Introduction to Ephesians: Part 3

Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The book of Ephesians overflows with the message of our marvelous inheritance in Christ. Today, Pastor Rich continues a new series from Ephesians titled, In Christ, the Riches of His Grace.

As we dig into this study, we will go behind the scenes to get a glimpse into the world of ancient Ephesus. Knowing the backstory will give us a strong framework through which we can read and interpret Paul's letter. Through Paul's journey, people's lives were changed, not through politics or a cultural shift, but from the transforming power of the gospel, one life at a time. Let's listen as Pastor Rich concludes his message on Ephesians 1, 1 and 2. It was done by the transforming power of the gospel, one life at a time. That's the mission of the church.

This is what we need to get back to. Now, Demetrius recognized this and his bottom line, the bottom line of his business was hurting because people weren't buying these shrines anymore. And he recognized that. So he started in a riot.

He aroused the people. He says, these guys, this Paul is saying that they are not gods which are made with hands. He's saying these shrines that you all are buying from us, that you buy, you put them in your home and you worship them. He's telling you those aren't gods.

Now think about what he's saying there for a minute. We created these. We built them. We sold them to you.

You bought them. And he's telling us they're not gods. Do you see the deception of the human heart there? How prone we are to put our trust in things that we create ourselves, things that we can see and manipulate.

That's the human heart. This is what the gospel of Christ counters. And Demetrius was recognizing that. And so he was afraid that his trade was coming into disrepute, not only his trade, but the temple of Diana itself. Look with me at verses 28 and 29. Now, when they heard this, they were full of wrath and cried out, saying, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. So the whole city was filled with confusion and rushed into the theater with one accord, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, Macedonians, Paul's travel companions.

You can just see the image there. It's a riot going on. It's a mob scene.

You know what's interesting about it? Two of Paul's companions were seized, but Paul was held back by the other believers. Paul wanted to go out there and talk to the people.

He said, No, Paul, you can't go out there. They will tear you to shreds if you go out there. But look what it says here about the mob. It says most of them did not know why they had come together. And all they did was that they chanted for two hours, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. So you have a whole mob of people. Everyone thinks something different as to why they're coming together. And the only thing they can do is just shout down the opposition.

Things haven't changed much, have they? Christians, listen to me. You are not called to that tactic.

Don't do it. That's not how God operates. He doesn't operate by demonstrations and shouting down the opposition. That's not what we're called to. We are called to present the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ one to one, one life at a time, so that lives and hearts are transformed.

And when they are transformed, then the culture becomes transformed. That is the mission of the church. That's what we need to get back to.

I want you to join me on that. There's a reason why we say we are a community of grace with a culture of discipleship. This is how the first church transformed the first century Roman Empire. It can be done again.

It can be done again. But there's something there for you to think about. Now, as they were chanting for two hours, great is Diana of the Ephesians, the town clerk says, the town clerk comes out. Says, clerk, this man is a scribe. We think, you know, town clerk, oh, he's just a low guy. This little peon gets everybody quiet.

How does that happen? He's not just a little peon, okay? This town clerk, he is the executive officer of the town assembly, right? So it'd be like, you know, town manager, city manager, something like that. Kind of like the mayor. He is the highest ranking official of the natives of that land. Now, there was Roman rule there, so you had, you know, the governor and all that kind of stuff, and those were all Roman.

But this is the highest ranking native official in the city of Ephesus. And he quiets the crowd, and he dismisses what he calls a disorderly gathering. And he told them, if there are any charges to be brought, they need to be determined in a lawful assembly. So there are many in our world today that could learn from Acts chapter 19, aren't there? Including some Christians. Here's the reason why they rioted, because Paul had turned away many people. It was the power of it was the power of the gospel. He is not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. So we have now a growing church.

The church is mushroomed for two years. Paul has been teaching, and it says all of that region of Asia had heard about this. So the church is growing, and now Paul needs to write to the church.

And so this takes us now to about five years later. Paul writes to the church at Ephesus. Where does he write from? He writes from prison.

Paul had a tremendous jail ministry as an inmate. He's in prison. It's about five years later after the events of Acts 19.

It's about 8 AD 62. He's in prison, probably in Rome. But while he's in prison, he's allowed visitors. One of his fellow prisoners is Epaphras. Epaphras was a fellow church planter in the region of that region, region of Asia Minor, and Paul calls him a fellow prisoner. And as he encountered Paul in prison, he brought a report of the condition of the churches at Colossae and probably Laodicea and even Ephesus. So what Paul does from prison is he writes letters. He wrote a letter to the church at Ephesus, probably to be circulated among other churches, and talk more about that here in just a second, very quickly now as we come to a close. But he writes through the church at Colossae. That's the New Testament book of Colossians.

And he was addressing very specific issues there, particularly false doctrine, false philosophies that were coming in. But he also wrote to Philemon. Philemon is one of the shortest New Testament books. What was Philemon? He was a wealthy businessman. Why did he write to Philemon?

I'm sending Onesimus back to you. Who was Onesimus? He was a slave. So here he is in prison and he writes letters. He writes to the Colossians, he writes to Philemon, and he writes this Ephesian letter. One of his visitors in prison was Tychicus.

Tychicus was a native of Ephesus. So Tychicus comes, gives him a report, and he's visiting Paul in prison. And then Paul sends him back to that region of Asia Minor, and he sends him as a messenger and as a chaperone.

Who's he chaperoning? Onesimus, the slave who had run away and had stolen from his master Philemon. So Onesimus had come to Christ. He encountered Paul.

Poor thing, he had no chance, right? So he encounters Paul, he comes to Christ. Ah, that's, I know, I know, God, that's all God. He comes to Christ and Paul sends him back with Tychicus because Philemon is in Colossae. Paul writes to the church at Colossae. So here goes Tychicus with Onesimus, and he's carrying three letters. One to the church at Ephesus, one to the church at Colossae, and one to Philemon.

And Tychicus takes these back. Ephesus was probably written for more general circulation, much like Galatians in First Peter and other books in the New Testament. But Ephesus was, again, like it said, that whole region of Asia was hearing the Gospel and learning these things. And so the church was growing, and it wasn't just in, you know, I mean, they didn't have big, huge church buildings. They didn't have megachurches in those days, right? They didn't have megachurches in those days, right?

That people would meet in smaller gatherings. And so in the cities surrounding Ephesus, this church, this letter was written to all of these churches, but primarily to the church at Ephesus because the Ephesian church was probably the flagship church of the region. But it would be read by that church and then distributed around to all the other churches as well.

Two points in closing here. Timothy, Paul sent Timothy to Ephesus after Paul had been there, and he is in prison now. He sent Timothy to the church at Ephesus to establish order to combat false teachers and to establish the doctrine of the apostles. First Timothy, you know, First Timothy in the New Testament. First Timothy was written by Paul to Timothy to encourage him while he was ministering at Ephesus. In Revelation chapter 2, about 30 years later, John receives revelation of the glorified Christ, and the glorified Christ has a letter, a message to be given to the church at Ephesus.

And John writes it down, and he commends the church because they are strong in doctrine, but he has a warning against the church too. What is it? You have left your first love. Wow.

That's something to consider, isn't it? Would you stand with me, please? Father, we are so grateful for the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to transform lives. Father, I pray that you would find us as your disciples, confident in that power and operating in that power, that we would preach the gospel first to ourselves and live the gospel with bold compassion, with our friends, relatives, associates and neighbors. Father, I thank you for the power of your word.

I thank you for the testimony of this historic record of the church at Ephesus that grew under the ministry of the gospel. Father, I pray that you would encourage us today that we would acknowledge Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, that it wouldn't be just something that happened in the past, Father, but that we would recognize that he is our identity. He is our means.

He is our end. And so, Father, I pray that you would guide us in our study through this great book, this letter of the New Testament. Father, prepare our hearts and our minds to understand what it means to be in Christ and to understand the riches of his grace. Thank you, Father, for what you have done and for what you will do. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. To discover how to live by grace, tune in with us on weekdays at 10 a.m.