Do you want to understand the beauty and the power of the church? Read Paul’s letter to the Ephesians! Paul helps us understand God the Father’s eternal purpose to create a new humanity in Christ which by the Spirit will display His glory, grace and wisdom to the watching world and the watching heavenly realms. Heady stuff right?!
The Church
When we think of ‘the church’ I cannot imagine any of us have anywhere near the vision the Apostle Paul had for her. We think of the mistakes, the hypocrisy, the abusive leaders, the factions, the failures and so on and so forth. And Paul wasn’t immune to the messiness of local churches (just read his letter to the Corinthians!). But Paul had a vision, given by God, for what the church was supposed to be about, and could be about, so he writes a letter, to a number of churches, for them to understand their place in God’s great plan. And so this letter is for us too, as Christ City Church, based in Dublin, in 2019…what is our place in God’s eternal purpose? How can we get caught up in God’s story, participate in it and fulfill his plans?
John Stott* puts it like this:
Nobody can emerge from a careful reading of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians with a privatized gospel. For Ephesians is the gospel of the church. It sets forth God’s eternal purpose to create through Jesus Christ a new society, which stands out in bright relief against the somber background of the old world. For God’s new society is characterized by life in place of death, by unity and reconciliation in place of division and alienation, by wholesome standards of righteousness in place of the corruption of wickedness, by love and peace in place of hatred and strife, and by unremitting conflict with evil in place of flabby compromise with it.
And Richard Coekin writes:
“Church” is far more important to God than just a useful vehicle for collecting disciples. Each local church is an earthly expression of the heavenly gathering which is his personal inheritance; the body, building and bride of which his Son is the head, cornerstone and husband; the trophy cabinet of his saving grace; and the demonstration of the triumphant wisdom of the cross to his enemies in the heavenly realms…however ordinary you may feel, every local church that works together to teach the gospel of Christ is proclaiming the victory of this death and resurrection in the spiritual realms. Your church matters enormously to God and so Ephesians is definitely for you!’
The structure of the letter
The letter of Ephesians is nicely organised into two parts: chapters 1-3 and chapters 4-6.
- Chapters 1-3: The gospel story – what God has done in Christ to form a new community
- Chapters 4-6: Our story – how we, this new community in Christ, is to live and play our part in God’s story.
Tim Gombis summarises these two stories well when he says:
The whole world was meant to be God’s temple… After the fall and the tragic corruption of creation, God promises to make all things new and to return with his life-giving presence. These promises are now being fulfilled in the church and will one day be fulfilled creation-wide.
Key to this 2-part structure is to understand that everything we do (our story) is a response and an outworking of what God has already done in Christ and is doing by the Spirit (the gospel story). As John Stott commentates on chapter 4 verse 1:
“Now the Apostle moves on from the new society [which God has created in Christ) to the new standards which are expected of it. So he turns from exposition to exhortation, from what God has done (in the indicative) to what we must be and do (in the imperative), from doctrine to duty…from mind-stretching theology to its down-to-earth, concrete implications in everyday living”
Paul & The Ephesians
Ephesus was a very religious and commercially vibrant city, dominated by the temple of Artemis (Diana). Paul had a dramatic and extensive ministry in Ephesus (see Acts 18:19-21, Acts 19:1-20:1, 31) where he founded the church but also reached the surrounding region of Asia. We read in Acts 19:9-10 that
“Paul…had discussions daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus. This went on for two years, so that all the Jews and Greeks who lived in the province of Asia heard the word of the Lord”
At the time of writing Ephesians, Paul is in prison in Rome around AC 60-61 and he writes a letter back to the church in Ephesus, or more likely a circular letter to a number of churches sin the province of Asia. Paul seems to have a particular eye on gentile Christians to help them understand their place in God’s new community, which up until Christ had been the Jewish people, the family of Abraham.
Do watch The Bible Project’s superb 8-minute video on the book:
Series Structure
This is going to be the longest consecutive series we have ever preached in the church, where we will look at every verse in the letter. We are therefore breaking it down into 4 mini series as follows:
Part 1 – All Things United In Christ
- 3rd Feb – All things united in Christ (Ephesians 1)
- 10th Feb – Alive in Christ (Ephesians 2:1-10)
- 17th Feb – One in Christ (Ephesians 2:11-23)
Part 2 – God’s New Community In Christ
- 24th Feb – A new community in Christ (Ephesians 3)
- 3rd March – The body of Christ (Ephesians 4:1-16)
- 10th March – A new identity in Christ (Ephesians 4:17-24)
- 17th March – A new life in Christ (Ephesians 4:25-32)
- 24th March – A new motivation in Christ (Ephesians 5:1-20)
Part 3 – Everyday living for Christ
- 31st March – The gospel in your marriage (Ephesians 5:21-32)
- 7th April – The gospel in your home (Ephesians 6:1-4)
- 14th April – The gospel in your work (Ephesians 6:5-9)
21st April – Easter Day Service
28th April – The Rich Young Ruler
Part 4 – Battling for Christ
- 5th May – Spiritual Warfare part 1 (Ephesians 6:10-17)
- 12th May – Spiritual Warfare part 2 (Ephesians 6:18-24)
Alongside the preaching series we’ll also use Paul’s two lengthy prayers in our prayer & worship nights in February and March:
- 6th February – Ephesians 1:15-23
- 6th March – Ephesians 3:14-21
Dreaming the dream of Ephesians
I love this quote from John Stott who says:
This vision of a renewed humanity community has stirred me deeply…for the sake of the glory of God and the evangelization of the world, nothing is more important than that the church should be, and should be seen to be, God’s new society. Towards the fulfilment of this Ephesians gives us a strong and steady stimulus…I have been feeling its impact and dreaming its dream.
I pray that as we study Ephesians over this term and into the next we’d feel it’s impact and dream its dream.
All the talks will be during our Sunday Gathering at 4:15pm at Synge Street Secondary School.
I hope you can join us!
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*John Stott, The Message of Ephesians, God’s New Society
*Richard Coekin, Ephesians For You (which City Groups can use to help them in their weekly meetings if they would like)