Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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If you're able to remain standing,
please do. And let's turn our attention
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to Phesians. Ephesians, Chapter One. Phesians is in the New Testament.
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It's one of Paul's Letters. It's
not a large, large letter. You'll
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find it after Romans and the two
letters to the Corinthians. I intend to
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move, at least for the moment, intend to move somewhat slowly through this
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letter, but I do want to
read larger sections of it and I hope
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that over time, what this will
do will allow you to become more and
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more familiar with the letter so as
you have opportunity begin committing it to memory,
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reflect on what it says, learn
it and learn it well. This
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is the word of God. Going
to read from verse one to verse fourteen.
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Paul and Apostle of Christ Jesus,
by the will of God, to
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the saints who are in Ephesus and
are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to
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you and peace from God, our
father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed
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be the God and father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us
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in Christ with every spiritual blessing in
the heavenly places, even as he chose
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us in him before the foundation of
the world, that we should be holy
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and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us for adoption as sons
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through Jesus Christ, according to the
purpose of his will, to the praise
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of his glorious grace with which he
has blessed us, in the beloved.
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In Him, we have redemption through
the fruit. In Him, we have
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redemption through his blood, the forgiveness
of our trespasses, according to the riches
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of His grace which he lavished upon
us in all wisdom and insight, making
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known to us the mystery of his
will, according to his purpose, which
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he set forth in Christ as a
plan for the fullness of time to unite
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all things in him, things in
heaven and things on earth. In Him,
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we have obtained an inheritance, having
been predestined according to the purpose of
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him who works all things according to
the counsel of his will, so that
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we, who were the first to
hope in Christ, might be to the
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praise of his glory. In Him, you also, when you heard the
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word of truth, the Gospel of
your salvation and believed in him, were
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sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
who is the guarantee of our inheritance until
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we acquire the possession of it,
to the praise of his glory. Amen.
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You may be seated. When I
was younger, I used to skip
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all the stuff that you'd find the
beginning of the book until you got to
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that page that said one. You
know what I'm talking about. Maybe kids.
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If you're readers now, you've noticed
that some bigger books have this material
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at the beginning that doesn't feel like
it's the real story or the the real
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thing that you're reading. You might
even see instead of one there are a
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little numbers, little Roman numerals I, II, III, the and so
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on. I V. Anyway,
these acknowledgements, endorsements, dedications, prefaces
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to the first edition, preface to
the second edition and so on can,
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of course, sometimes get a little
excessive. But as I read more and
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more, I'd have learned that this
preface material is important and often it can
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be really critical for understanding the rest
of the book. And perhaps not the
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all of it, but often some
of it is. That way, in
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the preface to a book and author
might explain his or her motivation for writing.
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They are indebtedness to certain schools of
thought the basic aim and plan of
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the book, and all of these
things can really help you understand what you're
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about to read conframe it in a
proper way, and that's often what the
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author is wanting to do, to
frame it and help you understand how to
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think about it well. The same
can be said for the introductions to the
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letters in the Bible, like this
one that we read today. Paul and
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Apostle of Christ Jesus, by the
will of God, to the saints who
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are in Ephesus and are faithful in
Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace
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from God, our father and the
Lord Jesus Christ. In these couple of
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verses Paul says actually quite a lot. He introduces himself, he states his
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authority. It's partly on the basis
of that that we have this letter in
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our Bible, that it is a
part of our Canon. Because of that
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verse. In this we also find
who he addresses his readers. He blesses
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them as well, and so verses
one and two are not skippable throw away
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material. They are inspired by the
Holy Spirit just as much as verses three
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through fourteen are. He inspired them
and we ought to give of our attention
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to them. In some ways,
these opening verses in this letter and the
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other letters focus like the overture to
an opera. If you've ever been to
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an opera, you know that those
that music at the beginning often introduces you
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to all of the music that is
to come. You hear the little motifs
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and you her ear gets familiarized,
if that's a word, or familiar with,
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I'll say, to what is to
come, so that when you hear
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when the hero is introduced or the
villain or whatever it is, you go
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oh, I know that, even
if it's just a a subconscious level.
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And in a similar way that's what
Paul is doing here in the introduction.
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He's preparing us for what is to
follow, and I want to focus on
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those some of those things tonight,
in particular the way that he addresses them
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as saints or Holy Ones, saints
who are in Ephesus. Now, before
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we do that, I want to
clear away a point of confusion before we
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begin, and I don't intend to
do this every time. So here it
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is. The question is is this. Will these words in Ephesus? In
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Ephesus? In some of your bibles
you might notice that these words are in
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brackets or are not there. Or
in this Bible that I'm reading from,
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this ESV, there's a little footnote
which says that some manuscripts omit these words
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in Ephesus. Well, what does
all this mean? Are we to think
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that these words are here and legitimately
here or not? Well, it's just
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two words, but it does matter, and for a couple reasons. One
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is that throughout my preaching on this
letter, I intend to discuss to to
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discuss isn't the word I want,
but to to preach. How about that?
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To preach and relate it to some
of the background of this city and
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Paul's experience there enacts chapters nineteen and
twenty. We have some time in which
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Paul spends in ephesis and some really
big things happen there. I believe that
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those are relevant to how we understand
this letter to the Ephesians, and so
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we will discuss things like the cult
of artemists, Paul's time there and other
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background kinds of things. It can
be a very useful in helping us to
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understand this. But the question here
is is it warranted? Did Paul right
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it to the Efhesians or did he
not? Well, I believe that we
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can have certainty that this letter was
written to the Ephesians for several reasons,
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and that the brackets and the footnotes
and those kinds of things are unwarranted.
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So put on your thinking caps just
for a moment and then we'll get to
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saints after this. So a few
reasons why I take this as as rightfully
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here I'm the first is that,
while it's true that some early manuscripts don't
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have these words there, it is
attested very early and broadly in the Church
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Fathers Iron as, origin Clement of
Alexandria. These are people from the second
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century. So iron ask, for
example, was born around thirty or one
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hundred and forty iron as, who
believes that this letter was written to the
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Ephesians, is particularly important because he's
from a little town called SMYRNA, which
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is very, very close to Ephesus, just right on the border there and
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western Turkey. That's important because he
was closed. It's also important because he
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knew a man named Polycarp who knew
a man named John who lived in Ephesus
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and of course, was the apostle, and new Paul and others who are
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written or Paul and others and Paul, most importantly, because he wrote this
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letter. What I'm saying is is
that iron as would have had very direct
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access to peep bull, who knew
Paul, knew John. John no doubt
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would have told the people that pollycarp
for example, iron and and pass down
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to iron is that if this wasn't
one of Paul's letters, that it that
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it wasn't. However, iron is
believes that it it was, and that's
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significant as close as he was to
the riding of it. The second thing
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to note is that ancient doesn't always
mean most correct. I want you to
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imagine a scenario. Let's say you
and I both make a copy of efficit.
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We write down, we make a
copy of this letter. Okay,
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let's say I make a mistake and
you don't. Then a number of people
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copy your copy, a number of
people copy my copy right now. Imagine
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that my copy gets lost and my
copy gets lost, and so now we
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have one of the earliest manuscripts having
been lost. Now imagine that. or
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Oh no, I've messed it all
up. Let me try. We're gonna
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start again. I should just read
my notes. Two additions, yours and
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mine. I did it backwards.
Both series get copied. Now Imagine,
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for some reason that all the copies
of mind, the one that were that
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had the error in that were destroyed. There we go, and the original
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one, the original copy that was
left had the error in it. Okay.
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Now imagine that the other set of
copies, the ones that we have
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hundreds and hundreds of but maybe not
the original, are kept. So we
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have the original one with the error, that's earlier, that's preserved and all
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the later ones that don't have the
error are kept. And this happens sometimes.
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I'm so it means that just because
something is early doesn't necessarily mean that
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it's right. If you didn't catch
all that, talk to me afterwards and
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all try again. The point is, the age of a document is certainly
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significant. Early manuscripts are very important
and we appeal to them a lot,
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but it's not the only determining factor. Just because it's an older version doesn't
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necessarily mean that it's not right.
And in fact, one of the earliest
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copies of this something that scholars very
unromantically called P forty six. One of
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these early manuscripts not only had admits
the words in Ephesus, but it omits
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a lot of different things, makes
a lot of mistakes, spelling errors,
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reversals of words, all kinds of
things, and so we know that though
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an early documents and helpful for some
things, it's not a hundred percent reliable
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in all things. There are a
few more reasons, but I'll just mention
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one more, and that's that the
spelling and grammar of all the words around
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in Ephesus make it so that without
those words in ephesus it's really awkward.
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And you can kind of see this
right here in the English if we read
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Paul An Apostle of Christ Jesus,
by the will of God, to the
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saints who are and are faithful in
Christ Jesus. It leaves you kind of
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hanging, doesn't it? The Saints
who are what? The other thing is
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whenever we see this construction, we
always see it with a city name after
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it, the saints who are in
Ephesis, in Corinth and and so on.
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The Grammar, the spelling, a
number of other of other considerations make
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this expected to be there. So
it's not a surprise then when we find
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these words in thousands and thousands of
other manuscripts, even though it's not in
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these very few early ones. So
these are some of the reasons that I
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take this as original and the brackets
as as unnecessary. This letter was written
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to the Ephesians. It was written
to the Ephesians and we'll take it that
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way. So, with that taken
care of, let's talk about this Word
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Holy, this word saints, the
saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful
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in Christ Jesus. This is a
very significant thing. Paul calls them sae,
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so word that comes to us from
Latin. It means holy ones,
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holy ones. What does it mean
to be a saint? What does it
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mean that he calls them saints?
What does it mean to be a holy
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one? When we use the word
saint today, we often mean it in
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one of two ways. One way
we mean it is very in an is
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in an informal kind of way.
So, for example, you might say,
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did you see the way that she
visited them in the hospital every single
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day? What a saint. Right, we're expressing that this woman, in
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this exist, in this example,
was particularly godly, exemplary. I'm worthy
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of emulation. We're using the term
to express our admiration of someone's holiness or
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they're usefulness to the Lord, the
other way that saints are referred to sort
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of in our vernacular today isn't it
is in an official kind of way.
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I'm some parts of the Christian church
make an official separation of kind of Super
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Christians from other people. They distinguished
certain people as saints from the rest of
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God's people, and this is important
to note because this is really foreign to
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the New Testament and the earliest centuries
of the church, and it bears directly
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on here on what our passage tonight. Who is Paul speaking to? Is
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he talking to one or maybe two
bishops and Ephesus that were recognized in this
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kind of official way or who maybe
later would be recognized, or is he
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addressing the whole Christian Church? What's
of course, the latter. The idea
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of a separation between saints and Non
Saints didn't really common to the fourth century,
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and when it came, it came
in quite a dramatic way. Some
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people even refer to it as a
cult of the saints, cult meaning in
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the sense of a whole religious system
devoted to the worship and prayer and Hagiography
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of early Christians or of Christians.
It's interesting that we find that in these
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early years. This wasn't always accepted. Early Christians like Eusebius of Caesarea,
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theodore of Cyrus and Jerome warned about
the idolatry of this practice of separating saints
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out from the saints, and interestingly, even Pagans mocked Christians for their hypocrisy.
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See on this point of claiming monotheism
but in fact worshiping and praying to
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a Pantheon of divinized men, and
we ought to continue to warn of it
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today and be committed to worshiping the
one true God. But the danger of
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idolatry is not the only application here. Designating only some people as saints,
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as an instead of the whole of
the Christian church, takes away and honor
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that rightfully belongs to all Christians,
from the most advanced and holy theologian to
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children and their mother's arms. And
we see that here in this letter.
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When Paul addresses the Ephesians, as
I say, he doesn't address one or
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two pastors who were alive at the
time in that city and who were sainted
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by the church. There's no such
practice. Who Does Paul Address? He
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addresses the whole church and as we
see in chapter six, that even includes
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children and slaves. Being a saint
doesn't mean belonging to a select superclass of
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Christians, it means belonging to God, and that's who you are. You
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are those who belong to God.
The idea of being a saint, of
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being a holy one, begins in
the Old Testament, really, because this
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concept of holiness doesn't just appear in
the New Testament. It's important for us
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to think about this in the Old
Testament. The first time we have this
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word used is an exodus, chapter
three, verse five. God says to
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Moses, do not come near,
take your sandals off your feet, for
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the place on which you are standing
is holy ground, holy ground, and
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he said, I am the God
of your father, the God of Abraham,
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the God of Isaac and the God
of Jacob. And Moses hid his
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face for he was afraid to look
at God. The holiness of the ground
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was not something inherent to the ground. Why was the ground holy? Because
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God was there for that moment in
time. That ground belonged to him in
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a special way, in a unique
way, in which it didn't always.
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I mean, of course, is
the ground to all. The ground belongs
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to God, but there was something
significant about that piece of ground at that
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moment, as God was there in
his presence exodus. Fifteen, eleven,
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twelve centers holiness in God himself,
when it says who is like you,
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a Lord among the Gods? Who
is like you, majestic and holiness,
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awesome in your glorious deeds, doing
wonders? And as you read on,
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it's not just that God is the
most powerful, but that he uses this
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power and might in connection with the
covenants that he makes with his people.
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Continuing on, you have in led, in your steadfast love, the people
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whom you have redeemed. You have
guided them by your strength to your holy
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abode. The People Are Holy,
his place is holy always because they belong
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to him. He is separated from
all things and all people, and as
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we belong to him, we share
in that separation. God is called holy
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all throughout the Old Testament. Let
me read some verses to you to impress
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this on your heart. Psalm Sev
One, hundred and twenty two. I
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will sing praise to you with the
Liar, Oh holy one of Israel,
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Isaiah one, for they have forsaken
you, a way, they have despised
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the holy one of Israel, a
back one two, are you not from
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everlasting? Oh Yahweh my God,
my Holy One, we shall not die,
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the holy one of Israel, the
holy one. This is a phrase
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that's repeated over and over and over
and over. The Holiness of God,
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His separateness and righteousness and power and
everything else is emphasized in so many times
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in so many ways, which is
what makes a passage like mark one one
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twenty four so remarkable. When the
demons say to Jesus, what have you
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to do with us, Jesus of
Nazareth, have you come to destroy?
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In it, destroy us? I
know who you are, the holy one
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of God, or John Sixty nine, and we have believed and have come
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to know that you, that is
Jesus, are the holy one of God,
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or acts to twenty seven, quoting
from the psalms for you that,
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as Jesus, will not abandon my
soul to Hades or let your holy one
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see corruption. All this means that
Jesus, as the son of God,
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is identified as the holy one.
He is the self same God who led
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them out of Egypt, who brought
them into the land, who separated them
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from the Canaanites and who called them
to be holy as I am holy.
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If we want to talk about holiness, then you see what I mean.
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We have to start here. We
have to start at a place like leviticus
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that is all about making distinctions between
holy and unholy, clean and unclean God,
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who is separate, in his perfect
goodness, perfect beauty, per it
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power and glory from all other things. Holy, Holy, holy is the
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Lord, God, Almighty. We
have to start there and understanding who it
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is if we want to understand who
we are as holy ones. Why does
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Paul apply this designation that is applied
to God to us? How is it
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that you, just like the Ephesians, can be called saints? A person,
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a place, a thing doesn't simply
become holy. God Is Holy.
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We are not. But when we
come into contact with the loving, saving
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presence of the Lord, something changes, something happens. This contact can be
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described in spiritual terms, as in
our rate generation, when the Holy Spirit
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comes to dwell in US and makes
us a Holy Temple, a holy aboding
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place of God. It can also
be described in terms of proximity, like
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the ground or the temple when they
become holy. Holiness is a blessing of
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God. When all, when people
and things come into his presence. As
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I say, this is a significant
thing because, as sinners, are we
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holy? We're not. We have
baptism because we're dirty. We need to
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be washed, we need to be
cleansed. We speak of dirt and pollution,
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of transgressions and uncleanliness, because this
describes the realities of our hearts,
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the things we do, the things
we say, the things we think.
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Do you remember Isaiah six? When
Isaiah was caught up into the holy places,
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the heavenly place of God, and
the holiness of God was overwhelmingly powerful.
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WHAT DID ISAIAH DO? He sends
his unworthiness. He sends the way
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that is sins separated him from God. He says, I'm a man of
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Unclean Lips, I dwell among an
unclean people. What happens? God sends
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one of his angels to take a
some tongues and a coal from the fire
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to purify him. That's what the
viticus is all about. It's about purification,
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purification, making sure that God's people
are holy, impressing on us the
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need for holiness. So how is
it that we are holy? What's because
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God comes to us in Christ,
to the saints who are in Ephesus,
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who are faithful in Christ Jesus,
grace to you and peace from God,
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our father and the Lord, Jesus
Christ. Our Holiness is grounded in him,
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in his righteousness, in his blood. When Jesus went to the Cross,
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beloved, when he shed his blood, he did it not just as
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a display of love, which it
was, but as a sacrifice for sin,
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so that we could be cleansed,
so that our sin, like the
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sacrifices in the Old Testament, could
be placed on him so that we could
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be washed clean. We are sanctified
through him and through his sacrifice. As
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our mediator, he puts us as
a standing before in a standing before God
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in which we are now holy,
an amazing thing for people who are sinners.
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We don't come to God in our
sins. We come to him clothed
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in the righteousness of Christ, as
those who have been purified by his blood,
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and that holiness is permanent. It's
not something that we earned, it's
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something that he gives to us,
something that can't be taken away. It's
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not a status that we achieve through
good works, it's a it's a status
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that he grants through his works.
That's why they are saints and that's why
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you are saints, holy in the
Lord. So much more can be said
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of us, of this, and
we will say more, but I want
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you to just drink that drink for
the rest of the week. Think about
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what Christ has done. Think about
how the holy one of Israel has come
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into the Lord to save his people, to cleanse them from their sins forever.
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This is no throwaway thing, a
skippable verse that is unimportant and it
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will affect, it should affect,
the way that we read the rest of
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the book. Ephesians is ultimately about
the unity that we have in Christ in
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this inaugurated creation. It's not about
separating this group of Christians from another group
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of Christians, especially so that we
might pray to, or worship or seek
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the mediation of another group. EPHESIANS
is about helping us all, male and
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female, rich and poor, Jew
and gentle adult and child, all to
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have a unity in Christ through the
grace that he lavishes upon us. We
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are holy because he is holy and
he is making us holy by his spirit.
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The saints are not a select of
Super Christians, a few, a
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select few of Super Christians. The
saints, or Suncti in Latin, are
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those who are being sanctified, sanctified, sanctified by the blood of Christ,
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which is sufficient to forgive all of
our sins. As I say, and
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I'll conclude that that with this,
the applications, of course, of this
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doctrine, our many being declared by
God as one who belongs to him,
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in whom he dwells, is a
big deal. In part it means we
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are separated from the world and from
its practices. It means we've been given
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a status which is unique and special
and divine. But I'll just point to
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this. As we hear this letter
this week and in the coming weeks and
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months, Let holiness be high in
your mind. Remember that you belong to
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the father through the son, by
the power of the Holy Spirit who lives
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and dwells in you. Even as
these words come from the most High God,
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hear them as honorable and honored ones, as they come from the glorious,
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Honorable God. Hear them as Christians
who have been sanctified by his blood
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and stand in this honorable way before
him, as his sons and his daughters,
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as those who have been given this
status of holy stand tall and listen,
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praise God, who has redeemed you
and has given you the right to
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enjoy this gift of holiness, this
great separation from darkness, this great separation
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and power and beauty and righteousness.
And as we hear this letter, let's
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commit ourselves to walking in the world
according to that holiness that he is granted
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to us, not in the old
passions of the flesh and the way of
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the devil and as children of Wrath
and all the rest, not according to
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the world in which we belonged,
but according to God who now owns us
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and calls us his own. Let
us learn to walk as he teaches us,
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upholding the good name he has given
us, so that the world might
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see His Holiness in us. will
end there. Tonight, let us pray
