[Transcript represents full sermon's text]

       Today, we're going to start a new series on the book of Ephesians, Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians. So we want to get some background information on this book before we go ahead and dive into it, get some information as to where the roots of this book originate and what's going to be in the book.

       So the epistle to the church in Ephesus, the book of Ephesians, was written about 60 to 64 AD. That's what seems to be the consensus among the theologians that I checked. It's a little bit of a broad range there between 60 and 64. Of course, the author is the Apostle Paul, and he was experiencing his first imprisonment. As he notes, he was in prison in Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 1. And we know that from Acts chapter 28, that he's actually in Rome in that imprisonment. As a matter of fact, I've got my Bible app. If we go to Acts chapter 28 and look at verse 30, you can see what I'm talking about. Luke says, “He lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.” So that's the setting, that's the background of where Paul is when he's writing this epistle.

       Now Paul had spent two-ish years in Ephesus during his third missionary journey, and that would have been between 53 to 56 AD, right in there—he spent some time at the church of Ephesus. We think that Ephesus was written shortly after or immediately after Paul wrote the epistle to the Colossians. That means that it's very similar in its themes. It's almost as if Ephesians is like a sequel to Colossians. That's one way to look at it.

       The citing of the city of Ephesus was not in the original or many of the original manuscripts. If we go back to Ephesians, Paul says in verse 1, “To the saints who are in Ephesus.” So I guess it would be “the who are in Ephesus.” That's the issue, that Ephesus was not in many of those early manuscripts, which has led theologians to presume that this letter was a circulatory, a letter in circulation, that went to different churches. And it could be that the letter originally was not written to the church in Ephesus, but that it was written to a different church. Paul talks about this in Colossians when he says for the Colossians to read the letter from Laodicea. We can remember that from the Colossians series. Therefore, it could be that it wasn't originally written to Ephesus, but it could be that it was, and that that's why the transcribers added the phrase, “who are in Ephesus,” to signify or distinguish or note, I guess, that this was originally to the church in Ephesus—to the Ephesians.

       Ephesus resided a mile from the Aegean Sea, and that sea is right off the big Mediterranean Sea. I'm not a super big geography guy myself, but that would be where it's at. And it would be in modern-day Turkey. So that's the locale of Ephesus. And back in the time that Paul is writing this, it is the capital of the chief province of Asia. It was near the city of Colossae as well, which is another tie with Ephesians and Colossians. Acts chapter 19 tells us that people would travel to Ephesus to worship at a pagan temple there for their god Artemis. We remember in that passage, we remember Paul's run-in with some idol-makers there. And he got into some trouble there because they thought they were going to lose their business from what Paul was doing in preaching the gospel.

       To zoom out a little bit, we could say, if we just want to look at the gospel preaching up to this point of getting to Ephesians, Jesus started the whole message process by sharing the gospel with the Jewish people, God's original chosen people. They were the ones that Jesus focused on. And then so the Apostle Peter would kind of take the helm of that after Jesus' ascension into heaven. And he would preach still to the Israelites, to the Jewish people. And then a transition occurs where Peter sees that the Gentiles are also going to be included in God's plan of salvation. Around the same time is that, we see Paul, who is Saul, appear on the scene, and he's going on the roadway, and Jesus appears to him, and then Paul is converted, and he becomes the apostle to the Gentiles. It started out with the Jewish people, and then it ended up with both Peter and Paul sharing the gospel with Gentiles.

       Chapters 1 to 3 of Ephesians are going to be primarily doctrinal. The last three chapters will be the application, the Christian living. Now in chapter 6, when Paul talks about the armor of God, things are going to come around about back so that the application kind of meets back up with the doctrine, and there'll likely be some doctrinal discussions there as we try to understand the armor of God. One of the main themes of the book is going to be the body of Christ. It speaks to the church's current and future riches and inheritance that the saints have in Christ. It tells of certain truths that God had kept secret up until this time where he's using the Apostle Paul to share these truths.

       As a matter of fact, I want to look at a couple of passages as pertains to this concept. First, let's go to Romans chapter 1 and look at verses 19 and 20 there. If I tap over there, Paul says, "For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made, so they are without excuse.” What Paul's arguing is that anybody, by looking at the world, can know there's a God. So the Gentiles, even though they did not have the Jewish law, and even the Jews themselves who had it, anyone can look at the world and see that there's likely a God. They can consider the fact that we're at the right position on the earth from the sun in our solar system. If we were a little bit closer, we'd be too hot. If we were a little bit further away, we'd be too cold. They can look at nature and how the trees and the plants and the oceans and lakes and all that stuff works. They can look at the animals. There are just so many things one can consider to say, “Well, the odds of this all being random or having come about through its own fruition is unlikely. This appears to have an element of design to it.”

       Let's also look at 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14. I'll tap over there. So Paul again, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (ESV). Again, that's why what Paul is going to be writing in Ephesians can only be understood by those who have come into personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ. These are not things that anybody in the world, those outside of Christianity, are going to be able to comprehend with their own mind.

       These riches that Paul is going to discuss—he actually mentions the word riches five times. So it'll be chapter 1 and verse 7, verse 18, chapter 2, verse 7, chapter 3, verse 8, and chapter 3, verse 16. He's going to talk about the riches that we have in Christ. And that's using the ESV Bible. So that's the word riches is what the ESV Bible and my use today uses for those passages.

       Ephesians is also going to contain two prayers from the Apostle Paul that we're going to consider. That's interesting and unique. Paul's also going to talk about the Jewish and Gentile peoples and how they have been made one in Christ, how there is no longer that separation like it was in the Old Testament where God's primary focus was on the Jewish people. Now, it's going to be both Jews and Gentiles. Anyone who believes in Jesus is God's focus.

       A main point to consider in a ‘big picture’ perspective in looking at Ephesians is that Christ rules ‘internally’ in the believer. That's kind of a theme. And that contrasts with how Christ is going to rule ‘externally’ in the Millennial Kingdom in the future. And that millennial kingdom we know as the ‘1,000-year Reign of Christ.’ And we believe that that event is still in the future, that that has not occurred yet, that that'll be a physical, literal kingdom where Christ will reign on the earth for 1,000 years.

       Paul is also going to talk about how the church body works with each other through the use of spiritual gifts. And we'll get into some of those gifts and also how those gifts can even benefit those outside the church. Along with the spiritual gifts, there'll also be responsibilities of the believer that Paul will get into. And the core foundation of the whole thing is that when the church does right, when the church behaves in proper ways, it grows up into a fruitful, nourished body. So Christ's name is seen in a positive light by the world. On the flip side, when the church isn't behaving like they should, then Christ's name is kind of thrown into the mud, and people don't have the blessings that they should have.

       Now that we've gone through that introductory phase there, let's go ahead and get into the text. And like I said, normally I say let's go ahead and dive in. However, we're getting into some deep waters right off the bat. So in this particular case of the book of Ephesians, it's more like we're climbing up a high dive and we're diving in the deep end right off the bat. Let's go ahead and dive off this high dive into the deep end of the pool. Ephesians chapter 1, starting in verse 1: “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ” (ESV).

       We can note right off the bat who is the letter written to. Well, it's written to the saints who are in Ephesus. Saints would be Christians. So it's kind of a cool word, saints. In the 21st century, we have an idea of saints as kind of special Christians in like a separate group and that we're not in general as Christian saints, but that those are an exclusive group of really obedient Christians. But, really, what it boils down to is Paul calls us all saints. That's a cool thing that there's no distinction there. If we believe in Jesus Christ, we are a saint.

       And we can note that Paul said, who are faithful and are faithful in Christ Jesus. So these are committed Christians. These are people that not only believe in a general sense in the gospel message, but these are people that are actually trying to practice it, trying to take it seriously and to seek to love God with their whole heart, with their whole being, and to love others as they love themselves. And so that's why Paul's writing this letter, to give them further guidance in that faithfulness that they've already established in Christ, that which Paul is already familiar with, having been with this church for a while.

       And, of course, Paul wishes them “grace and peace.” That's his opening blessing to them, his wish to them, that they would be full of that grace that comes from the cross for forgiveness of sins and just that extra help that we get from God for our own selves. And then as we minister grace to others. And that grace really begets peace because you have to have that foundation of grace first before you're able to stifle that negativity that comes from sin. And once that grace is in place, that opens the door for that foundation of peace. And Paul certainly wants these brothers and sisters to be abiding in that peace that Jesus has given to us. And that's also why he's going to tackle some of this pre-Gnosticism that seems to be affecting the church in Ephesus.

       So verse 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” (ESV).

       Paul doesn't really tell us what those spiritual blessings are in the heavenly places. He just tells us that they exist. We know there are things that we obtained when we came into relationship with God, as was just being discussed: forgiveness of sins by counting on Christ's sacrifice on the cross, and new life is represented by Christ rising from the dead. So we have forgiveness of sins. We have new life in Christ. We have the ability to have a relationship with God now. Those are some blessings, spiritual blessings, that we have, I guess you would say, on the earth. But, “blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.” I don't know that we can know for sure what that exactly means. But we do know that we have those things that I just talked about.

       If we go to verse 4, “even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him” (ESV).

       Now, we kind of zoom out and we're in this big picture perspective. Paul is showing us what we are ‘becoming’ on the earth. He says that “we should be holy and blameless before him.” That's our life's goal, right? That's what we're striving to become. So we get into this whole concept of God choosing people before the foundation of the world. And how would we say that works? Well, let's continue reading before we get exactly into that. Paul says, “In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us and the beloved.” We know this occurred before the foundation of the world, that it was predestined.

       Let's get a definition of predestined, because that's something that probably causes confusion or uncertainty as regards to what's really going on. So predestined would mean predetermined, something that God determined beforehand, and we're told it was before the foundation of the world. Now, one thing we have to keep in mind as we come to this passage is, in the 21st century America, we have this Jeffersonian mindset, this individualistic mindset versus a collective mindset. Because of that, it can be easy to read this text as if God knew beforehand each singular individual and actually chose that person—as if he looked into the future or as if he already knew it just from his internal knowledge, that who would choose Christ, or that he elected certain people to choose Christ before the foundation of the world. Either of those scenarios. It's easy to look at it like that and say that that's what's going on. But if we do that, we're looking at it through an individualistic lens.

       The best way, rather, it seems to look at this is that God, before the foundation of the world, knew or wanted people who would believe in Jesus Christ. He preplanned, he predetermined that those people should be holy and blameless, and that they would be adopted to himself as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ. He predetermined those things. For instance, Paul says in verse 4, “that we should be holy and blameless before him.” So it “should be” and not “would be,” and that signifies this idea that God chose to plan that those who would believe in Jesus “should be holy and blameless,” that they would accept that salvation, but it wasn't a guarantee that they would be. He's hoping that people will make the right choice. We all know that when we die, when we are after this life, we will be holy and blameless. But in our lives, we have the responsibility to make the right choices. Everyone has the responsibility to make the right choice in choosing the truth, like we were talking about—that people have that ability to choose right and wrong, and people have the ability to choose to believe in Christ's sacrifice and resurrection from the dead, the gospel we proclaim, and they also have the ability not to choose that. And so people who don't choose that are not included in this ‘package,’ this ‘group’ that Paul is talking about.

       So it's not that God foreordained that we would sin, and it's not that God foreordained that Adam and Eve would sin in the garden. But we remember that the Bible tells us that Satan fell from heaven. And when he fell, he fell to the earth. That would signify that Satan fell after the creation event, after Genesis chapter 1. And we know that it's Satan who ended up tempting Eve in the garden. And, of course, Adam gets led into sin as well. This is an important point because it shows that, and this ties back to what Paul is talking about with the grace, “to the praise of his glorious grace with which he has blessed us in the beloved according to the purpose of his will”—it ties into that because if God had been the one that had foreordained everybody to sin, then how could he show the grace? If you look at it from a logical perspective, it doesn't seem to really make sense to say, “Well, God foreordained us to sin—in effect calls us to sin. We sinned and then God turned around and provided grace for the sin.” That doesn't really seem to make good, logical sense. If that had been the case, that God did that, then we would be able to challenge God, right? We would be able to say, “God would say, you're guilty of sin,” and we would be able to say, “But you kind of predestined us to sin. You predestined me to sin. How can I be guilty of something that I had to do?” So that's the problem. It opens that door that if God's the one that's really the cause of all this, then isn't God the one that ultimately bears the responsibility?

       But if we back up and bring this roundabout, let's go back to verse 4, “Even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him, in love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us and the beloved” (ESV).

       So I'm going to stop there. I think we've gone through a lot. And this can be a kind of difficult passage. And next time we return to Ephesians chapter 1, we'll pick up in verse 7. But the whole purpose, the whole idea, is that God is trying to bring people into his ‘predetermined plan’ so that anyone who believes in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross and his resurrection from the dead can choose to come into the body of Christ, can choose to be part of God's church and inherit the blessings that are only available through Christ, which, of course, includes eternal life, and that release from sin, from the weight of sin's debt, and new life in Christ, so that we know from this point forward, from the moment we believe, that there is no concern as far as our eternal future goes.

- Daniel Litton