Talk 1 - Introduction to Ephesians

0:00 So we are beginning a new focus as a church family on the New Testament letter that Paul wrote to the Ephesians. My most important responsibility today is very simple, even though it's going to take me 30 minutes to do it, and that is to encourage you to read it. now how's it going to take 30 minutes to encourage you to read it I could just say that and stop but this is the central most important ingredient that you as an individual and we as a church family engage seriously with the text for ourselves apart from that it remains just theory a nice idea but when the chips are down in life and when life's reversals happen as they have this week we're going to need more than just theory to help us deal with the doubts and fears that flood our minds, with the grief and sorrow, with the questions. We're going to need more than that. We read Ephesians together as a church and any other book of the Bible as a church because of our deep conviction that these are the words of God. that this is almighty God's self-revelation to us, that this is, if you like, his love letter to this planet, to us as individuals personally.

2:07 That is certainly my conviction. But I realize that it may not be everybody's. It may be that you're coming new to this. It may be that you were brought up in a Christian home and you used to believe that, but you're not so sure anymore. Your cage has been rattled a little bit in school, at university, through listening to talks on the internet with the likes of Bart Ehrman and others and questions that folks and colleagues at work have asked. And life itself has thrown so much at you that you're beginning to wonder, how can this book written 2,000 years ago in the case of this letter have anything to say to me in my context in our world. And of course we could put on sessions, and we have done in the past, sessions that look at the archaeological evidence for the reliability of the New Testament, that look at the manuscripts and the transmission and so on. But I think at the very best all that that will do is help to convince you that it is a reliable historical text.

3:19 It will not convince you deeply within that these are the words of God. In the end, if this is God's word, it is self-authenticating. We can't rely on some professor somewhere to get up and say, by the way, you can all believe it's the word of God on my authority. There is no greater authority than God himself. and the reason I want to encourage us all to read it is that that gives you the opportunity to experience the truth and the power of it for yourself. So that's my first major point. To read it. to read it as God gave it to us, to read it, in this case, as a letter.

4:21 You remember letters, do you, way back in the dim mists of time? You probably still get one from the Inland Revenue every so often. It's not the kind of letter you want to read. But letters, I grew up in a time when letter writing was a thing. And you love to get a letter, especially if it was on scented paper. nice blue paper that Heather used to use to write to me I'm not sure what color I used to write back to her but that's men tend to be more prosaic about these things but letter writing so exciting to get it can you imagine the scene because it was a really big deal in the first century can you imagine the scene in the in the churches because this was written not just to one church in Ephesus, but the churches in that whole area. And can you imagine the scene when it's announced that there's a letter from Paul and everybody gathers on the Sunday night, which is when they used to meet and they got together and somebody would get up to read. Now imagine the scene, somebody gets up to read a letter from Paul and they start off, Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to God's holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus, Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

5:43 And then they roll up the scroll and say, right, that's it for this week, folks. See you next week. You go, but what does he say? I mean, it would be absurd, wouldn't it? And yet, so often that is how we treat the Bible. We divide it into tiny little chunks. A verse a day keeps the devil away. well it used to be an apple a day but you know instead of actually reading it and engaging with it as God gave it to us.

6:21 This is one of the transformative things that I learned in my late teens because I was really struggling to engage with the Bible and at the core of my struggle was not that I didn't believe it was God's inspired word my problem was that I did believe it was God's inspired word, and it was boring. That was the difficulty. I couldn't make much sense of it. What relevance had this? It just seemed old language and old, you know, and yeah, confusing, complex. And it wasn't until I was challenged to actually read. Take one book and read it without distractions, just read it from start to finish and then go back and read it again. In my day, please forgive, if you're an English teacher in school, please forgive the reference, but I remember how English in my particular school was utterly destroyed as a subject, English literature, because what they would do was they would come to a Shakespeare play or a long poem or a novel, and they would start, and we would read it in class,

7:34 out loud. And we would read about eight lines of Othello or Macbeth, and then we would have to comment and analyze the words and so on until the whole thing exploded. It was destroyed as literature. The sheer power of it was gone. It became something to analyze, a text to analyze. We had no idea what was to come, and by the time we got into Act 2, We had no memory of what was in Act 1. And the whole thing was a confusing mess. Now, I'm sure English is taught much better these days, but that just happened in my particular case.

8:12 And we can approach Scripture like that. Can I encourage you then to read it, to get into it for yourself? Now, I know that there are some cynics out there who say, well, why bother? It just sounds like work. I mean, it's okay a short letter that is only 12 verses in it. I could cope with that before I go to work. But Ephesians has six chapters. That's going to take, I think it may say in this little guide, which you've got about 12 minutes or something to read.

8:40 It says that. Wow. Who put that idea in my head? 12 minutes. If you can read Ephesians in 12 minutes, amazing. I think maybe the idea was 22 minutes or something like that. I don't know. Anyway, somebody's a speed reader.

8:55 That's not the point. Speed reading isn't the point. To take the time it takes to read it thoughtfully as a letter in the expectation that as you read and as you read again and as you read again, gradually those words become real to you. The content gets fixed in your head and you hear God's voice speak through his word. Because at the heart of our Christian faith, is a two-way communication with our creator. We have been created uniquely out of all the creatures in the world where we can converse with the creator and listen to his voice. God has given us his words to be at the core of not just our corporate life but our individual life.

9:57 So I encourage you, don't be in a rush. Take your time. Read Ephesians. Read it 10 to 12 times before you write anything down, before you listen to podcasts or talks online and get all the best sermons you can. Because this is about you engaging with God and encountering the living God through his word. This needs to become real for you and not just a nice theory that you believe the Bible is the word of God because that's what you've always believed and that's what this church believes. And don't expect it to be easy. This isn't children's story time.

10:53 there will be things that you will understand there will be a lot that you don't understand there's enough wealth of content in Ephesians to last you and me for a lifetime I have probably read it hundreds of times in my life I'm still discovering new stuff there are still things in it that I don't understand that's what I would expect this is God's word he speaks to us at the level we are at but he wants to push us and push us and push us because this is about growing in relationship and in our understanding of him and then as you read it and read it and reread it you can begin to ask questions of the text as you read how does this that fit with what I've read before? How does it flow into what comes? Because the key thing that you're looking for is the flow of the text. It's like going to watch a movie. You know if you're watching a movie, if you ever watch movies, when you get bored after a couple of minutes, it's usually because the plot makes no sense. It's all over the place. It doesn't interest you and you just kind of give up.

12:10 It doesn't work as a film. This is brilliant writing. This works superbly. It's up to us then to come to it and ask God to open it up to us and reveal how it works together. I want to try to help you just for a few moments to do that this morning, just to give you a few little hints in advance of your reading. Although maybe you've already, I hope you've already started reading. That would be even better. But Aristotle said very famously, he's not a footballer by the way, we're going back to the time before football, that a work of art has a beginning, a middle, and an end.

12:57 Very simple, but very helpful. In other words, it starts somewhere and goes somewhere. So there's a beginning and an end. There's a full stop at the end, and it's done. And you've got this beginning and the end. And so the question you then ask is, how does it get from the beginning to the end? Where does it go? What is the flow of this letter?

13:26 And that's one of the things that we want to look at. So let's do that. If you have a copy of Ephesians there, let's just begin. And by the way, there's a lot more details in the guide, which is here. I have a copy of it. It's brilliantly done. Well done to those who are involved in it. I think Andrew chiefly was involved in that.

13:48 I've written a little introduction, so don't worry about taking notes or anything this morning. They're all in there. There's also copies, hard copies of the questions for home group, I think, out in the foyer there. You can pick them up on the way out this morning. So let's look at the beginning and the end. How does Paul start? Here's the way he starts. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to God's holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus, grace and peace to you from God our Father, the Lord Jesus Christ.

14:21 That's the way he begins, a fairly standard way of writing a letter. In those days, they would tend to put the name of the author of the letter at the beginning. Unlike us, we tend to put it at the end, but it's at the beginning. Let's go to the end, chapter 6 and verse 23. Peace to the brothers and sisters and love with faith from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace to all who love our Lord Jesus with an undying love. So that's where he starts. That's where he ends.

14:56 And when I look at that ending, it makes me wonder if one of the big purposes of his letter is that we come to love the Lord Jesus with an undying love. Because I don't think it's a little accidental throwaway phrase. I think one of the things that is going to happen to us if we take this letter seriously is because of the revelation of who Jesus is and what he's done, then there will be a response of worship and love from our life to that, because that's how it works. This is a relationship. We're getting to know the person, and therefore love grows out of that knowledge. But what about the main content? That's just this kind of normal beginnings and ends in a sense, although they are different from any other letter in the New Testament, and you can check that out for yourself. So these are unique here.

16:02 But what about the main content? Well, let's look at chapter 1 again, verses 3 to 6, the beginning of the main content. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight in love. He predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will to the praise of his glorious grace. So there's the first big statement or part of the statement, because actually from verse 3 down to verse 14 is all one sentence in the original. That's the first paragraph, even though the NIV has here divided into two.

16:59 And by the way, ignore the chapter divisions because they weren't part of the original text and the verse divisions, but the paragraphing is very helpful. And if you're wanting to break Ephesians down small or once you've read the whole thing a number of times, then look at it paragraph by paragraph. So that's the first part of the first paragraph. Now let's look at the last part of the book. Finally, be strong in the Lord in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's scheme, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. So that's the beginning, and that's the end.

18:06 And when I see the beginning and the end, then it raises a number of questions. Is there any comparison? Is there a contrast? Is he talking about the same thing? How did he get from there to the end? Well, you have to read the rest of the book for that. But you notice what he's doing here. We have this fantastic outburst of praise,

18:31 full of amazing, mind-blowing content, full of big words and phrases, some of which frighten us, frankly, or some of us. When we read, for example, a predestination, some are going, oh no, we're not going to get into this again, are we? Yes, we are, because it's here. It's in the text, but maybe not quite the way that you are fearing it is here. Huge content, huge ideas, as Paul lists all these blessings that are ours in heavenly places. And we're going to look at that next week. But notice that phrase. If we put that text up again, notice it comes up twice.

19:20 Praise be to the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in the heavenly realms, or literally the heavenlies. And then at the end, the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms, or the heavenlies. And think of, well, it's the same. He's talking about the same thing. Whatever this is, the heavenly realms. But the context is very different, isn't it? The start, it's all these fantastic blessings we have in Christ and the heavenly. You're thinking, this is marvelous.

19:57 I could just sit here, take it all in like a holiday in Mallorca, sit on the beach, drink in the sun. This is fantastic. But the final paragraph is taking you into the back streets, the darkness, the fight, the struggle, the battle. So you're going from wonder to warfare. But it's all happening in the same place, if place is the right word to use. In the heavenlies. The NIV translates it as heavenly realms, which is quite good. He's really talking, and we look at it in more detail, about this spiritual dimension that basically we're dead to before we come to know Christ.

20:47 But as he explains in chapter 2, as we see in a moment, we've been raised with Christ and seated in heavenly places. So in Christ, we've been introduced to a new realm, or perhaps it might be better in a modern world to talk about dimension of life, a spiritual dimension of life, in which we've been blessed with every blessing, in which we engage in battle against the principalities and dark powers. So that's what we're talking about here. So he moves in this letter from his magnificent outpouring of all the marvelous things we have as believers in Jesus to the reality of fighting and war and in wars people get hurt. It's a good balance, isn't it? Whatever else it is. Because sometimes in church, sometimes in the songs we sing, we can end up just singing about the first bit.

22:05 And we don't like singing about the second bit. But we need to. We need as many songs in the second bit as we have in the first bit. I don't know if that's the fact that we do have as many songs. But songs about fight and struggle and battle tended to be certainly out of fashion in the 90s and so on because it was in heavenly armor we'll enter the land. The battle belongs to the Lord. There's no fighting for us to be done. It's wonderful.

22:33 It's all in the victory of Christ and we can just sit back and it's all great. Nonsense. If you get the balance of scripture right, yes, the battle does belong to the Lord, but we're being told to join him in fighting. And it's not easy as you read through the rest of chapter 6, what's involved in that struggle. Paul takes it seriously. So that's just by looking at the beginning and the end. Getting some ideas of where Paul is. And this should give you a clue.

23:17 That in Ephesians, Paul is, if you like, teaching an alternative reality to what we hear from our culture. An alternative reality which is, in fact, real reality. Ultimate reality. And when we begin to grasp what Paul is saying, it changes the way we look at things. It transforms our perspective. It transforms our understanding of what my life, your life are fundamentally about. Our understanding of our identity, for example, or of what value we have in this universe. What It brings all of life into a different focus so that not only can we live in the darkness of this world, but we can thrive in it.

24:25 We can grow in it. We can make eternally lasting progress in it. Because as we change through the work of the Holy Spirit in this letter in us, as we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change. Death itself changes. Life changes. Suffering changes. The purpose of time changes. How we measure success in life changes.

25:12 Everything changes when it is placed in the focus of the alternative reality of life, if you like, in the heavenlies. Life in this real spiritual dimension into which Jesus has brought us. So let me finally highlight a little pattern that repeats itself through the letter that might help as you move through. First, Paul highlights what God is up to. God's purposes. Second, he prays or else he exhorts them to the work of God's spirit in their lives. Thirdly, he highlights the opposition to the purposes of God and how that opposition has been and will be overcome. Let me take the last five minutes to talk about that.

26:28 first of all God's purposes and the very first one is God's purpose in creation and we have read the verses praise be to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who blessed us in heavenly realms for he chose us in him before the creation of the world that is a fantastic statement chosen in Christ before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight, or better translated, before him in love. There's no full stop in the original. NIV has just put full stops in to try to make sense of a long sentence that had no full stops in it. But the idea is that God has chosen us in Christ before the creation of the world to be before him in love, holy and blameless. In other words, we were in God's mind before the foundation of the universe. God's purpose was that we would be before him in love, holy and blameless. In order to make that possible.

27:50 We needed a place in which this would happen, so he created the universe. It is a startling statement. Think about it in advance of next week. But it's a startling statement. It is Paul's answer to the scientist's question and anybody's question, why is there something rather than nothing? And scientists have worked very hard in trying to explain how there is something rather than nothing. But they cannot tell us, even if they could manage that, which they're struggling with, ultimately. Why is there something rather than nothing?

28:30 There's no scientist in the world can tell you in the basis of science the answer to that question. The only way we could know it is if God reveals it. And he has revealed it. and is telling us that this universe is there so that God might have you. You ever thought about it like that? I mean, you look at the vastness of the universe and the planets go out on a nice starry night and I love doing that and taking photographs and you see your size of it and you wonder, why is this all here? This is just, I am so insignificant. I'm just a tiny little blot and there's so much in life that is driving people to the conclusion that they are insignificant.

29:15 They have no value. They have no purpose. They are just an excrement on the face of the earth that will soon disappear. And then you listen to this. Chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world so that we might be before him in love, holy and blameless. Which version would you prefer? mindless, purposeless excrement on the face of the earth, or a person created in the image of God, sought about before the universe was even here, chosen in Christ to be before him in love. Well, I know which one I would go with.

30:00 But you see how different this is, how alternative this is to the messages that are coming to us from our culture. And you say, well, this is too much for me to understand. Well, I'm glad that's your reaction because it's too much for me to understand. But then Paul prays, and you can see that in the next paragraph. Therefore, since I heard about your faith, I haven't stopped praying. And what does he pray for? Well, he prays that God will give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better, that the eyes of your heart might be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, etc., etc. true.

30:41 In other words, if we're going to get our head around this, it's not just about immersing ourselves in the text and reading it and asking God to speak to us. It's then getting before God and asking God for the work of his spirit in our lives without which we will not understand it. This is beyond human capacity to take in. We can understand what the individual words mean, but that's not what I'm talking about. To really grasp that, we need the eyes of our heart, enlightened by God's Spirit. And what a wonderful model for prayer. Do you know in the home groups and small groups and youth groups and so on that year, why not take that prayer and model your praying for each other in that? You know, when people first become Christians, they don't know what to pray for, so they just listen to what everybody else is praying for.

31:37 And unfortunately, that is often dominated by sickness and physical need and all the other things. And those things, we can pray about those, but what Paul prays for is the work of God's Spirit in the hearts and minds of the believers, so they go to grasp the hope and the power and the riches of God's inheritance in them, Because that's this thing that's going to sustain them in life. So learn from the prayer. And then finally he highlights the opposition. And the opposition to God's purposes is there. Tells us that we were dead in trespasses and sins. So this is chapter 2 verse 1. The next paragraph.

32:23 So you read that line and go. Well, you know, okay, God's purpose is that we would be before him in love, holy, and then he tells us we're dead in trespasses and sins. How's that going to work? It's not going to work. Sin has come in. Planets in rebellion against God. And we're dead spiritually to God. Not dead in every way.

32:47 Paul's using the analogy of physical death. For spiritual death, it doesn't mean we can't hear or speak or walk, as the text clearly says. It doesn't mean that we can't hear God. Adam could hear God quite clearly. Adam was conscious of his own sin after he sinned. He was conscious of his own guilt. This is not about dead people can't respond. He could respond.

33:10 But he was cut off from the life of God. He was spiritually dead. So what has God done about this? Final thing to read today. God, because of his great love, God is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ, even when we are dead in transgressions. It's by grace that you've been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms. And here we have it again.

33:40 So although there was fierce opposition, and it seemed that the whole thing, the whole experiment was doomed to disaster because of God's great love, God is rich in mercy has made us alive with Christ. It's by grace. Not through our works so that no one can boast about it or be depressed about it. It's entirely from his grace. That's the sweep. And that sweep of God's purposes, the need for the spirit to work, the opposition and how triumph over the opposition goes through three times. This letter provides a little motif that runs through and holds it together so that we can begin to see the individual parts against the whole.

34:38 So I pray that God will use our journey together in this wonderful book of Ephesians. It is just fabulous, but I pray that that won't be just theory for us. I pray that at the end of this time, all of us will come back and say, isn't this rich? Wasn't that worthwhile? Hasn't this been transformative in my thinking and in my living? Let's pray together. Father, thank you for making it possible for us as a church to give us the freedom, the freedom of meeting like this, the freedom of encouraging one another, the freedom of meeting in our home groups, our youth groups, and all the advantages we have, the freedom of having your words so that we can engage with it and encounter youth through it. Lord, we pray that this will be a living reality for us individually and for us as a church.

35:44 we pray this in Jesus name Amen