Today, from Chuck Swindoll. Don't wait until you can understand it to believe it.
Believe it or you'll never grow. Although Bible scholars are uncertain how the apostle actually hand-wrote a letter while detained by authorities, there's no doubt that his epistle to the Ephesians originated while under arrest. Only the Spirit of God could orchestrate such irony, a theological essay birthed in chains. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll provides helpful context to the profound lessons on grace woven throughout Paul's letter. And Paul's detention as a political prisoner gives us all the more reason to trust his portrayal of freedom in Christ.
In case you missed Monday's program, we'll get started with helpful review. Paul is taken under arrest in Jerusalem at the end of the third missionary journey, and they discover that he is a citizen of Rome. He says, I claim my rights as a Roman citizen. I demand an audience before the authorities of Rome and an audience he got.
So they took him across the sea, across the Mediterranean, went through a shipwreck, found his way all the way up. See Rome? That's where we are when we read Acts 28, 30, and 31. We're all the way to Rome. Paul's an older man.
It's now about 60, 80, 60. Look at Acts 28, 30. That's what happened to him. He stayed two full years in his own rented quarters and was welcoming all who came to him, preaching the kingdom of God and teaching concerning the Lord Jesus Christ with all openness unhindered.
Was that great or what? He is under house arrest, which means a Roman soldier is stationed right beside him. Paul can't escape. The soldier can't escape.
He's on duty. And so he'd lead these soldiers to Christ and he writes to the Philippians and he says, well, there's a there's a whole group of people in Caesar's household who have heard because of these soldiers. While he is chained to the Roman soldier, as it were, the apostle sees himself not as a victim of terrible circumstances, but as an ambassador for Christ in chains. Is that wonderful?
Is that a great attitude? The letter to the Ephesians, these six chapters full of great theological terms, would frighten and intimidate you unless you could see the whole letter in one sitting. I call it a life changing letter. It begins with the believers position in Christ. That's three full chapters that turn our attention heavenward.
I think of it as the vertical part of the letter to the Ephesians. I've studied this letter, as some of you have, and every time I think of any part of chapters one, two or three, I think of an arrow pointing toward heaven and that same arrow pointing back to earth. It focuses on God. What God has done for us, chapter one. What Christ has done in us, chapter two. The whole story of the mystery of the body of Christ, chapter three. God's work in and among Jew and Gentile alike, bringing us together into one body, which became Paul's message to Jew and Gentile alike, especially Gentile.
Because the Jews rejected it. But the grand message of the mystery was that God has a family he's putting together, and in grace he is bringing us into this one family in Christ under God to be lived for his glory and ultimately in his eternity. Chapter one emphasizes God's sovereignty. You question that?
Listen to words like this. Verse three, chapter one. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ, just as he chose us.
Look at that. Isn't that wonderful? We've got the arrow coming from heaven to earth. This is not what we do for God. This is what God has done for us. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we would be holy and blameless before him. In love, he predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the kind intention of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved. Is that great writing?
You imagine doing that on your knee with a Roman soldier sitting next to you under house arrest, not knowing what the future held. The Spirit of God ignited the panopaul who could sit and write some of the deepest theological truths found in any of the New Testament. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he lavished on us.
One of my favorite words. Grace which he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight, he made known to us the mystery of his will, according to the praise of his glory. Three times the praise of his glory appears in chapter one. In chapter two revolves around the subject of reconciliation, where God made things right between himself and man by sending Christ.
This is what Christ has done for us because of the cross. I love a couple of sections of chapter two and they are contrasting in nature. Verse one talks about how we were dead.
We're in chapter two now. We were dead in trespasses and sins. Verse four, but God.
Isn't that great? Verse 11, remember that formerly you were Gentiles of the flesh, called uncircumcision. Remember, verse 12, that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel, strangers to the covenant of promise, having no hope and without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus.
Look at that contrast. But God, verse four. But Christ, verse 13. It's a chapter of great contrast as it tells us what Jesus Christ has done in us. And then chapter three puts it all together as we come in Christ into one body with arms around one another in harmony and unity.
That's the first part of Ephesians. You say, why is so much time spent on those subjects nobody can really fully understand? Well, why in the world have they put such a deep foundation on those tall skyscrapers? I mean, why don't they just scrape off the dirt and start building first story? Why don't they just go ahead and build a second story since the first one came out so good and nothing's cracking?
And why don't they go ahead and put a third story? You say, I would never go in a building that didn't have a foundation. Nor could you ever live a life that didn't have a doctrinal footing. It's deep and it's profound, and I will tell you before we get into chapter one, I cannot explain a lot of it to your satisfaction.
So I've learned in my 65, soon to be 66 years on this earth, not to try. I just present it and let you argue with God about it. Don't write me. I'm just a messenger.
I'm just reading his letter. You don't like it? I don't care. You're going to take it and you're going to hear it and you're going to wrestle with it. And some of it you're going to say, I can't get it. Well, welcome to the club. Neither can I.
And since we both can't get it, we might as well fall on our knees and say, Lord, since we can't get it, we trust you to take care of the details that we don't understand. You know how your computer works? Duh, you don't. Do you use it? Yeah, you use it.
I look like a pharmacist when I'm working on my computer. Send. And you get it. And I don't know how. And I don't care.
I just want send to work. And it does with a click. Isn't that amazing? We have such trouble trusting God with something we can't understand. And we do stuff all the time by trust. We trust the airline schedule. We trust that the pilot's not drunk. We trust that they know where they're going to take us. We trust the time we're going to get there. We trust the person that said he's going to meet us to meet us. And it goes on and on and on.
That's chapters one, two and three. Don't wait till you can understand it to believe it. Believe it or you'll never grow. And I'm saying, am I saying it doesn't deserve serious study?
Are you kidding me? Say that I spend my life doing that kind of thing. Studying it carefully and in detail, but often saying, this is beyond me, Lord. I can't explain this fully to people, but I'll teach it and I'll leave it with you to help it make sense. Chapters one, two and three, full of doctrine. I can't wait to get to chapter four because I understand chapter four.
I can handle chapter four. Talks about walking in the light, talks about being filled with the Spirit. Look at verse two of chapter four, humility and gentleness and patience, all the things I'm not. I can teach those kind of things, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit. That's not mysterious. That's not even profound. It's just beyond you to do on your own, which is why the Spirit of God plays such a major role in it.
Look at the chart again. This is a believer's practice on Earth. I love doing stuff like this. I would, but the Cowboys are on and I can't do that because we've got to do, you know, serious enough. We've got to get back to first things first. Look at the first section of chapter four. It's about humility and unity and maturity and honesty and harmony, the walk of the believer. You wonder how to read chapter four. You still don't know. Read it again. Still struggling with the whole issue of humility and maturity. Read it again and read it again and read it again.
It's not that difficult. It's full of commands. Chapters one, two and three in the indicative mode. Chapters four, five and six in the imperative mode.
You see it right out of the chute. Look at verse one, chapter four. I, the prisoner of the Lord.
You know why he said that? Implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling. That's imperative. I tell you, do it.
I love this because it's balanced. If we only had chapter three, we'd have people, you know, folding their arms and whistling Nixie and waiting for God to do everything. God's going to provide for my family because God has called me and he's predestined me and he's put it all together.
He's going to take care of everything. That's the end of chapter three. Just get into chapter four, baby, and you'll see you've got to get a job and you've got to live a life.
You've got some responsibilities. Chapter four talks about how to live the Christian life. Chapter five, I call it on the chart, the life of the imitator. Why would I say imitator?
Because Paul said it. Verse one, chapter five, be imitators of God. As beloved, you say, I can't imitate God.
I know that. So does God. So he commands me to do what I can do.
Sure. He commands you to do it so that you'll trust the Holy Spirit to do it through you. This is not rocket science. But we make it that way because we are so blame capable and we spend our life doing stuff for God as if he's going to be impressed. Chapter five gives you this layout of things that you must do and must not do. And then it addresses, verse 18, don't get drunk with wine for that's dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit. This is how to do it. I don't mean this to be insulting to a soul, but I do this in many audiences or many congregations.
I've said this kind. If I gave you a three by five card and said, put in two sentences how to be filled with the Spirit. Could you do that?
Probably not. That's the tragedy of it. I couldn't do it when I came to Dallas Seminary. And even when I learned how to do it, I didn't always do it. It was a mystery to me to be filled with the Spirit. I thought I had the Spirit.
I do. But I'm commanded to be filled with him. What's that all about? Well, about May, you're going to find out. Until then, you're going to struggle with it.
We'll be there about May. But look at the result. This is terrific.
Look at the results of this. As a result of being filled, you're going to speak to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks and all things in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ to God. And you'll be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. This is all the outcropping of the filling of the Spirit. And then it gets down to wives being subject to their husbands and husbands living the kind of lives that would make a wife want to do that. And you come to the end of it and it's fabulous because it leads to a family that has children who are in obedience to one another.
Is that great or what? Tell me another letter that teaches that kind of thing in that kind of order. Only Ephesians. Colossians is a little like it, but Colossians, I think, steps aside as Ephesians steps in.
The details here, as it's spelled out in Pauline logic, are just fabulous. Not only about children, but look at slaves in verse 5 of chapter 6. Now it gets into the job market. Nowadays we call them employees, but there's a little analogy. Slaves, be obedient to those who are your masters. Employees, pay attention to what your employers expect. The fear and trembling in the sincerity of your heart is to Christ. It talks about how to be a good employee. The second section of this chart shows in the second part the life of the imitator in the world around the home and on the job. Terrific directions.
Terrific instructions. And then all of a sudden it gets dark. It gets dark. Verse 10 of chapter 6 moves into a realm that we all sort of shudder about. The demonic realm.
I hate it. But he tells me to be strong in the Lord in the strength of his might and to put on the full armor of God so that I may be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. Look at that. You mean I can step into the presence of demonic forces and I can stand firm? Absolutely.
How do I do it? You will only read of the armor of God provided for the believer in the letter to the Ephesians. Do you know that?
13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18. Right there. Only place. It's a unique section of scripture. And it even puts the armor on you one piece at a time. It's like your bucket issue. If you went through the Marine Corps and you got into boot camp, they give you the bucket issue.
They hit you in the face with it, I should tell you that, but that's another subject. Anyway, you get your uniform, you get your boots, you get your bucket, you get your toothpaste, you get your toothbrush, you get everything you're going to survive with. And you walk to your Quonset hut with all of this stuff stacked on you and it's like what you're going to be using to get prepared to defend your country. And you learn how to wear the uniform and how to wear boots that don't fit you. And you know how to shoot a rifle that you've never had in your hands before, etc., etc.
It's all part of the equipment. You can't fight if you're not equipped. And Christians, you can't fight if you don't know your equipment and if you don't use it. Especially verse 18, prayer, petition, praying in the Spirit with this in view, being alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.
And pray on my behalf. Then he wraps it up in a great conclusion. He began with grace and peace, now he ends with peace and grace. Ever notice that? Verse 23, peace to the brethren.
24, grace to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ. Man, Chuck, that's a whooping lot of stuff, I know. That's what's so exciting.
That's what's so great. You like to go to a restaurant that has two things on the menu? Hamburger and fries?
No. You like a place that's got a big menu. You can pull this out, you can get, you can order that, you get this.
This is a full menu. Let me give you three thoughts to hang your week on, okay? All related to Ephesians. Ephesians gives us a reminder, it gives us a relief, and it gives us a reassurance. Okay?
Put that down. A reminder, a relief, and a reassurance. The reminder is we are all under the headship of Christ as Lord. We're under the headship of Christ as Lord. And so we're to be submissive. We're to be submissive. We'll learn to be submissive as we study the first several chapters of Ephesians.
And relief. In Ephesians we discover we belong to a body. We are not alone. We are not like lone rangers taking on the demands of life. We're a part of a body. We have brothers and sisters. Under God the Father and Jesus Christ, if you will, our brother.
Given to us as our guide and model. We're relieved to know we're a part of a body and so we're to be committed to this sense of body relationship. To the first truth we're submissive. To the second truth we're committed. And then the third, we've already hinted at this, we have the reassurance we're able to stand firm against the assault of the enemy. We're able to stand firm. We have the reassurance from Ephesians that we can stand firm against the assault of the enemy so we need to be equipped. Submissive, committed and equipped. That's what Ephesians will do for you. It'll teach you submission. It'll support your whole thought of being committed to others in the body and it will give you a reassurance that you're not on your own. You can fight the battle with the right equipment. Great. Unless you don't know Christ. That changes everything. Remember this is to the saints, to people set apart to God through Christ.
If you're not that, you're going to be miserable. What a great day for you to say, today I take Christ. I come to the cross and I come submissive to His plan for me. He died for me. He shed His blood on the cross for my sins. I give myself to Him in full faith and trust. And I leave my future in His hands. Otherwise I will assure you, you will be increasingly more frustrated the deeper we get into this letter. But as a child of His, you will hardly be able to wait from week to week.
May we bow together please. While believers around you are thinking of reading through this letter, I speak to a few of you today who've never met Christ and I say, you need to meet the one who really authored this letter. Christ Jesus. He's the one who had changed Paul's life. And through Paul changed Timothy's life. And through Timothy changed the lives of people he pastored in Ephesus. And from those on whose shoulders we stand, came the one who led us to Christ.
May I be that person in your life today, may I have that privilege of announcing to you that there is a life to live above the plain you've been living and in a power you've never known and with hope you've never had. Sin separates you from your God, you know that. He's holy and you're not.
But He's bridged the gap like these ladies sang for us. He spanned the great divide with the cross. You come to Christ through the cross, you've come to God for all eternity.
Do that now. We love you our Father, we love you with our hearts, we love you with our minds, deep into our souls. We love you for finding us, for reaching down into the ranks of all the stuff and stupidity of our lives and putting your arms around us and calling us to yourself. We'll spend the rest of our days saying thank you, thank you, thank you for Jesus who loved us and gave Himself for us.
Thank you for giving us information, dear, sweet, deep letters of love for us to guide our lives with. Thank you for not throwing us back on this earth to make it on our own, but of all things not only instructing us but empowering us to live it, to do it, to believe it. My heart goes out to all who've never come to your son today and I pray that you would make them miserable, just miserable. Give them sleepless nights, disturbed days, heartbreaking situations until they come in submission to the cross, that they might see the light and be born anew. Lord, best I can, I've done my task and now I ask that your spirit would take it from here and burn it into our hearts from day to day, encourage us with it or convict us with it, whatever the need may be until we're together again around your precious word. I ask it through Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord. And everybody said, Amen.
Did you catch the three outcomes that Chuck Swindoll mentioned a moment ago? An in-depth study in Ephesians will help us become submissive to Christ, committed to the body and equipped for battle. That's what Ephesians will do for you. You're listening to Insight for Living and this concludes Chuck's first message in our comprehensive study in Ephesians.
The series is called Becoming a People of Grace. To learn more about this ministry, be sure to visit us online at insightworld.org. And then to deepen your engagement with the Bible teaching you here on this program, remember you're invited to take advantage of the free study notes posted online. Designed to be interactive, you can write your own personal notes directly into the study notes online or print out the PDF and keep a permanent copy.
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Join us again tomorrow when Chuck Swindoll talks about unloading the theological truck. Right here on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Ephesians, a life-changing letter, was copyrighted in 2000, 2001 and 2009. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2009 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.
