he hates both but at first glance i was not sure whether he was saying he hates the doctrine whether he hates the deeds or he hates the nicolaitans themselves what further complicates this is that in revelation 2 verse 15 all the versions include the phrase which thing i hate the phrase which thing i hate while most of the new versions do not include this phrase at all but translated as in like manner this phrase rather than it being which thing i hate they translate it as in like manner or likewise these are two variants of the greek text which causes this discrepancy with some translations opt for one path and the newer translations follow the other variant for example the csb version says in the same way you also have those who hold to the teaching of the nicolaitans these more modern translations specifically link verse 15 back to verse 14 where the connection is made that just as Balaam led Israel away with false doctrine the nicolaitans were likewise doing the same thing so can we pause for a moment brethren and think of any examples today of the gospel being modified to cease calling sin sinful so that gain a reward like Balaam just as Balaam taught his his prophecy for reward we can see the same things today and therefore we see that we are quite likely Ephesians in revelation 2 where the faith of many are overthrown by arguments or disputes that erode away at the certainty and simplicity of the gospel of christ today the battle for the minds continue whether it is where we try to reinterpret evolution into our doctrine or whether we look at and this is some i didn't even know of my kids who are in university they tell me that there are people who come and try to lead them away by saying to a sect where they argue that god is a woman and or christ has returned in our hearts these things continue on to today where there is a battle for our hearts and the lives of our children others argue that christ is not coming back that he really was just a person and he is dead and his return was not something that you know just as acts chapter one tells us that he would physically return that that is not the case and yet others would take you on a fight over well the location of israel the identity of the jews are they really god's chosen people and there are many others that we can go down a rabbit hole and find ourselves drawn away from the truth of the gospel it is no doubt a battle for our mind and our imaginations and you hear people say as i said earlier i i'm spiritual but i'm not religious because they don't want to engage with any of these points they may believe that there is a higher power but they're too afraid to commit to any of to following him in the way that he instructed so this is going to be where we turn our attention to ourselves we've looked at us and we've looked at what it was in the past how it was seen in the book of revelations and we can think of what it applies to us and in in our case we i think eric leisure being in boston and you have a rich history it's been years and i've listened to some of the brethren i think it was brother bob who gave a great presentation about the truth there in stouton and over the many years of how things have progressed and what it was like for the early brethren in your part of the vineyard how has things changed in your part of the vineyard over the many decades and no doubt there is a wealth of history there that things would have gone through experiences maybe building up of the ecclesias there you would have had experiences of supporting many through trials and no doubt there is a lot of love and devotion that you would have experienced and many have experienced over the years within your ecclesia how has that changed over the many years let's say 30 years such as it was for the brethren at ethesus is our love still burning in the same way are we still willing to toil to endure and to stand firm amidst the trials of this life how has our families changed how has our ecclesias chain how has our fellowship changed the other question we might ask ourselves is what will the next 30 years look like if our lord remains away would we have kept our love or would our love has have grown cold would it prove too difficult for us to make the sacrifice to come out week by week to be engaged with each other on wednesday bible classes would we still feel moved to teach in the sunday school or to serve in whatever way we feel compelled would we have started to lose our first love these are questions only we can answer for ourselves and we hope to look at some of