160807 The Saints in Ephesus

Ephesians 1:1-4 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus: ² Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. ³ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

The Apostle Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians while he was in prison in Rome. The first half of the letter teaches important truths that the Believers needed. They needed to know how they were saved and why they were saved. In the second half of the letter they are given more specific direction as to how the grace of God works out in their lives.

This letter is addressed to the Saints in Ephesus who are faithful in Christ Jesus. The term “in Christ Jesus” establishes the relationship we have with God and each other. Paul wants the attention of those who are “saints” and who are “faithful”. The faithful ones he was writing to have a special relationship with Christ. It is a relationship that begins at salvation and continues throughout our life. We should be forever grateful that God the Father sees us in Christ Jesus. When we are conceived and brought forth into this earth we are sons and daughters of Adam and Eve and as such are born separated from God. When we are in Adam we are under condemnation. When we are in Christ there is no condemnation (Romans 8:1) and we should praise God for that.

Paul claims to be an apostle of Christ Jesus. As such…

Paul’s apostleship came to him by God’s will. Let’s look at the beginning of that relationship in Acts 9:3-6 & 10-16. We see Saul on the road to Damascus to persecute the church there.  Now as he went on his way, he approached Damascus, and suddenly a light from heaven shone around him. ⁴ And falling to the ground he heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” ⁵ And he said, “Who are you, Lord?” And he said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. ⁶ But rise and enter the city, and you will be told what you are to do.” … ¹⁰ Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” ¹¹ And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, ¹² and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” ¹³ But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. ¹⁴ And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” ¹⁵ But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. ¹⁶ For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

I have always been impressed with the words of Jesus recorded in verse 16. “I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” Paul’s apostleship was not some honorary office as it might be considered today. During the lifetime of Paul’s ministry he suffered much for Jesus’ sake. By Paul’s own words he was beaten five times by the Jews; three times he was beaten with rods; once he was stoned and left for dead. Three times he was shipwrecked and lived in constant danger. His body must have been covered with scars. He also testified that he lived in daily anxiety for the churches (2 Corinthians 11:24-28).

The greetings that Ananias brought to him that day in Damascus would have brought him little knowledge of what was about to happen in his life. He became an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God and as such…

He was set aside for the gospel of God. Let’s look at Romans 1:1-6. Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, ² which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy Scriptures, ³ concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh ⁴ and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord, ⁵ through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations, ⁶ including you who are called to belong to Jesus Christ,

Paul’s letter to the Romans began with the same greeting as that to the Ephesians. However, he adds that he had been set apart for the gospel of God! This gospel concerned Jesus Christ as the Son of God, the second person in the Trinity, who was descended from King David in his humanity and from God the Father in his deity. Paul’s role in this plan of God was to bring about the obedience of faith among all the nations. Ephesus was one of the places that he exercised his apostleship. As such…

Paul was the founding pastor of that church. Let’s go back to Luke’s account in Acts 19:1-7. And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. ² And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” ³ And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John’s baptism.” ⁴ And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” ⁵ On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. ⁶ And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. ⁷ There were about twelve men in all.

Verse 1 is important in helping us to understand verses 2-7. Apollos was at Corinth but he had previously been in Ephesus. While he was in Ephesus he was a very effective preacher, however, he needed instruction because he only knew the teaching of (or baptism) of John. God had prepared for this by having in Ephesus a couple named Priscilla and Aquila. When they observed his teaching they took him aside and taught him the way of God so that he became a very powerful preacher proving by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

When Apollos went on to Corinth Paul arrived in Ephesus. As was his custom

Paul began in the synagogue and then rented a hall. Let’s read on in Acts 19:8-10. And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and persuading them about the kingdom of God. ⁹ But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief, speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him, reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. ¹⁰ This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.

Paul’s position always was to present the gospel to the Jew first and then to the Gentiles. The term Gentiles covers everyone who are not Jews. For three months Paul worked at communicating the gospel to the Jews of Ephesus. Some, apparently leaders, put up a stubborn resistance and publicly refuted what Paul had to say. Rather than fight in the synagogue Paul withdrew to a rented hall. The city of Ephesus was so important that Paul saw that he could not leave until he had established a strong church there.

So he went on teaching for two years. Apparently he taught every day so that people from the surrounding area would hear the gospel when they came to the city. Today we know Asia as a continent reaching all the way from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean between Japan and Alaska. In Paul’s day Asia was a Roman province and Ephesus was a center of trade and governmental administration there. Paul was very effective in his preaching. The signs of an apostle were seen in his ministry. These signs were extraordinary miracles. That involved healing and casting out demons. He was so effective that, when some Jewish exorcists tried to cast a demon out, the demon said I know Jesus and I know Paul but I don’t know you! During his two-year ministry…

He could not be ignored. Let’s move ahead to Acts 19:23-27. About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way. ²⁴ For a man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. ²⁵ These he gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we have our wealth. ²⁶ And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods. ²⁷ And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.”

The craftsmen who made idols soon saw that their clientele were falling away. So their leader, a man named Demetrius, organized a riot to drive Paul out. Instead of leaving Paul wanted to go in among the crowd to try to quiet them. His friends held him back and would not let him go because they knew the crowd would kill him if they could get their hands on him.

The riot went on for more than two hours until finally the town clerk got control of the crowd and quieted them down. Paul gathered the church leaders and encouraged them to continue in the ministry. He left there and traveled north to Macedonia and back to Greece. After which he started towards Jerusalem. While on that journey, Paul spoke to a gathering of believers in Troas from suppertime until midnight when a young man, named Eutychus, seated in a second-story window fell and appeared to be dead. Paul took him in his arms assured them he was still alive. Then they returned to the upper room where Paul spoke on until daybreak.

We can only guess at what Paul talked about during those hours. It was probably not remarkably different from what he usually preached. I, for one, would certainly like to have a transcript of that all-night sermon!

Paul continued on his journey to Jerusalem and knew better than to go to Ephesus. He had left so much of his heart there that he would not be able to soon leave these spiritual children of his.

What Paul did was to leave the ship at the coast nearest Ephesus and asked the elders of the church to come to him. When they did come…

Paul encouraged the church leaders. Let’s look ahead to Acts 20:18b-24. “You yourselves know how I lived among you the whole time from the first day that I set foot in Asia, ¹⁹ serving the Lord with all humility and with tears and with trials that happened to me through the plots of the Jews; ²⁰ how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, and teaching you in public and from house to house, ²¹ testifying both to Jews and to Greeks of repentance toward God and of faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. ²² And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, ²³ except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. ²⁴ But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

Paul’s message to the elders reiterated what he had been teaching them all along. Paul had gone door to door witnessing to Jesus. He called upon people regardless of their race to repent and have faith in Jesus.

All along the way Paul testified that he had been warned that in Jerusalem imprisonment and affliction awaited him. After the very rough life he had lived he must have been very tired. From what he said here, and in other places, Paul actually welcomed the idea of giving up his life in Jerusalem (Acts 21:13). He could think of no higher honor than giving up his life for Jesus. After all, he saw the first Christian martyr. In point of fact he held the coats of the men who killed Stephen. As a result of his ministry there…

He was greatly loved by them. I have been to many pastor’s/elder’s meetings in my time I never saw at one of them anything like we see in Acts 20:36-38. And when he had said these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. ³⁷ And there was much weeping on the part of all; they embraced Paul and kissed him, ³⁸ being sorrowful most of all because of the word he had spoken, that they would not see his face again. And they accompanied him to the ship.

Remember, these men that he spoke to on the beach that day were the ones who had to carry on the ministry after he left. They were not jealous of him they loved him very much. They knelt on that beach that day and prayed. Their hearts were filled with pain because Paul had told them that they would never see him again.

He was fully expecting to die in Jerusalem. Take the time to read the rest of the book of Acts to see how these things worked out for him. He did not die in Jerusalem but instead he went to Rome and the devil paid the travel expenses. It was in Rome on this trip, or perhaps on a return trip from Spain (that we have no clear record of) that he was executed because of his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. From Rome…

Later he wrote this (Ephesians) letter to encourage the church. Let’s go back to the beginning and remind ourselves of what Paul wrote Ephesians 1:3-4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, ⁴ even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.

The Ephesian church is called on to bless God, or praise God, because He had blessed the believers. He had warned them that after he left wolves (false prophets) would come in to their midst and destroy the flock.

The last information we have on the church in Ephesus is found in the Book of Revelation. At least one generation after Paul’s time John wrote Revelation to be delivered to seven churches in the province of Asia the first of which was Ephesus.

Jesus said that he knew the works of the Ephesian church and the way they had kept doctrinally sound. He commended them for bearing up under persecution. However, he did have against them the fact that they had abandoned their first love. Jesus called on them to repent and do the works they did at first.

Here in Stamford, we face the same dangers they did. Fierce wolves can come in and destroy the flock. This church can grow cold or we can repent and restore!

O Lord, do not come and remove our lampstand!

Over the next few weeks we will look at the very important teachings in the letter to the Ephesians.

We can join with the Apostle in speaking grace to each other and peace from God. For the 21^st century Christian grace and peace are much-needed. This grace and peace will come to us only because of the blessing of God. We need to begin by determining that we are indeed saints in the service of the King. We need to remember that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing and has reserved those blessings in heaven for us where it cannot ever be taken away. This is not to say that we can live any way we choose because we are blessed by God! This passage is telling us that we are chosen to be godly people and blameless before God. To do that we must be in Christ Jesus. Meaning that we believe in Him and He is our Lord! Is He your Lord? Today can be the day for you to put your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

All scriptures quotes are from: The Holy Bible: English standard version. 2001. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.