Ephesians Study 4: 1-16 (part 2)

Welcome back.

We’ll continue our study of this important passage in the first section of Ephesians chapter 4. Here Paul, having urged the Ephesian believers to walk in a manner worthy of their calling and to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace explains how Christ has placed ministry gifts within his body, to bring the people into this radical unity, so that they shouldn’t be like children, easily distracted by every novelty tat comes along, but should ‘grow up … into Christ.’

If you missed the first teaching on Ephesians 4: 1-6, then check that out before moving on to this.

Ephesians 4: 1-13

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. 8 Therefore it says,

“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”

9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Let’s continue in Verse 7:

vv.7-10

But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. 8 Therefore it says,

“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”

9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.)

In v.7 all the words are very simple, but their meaning is a bit obscure.

Is he saying that Christ’s gift is ‘measured’? According to what criteria? Or is his point that the ‘measure’ is really infinite?

• Is God’s grace really infinite?

Let’s unpack it a bit.

Here he is talking about each one of us (including himself) as individuals; previously he has been talking about the church as a whole. So, while grace is poured out—'lavished’ (Eph 1: 7, 8)—on the whole world for salvation, here the same grace is being given much more precisely to individuals (compare Romans 12: 3).

Actually, I think Paul is still talking about the church as a whole. In v.8 Christ is ‘giving gifts to men’ and in v.12, 13 these gifts are to ‘build up the body of Christ’ to the ‘measure … of the fulness of Christ’—so, the context is still the whole body.

These gifts are dispensed, as God sees fit, to individuals, as Peter explains in 1 Peter 4: 10:

As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God's varied grace.

So, certain people within Christ’s body, are given particular gifts to ‘build it up’ (v.12) and to ‘equip’ it for service. These are not ‘qualifications’ for leadership, nor are they ‘offices’ in the church. They are gifts given by the grace of God for the service of the body of Christ.

(Though, as we will see, they do confer a certain measure of authority to the recipient.)

• How are we to understand these ‘ministry gifts’ within the body of Christ?

v.8 is a paraphrase of Psalm 68: 18:

You ascended on high,
leading a host of
captives in your train
and receiving gifts
among men…

…the picture is of a conquering king returning home with captives from the city he’s conquered. Everyone showers him with gifts because he’s a hero.

But Christ is different, and the image is flipped upside down. He returns to Jerusalem, ascending the Temple Mount, maybe—think of the Triumphal Entry, which is a similar image—but here he’s the one giving the gifts.

The parenthesis in vv.9 and 10 gives a bit of a commentary on it. Where did he go to conquer? Well, he’s ‘ascending’, so he’s been somewhere ‘low’. The lower regions, which could either mean earth or Hades, and both ideas work (we’ve already mentioned Philippians 2: 5-10). Christ was born in the likeness of men, yet still became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

We could talk about where Jesus went when he died, but it would be a digression too far, at this point.

It is enough to say that he descended to the lower regions, and on his return brought captives in his victory procession—not those whom he has captured, but those released from captivity, and who have been captivated by his love. From there (v.10), he ascended to the highest place, as we have discussed.

The men [i.e. the humans] he gives gifts to are those he has released from bondage and death. They are both the booty he has seized from the enemy and the recipients of that treasure—and that is the ‘measure’ of his grace.

So, what is this treasure that he has seized? These gifts that he brings?

vv.11-13

And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ,

These are ministry gifts, for the purpose of making known, as Paul himself is doing here, the mysteries of God, so that his people will be suitably equipped to serve him in a hostile world.

As we mentioned, they are not ‘offices’ or some kind of hierarchy within the church. It’s a bit like the court of a mediaeval king where Christ is the primus inter pares, the ‘first among equals’ among his nobles. Christ is the head, we are the other parts of his body.

The apostles. The word means ‘sent out’ and was used elsewhere of people like ambassadors. ‘Apostle’ is a Greek word (from stellō = I send); ‘emissary’, or perhaps ‘missionary’ are cognate Latin words (from missio = I send).

Jesus selected twelve men to be ‘apostles’, whom he trained and then ‘sent out’ into the world. Paul came along later, also selected and ‘commissioned’ by Jesus.

Others, selected and commissioned by the church were also recognised as apostles, and these included: Barnabas (Acts 14:4, Acts 14:14); James, the brother of Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:7; Galatians 1:19); Silvanus (‘Silas’ 1 Thessalonians 2:6), and also Andronicus and Junia (who was a woman Romans 16:7).

One of the things we can say about apostles is that, with the exception of the Twelve, whose ministry was a bit different, they were ministers of the church and accountable to it—and this is the context of Paul’s teaching here. When Saul and Barnabas undertake their mission to Asia, sent by the church at Antioch (Acts 13: 1-3), they later report back to it (Acts 14: 27, 28). In other words, as apostles, they keep accountability to the leaders of their ‘sending’ congregation.

Where people are identified with this ministry gift today, it seems essential that this is in the context of the church congregation that first commissions them and then keeps them to account.

The prophets.

In Ephesians 2: 19, 20, we saw that

… the household of God, 20 [is] built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone.

We said that ‘apostles and prophets’ there were the equivalent of Jesus speaking to his Jewish audience of the Law and the Prophets, for example in Matthew 7: 12.

Much of New Testament teaching is rooted in the Old Testament Prophets, and there were also prophetic gifts in the church (that is, New Testament prophets)—and Acts 13: 1 makes it seem as if these were quite prolific.

Now there were in the church at Antioch prophets and teachers, Barnabas, Simeon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen a member of the court of Herod the tetrarch, and Saul.

Evangelists are never given a job-description, but the word seems to be self-explanatory. These are people who take the good news, the evangel, and make it known.

Two people in the NT are specifically called ‘evangelists’: Philip ‘the evangelist’, who led the Ethiopian eunuch to Christ in Acts 8 and is seen preaching in Samaria, and than later in Azotus and Caesarea, where he apparently stayed.

Paul instructs Timothy, among other things, to preach the word and to do the work of an evangelist (2 Timothy 4: 2 and 5).

Timothy, after his early journeys with Paul, appears to have had a settled ministry in Ephesus, whereas Philip, at some point, at least, seems to have been itinerant.

Shepherds (or ‘pastors’) and teachers may refer to the same people (it appears so from the grammar of the passage).

These may have had the most important role in the congregation as the anchors, holding the people of Christ fast to its foundation through patient and unglamorous ministry as they faced the many challenges of their life as Christians in the Roman Empire.

Teaching in the time of Paul (and for a long time afterwards) could not rely on printed texts—or even hand-written ones, since these were rare and extremely costly. So, the word must have been taught mostly by word of mouth, apart from a few much-passed-about letters and gospel books.

Since most of the early Christian converts came from Greek and Roman paganism, they would have known literally nothing about the word of God, except that Jesus Christ had laid hold of their hearts. These teachers had to open out the gospel to them.

They were also shepherds or ‘pastors’—and it would be a good study to follow the imagery of shepherds, sheep and flocks through the Bible.

The picture of the ‘shepherd’ is indelibly written through scripture like Blackpool Rock. The shepherd cared for the sheep and led them into safe places; he was the one who went after the sheep who wandered away.

The shepherd of God’s people carries them on his heart, feeds them with good food, and defends them from all that would hurt their faith.

• I’ve gone some way towards making the case that the church should have a ‘flat’ structure without a ‘hierarchy’. Is this right?

While, at some level, every Christian believer should be a shepherd to his or her brothers and sisters, it is a particular responsibility of the elders within the congregation. Paul wrote to the Ephesian elders:

Acts 20: 28

Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.

v.12

As we mentioned previously, the purpose of these ministry gifts is to: equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ

As I mentioned before, these gifts exist in the context of the whole church, to make sure that it is fit for its purpose and function and to build it up—Paul appears to mix the two metaphors he used previously of the church as Christ’s body and as a holy temple.

The word he uses, and applies to Christ’s body, for build up is oikodomeō, which is specifically to do with building temples or sacred places.

v.13 is one of the most extraordinary verses in this letter:

until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ,

It has been said—a quotation attributed to lots of people:

Jesus did not come into the world to make bad men good. He came into the world to make dead men live!

This is the point. The purpose of the message of Christ is not to make us more effective or satisfied in our lives. Jesus did not come to improve us.

He came to transform us. To raise us to new life.

What Paul is pointing us to here is the image of God that we see in Genesis 1 before the Fall, where the man and the woman were in unmediated fellowship with God and—with him—in dominion over the created world.

This is our destination.

I have, says David in Psalm 16: 6 a beautiful inheritance!

The measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.

• What does the ‘fulness of Christ’ look like for us?

But notice that this amazing fulness in Christ is predicated on unity. We will remain in spiritual infancy unless we understand and embrace the essential unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

This is uncompromised teaching; it does not hold back.

In the words of Freda Hanbury Allen:

Within the Veil, for only as thou gazest
Upon the matchless beauty of His face,
Canst thou become a living revelation
Of His great heart of love, His untold grace.

Our aim, the quest of our lives, can only be to seek Jesus out; to meditate on him and to gaze on him, so that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith and that we may grow up to maturity in him.

This gives us a sense of perspective as we Walk with Christ. A sense of the journey. It stabilises us.

vv.14-16

so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

And this is it—Paul summarises the teaching.

Wherever we are, in age or maturity, or disposition, we should approach the things of God with seriousness … otherwise we will allow ourselves to become side-tracked by novelty, a good worship band or some fad in teaching. We will remain children in some ongoing adolescent state, led by our hormones.

And Satan is quite happy for that to happen, for us to fall out over doctrinal or political arguments, or over church governance, or whatever.

Some of these things are very important, for sure, but they are never the main thing.

We speak the truth to each other in love, not in some passive-aggressive way (“a word in love, brother”), but to hold ourselves accountable, in honour preferring one another (Rom 12: 10). If I have a problem with gambling, and she has a problem with drinking, and you have trouble controlling your temper, then let this be the basis of our unity. We are sinners, saved by grace—this is his gift. The only qualification for being in Christ if having come to him broken.

We are his body. The body of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was broken because we are broken, and he gives us his life and fulness, whether we are Evangelicals or Charismatics, whatever our doctrinal or church stance. There is level ground at the foot of the cross.

Conclusion

What God is doing through Christ and in the church in chh1-3, in exalting him over the world and the Spiritual Powers, and devolving this authority through the church, is precisely this: that, in our ordinary lives, in our relationships, families and work; right where we are, we are being transformed into the fulness of Christ.

Through the spiritual gifts that he has secured for us and imparted by his grace, we are growing up into him, into maturity—into Christ.

This is a demonstration, a testimony to the world that Jesus is Lord, and he has done, and is doing, extraordinary things.

We will not be shaken; we will not be moved or distracted, but we will be built up—edified—in love.

Ephesians Study 4: 1-16 (part 1)

Recap

Before we launch into Chapter 4, let’s remind ourselves of the key thought that Paul gave us at the beginning (Ephesians 1: 9, 10), of God’s plan for the fulness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

The first half of this chapter, verses 1-16, connects Paul’s teaching about the mighty work of God in Christ, in raising him to the highest, most powerful, place and seating his people there beside him in the heavenly places, with the practical outworking of these things in the second half of his letter.

It is a key passage, full of important teaching about the essential unity of Christ’s body—which is also his holy temple—and how he will bring our damaged and broken lives into conformity with Christ.

He wants to challenge the roots and motivations behind our attitudes and actions—and these things are the product of who we think we are. They flow out of our identity. If we claim that our identity is in Christ, then Christ must be the very core of who we are.

This is where we begin.

Ephesians 4: 1-16

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. 8 Therefore it says,

“When he ascended on high he led a host of captives,
and he gave gifts to men.”

9 (In saying, “He ascended,” what does it mean but that he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth? 10 He who descended is the one who also ascended far above all the heavens, that he might fill all things.) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.


vv.1-3

I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.


Paul urges these followers of Jesus to Walk in a manner worthy of Christ’s name. You call yourself a Christian? Be Christ-like. ‘What would Jesus do?’ is not a silly question.

• What does Paul mean by, ‘walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called’?

They are Christ’s body, his holy temple. This calls for a holy attitude. which he spells out for them: Paul told the Philippians, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus (Phil 2: 5 NKJV), and here he says something similar

v.2

…with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love…

None of these attributes would have been admired in ancient Rome, where they would have been regarded as weaknesses … but in God’s upside-down kingdom, weakness is strength (2 Cor 12: 10).

Humility. Gentleness. Patience. Love.

Each of these qualities comes from laying down the self. Not in some Buddhist sense of ‘obliterating’ it, but in conscious self-denial and the choice to elevate Christ and give way to others.

• Compare this with Matthew 16: 24, Romans 8: 13 and Romans 12: 10.

Another Christ-like attribute is this [eagerness] to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (v.4). God is uniting all things in Christ, so they must desire unity.

vv.3-6

eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call— 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all

• How does this unity work in practice?

In a nutshell, Paul says this: God is one—so be one.

They are to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace (v.3).

We often read this verse without the context of the previous three chapters, where Paul has been showing how all things are united in Christ (Eph 1: 10, 11, 22)—specifically, how the Jewish and Gentile believers are united into ‘one man’ (Eph 2: 15) as the wall separating them is torn down. And we have seen how that can extend to the great diversity of people that make up ‘the Gentiles’ (Romans 12: 5; Galatians 3: 28; Colossians 3: 15).

Here are two far-reaching truths.

1. In spite of strong evidence to the contrary, the people of Christ are not, and cannot be, divided, because Christ is not divided.
   
   
2. Furthermore, as we hinted a few weeks ago, all things are, or shall be, united in Christ.

This is one of the most crucial teachings in Christian doctrine, and, historically, the church has been rubbish at it.

• Can the people of God really be in unity?

Paul breaks it down for us.

There is:

• One body. The Body of Christ. Christ has only ever had one body.
  
  Here’s the thing: the full power of God’s incarnation—his becoming flesh in Jesus—is that his body was broken. He allowed his body to be abused and slaughtered like a sacrificial lamb.
  
  When Paul taught the Corinthians on this he pointed to many people eating, sharing in, ‘one bread’ (1 Cor 10: 17), but necessarily, the bread is divided, it is broken up so they can all participate (1 Cor 11: 23, 24).
  
  Christ has one body but, essentially, it is broken. The KJV of 1 Cor 11: 24 says:
  
  this is My body which is broken for you… 
  
  We look and see Christ’s body on earth broken, sown in weakness and dishonour—but it shall be raised in glory and strength! (1 Cor 15: 43).
  
  The truth of Christ’s body is that it is one. This is what we declare. 

There is:

• One Spirit, who is the immanent presence of God. His breath.
  
  John 14: 16, 17
  
  I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, 17 even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you. 
  
  The Body of Christ is indwelt by the Spirit of God. In the same way that there can only be one body, there is one Spirit. The Holy Spirit promised by Jesus. The Spirit of Truth is the same Spirit who moved on the face of the waters in creation. 

There is:

• One hope, which is in resurrection. Christ overcomes death—he abolished it (2 Timothy 1: 10).
  
  As Christ is raised from the dead, so are we (1 Peter 1: 3 and 4), as Paul has already explained. Christ is raised and seated at the right hand of God (Eph 1: 20); we are brought to life, raised with Christ and seated there with him (Eph 2: 5, 6). This is the common hope of all Christ-believers. We may have different emphases and expressions—we may look and sound different, and we might believe all sorts of other strange things—but the thing that defines us is the testimony of the resurrection and the hope of eternal life.
  
  We may not be very sure what eternal life is, but we are positive that it is. In the words of the Apostles’ Creed:
  
  I believe in…
  the resurrection of the body,
  and the life everlasting.
  
  That is the single unifying hope of the church. 

There is:

• One Lord.
  
  The defining statement of Israel was the Shema in Deuteronomy 6: 4:
  
  Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 
  
  This separated them from the surrounding pagan nations. There is only one God, not a pantheon; also, all the attributes of any possible pantheon are subject to the one God—the Lord (see Psalm 82: 1 and Job 1: 6).
  
  The Lord, whose name is YHWH—I am that I am (Exodus 3: 14).
  
  In Acts 2: 36, Jesus Christ is identified with the Lord.
  
  Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ.
  
  In Revelation 1: 17, 18, John sees a vision of Christ, who declares:
  
  Fear not, I am the first and the last, 18 and the living one. I died, and behold I am alive for evermore
  
  This ‘I am the first and the last’ statement, along with other similar statements in revelation (Alpha and Omega, Beginning and End), are word-plays on I am that I am, clearly identifying the Lord Jesus Christ with Yahweh and with God the Father. They are statements of being independent of the passage of time and superior to it.
  
  Jesus is Lord!
  
  Paul makes this more explicit.
  
  Philippians 2: 9-11
  
  God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
  
  And, as we read recently in Ephesians 1: 20-22
  
  He [God] raised him [Christ] from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And he put all things under his feet…
  
  Jesus is Lord, and through his resurrection and ascension, he inherits the position of universal supremacy.
  
  Jesus is the Lord of Heaven and all its powers.
  
  He is also the Lord of earth, because every knee must bow before him. The kings of Babylon and Persia, the two greatest Old Testament tyrants, are both referred to as God’s servants. All authority derives from him, including Caesar’s and every tin-pot Caesar-figure who happens to come along.
  
  Jesus is Lord of the earth and all its powers.
  
  And the Lordship of Christ binds us together in worship and service. 

There is:

• One faith.
  
  This is easy to misunderstand. Nowadays we tend to use ‘faith’ as synonymous with ‘religion’. A faith. We speak of ‘faiths’.
  
  We might think that Paul is saying that there is a particular codified way to approach God, an ‘orthodox’ set of beliefs and practices that God respects, like the Law of Moses.
  
  But this is almost exactly what Jesus came to dispense with, in the sense of a rule-based, authoritative priestly system.
  
  We come to the Father through Jesus Christ … and we come to him by faith.
  
  What does Paul mean by faith, here?
  
  John 3: 16
  
  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
  
  Acts 3: 16 (NKJV)
  
  And His name, through faith in His name, has made this man strong, whom you see and know. Yes, the faith which comes through Him has given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.
  
  ‘Faith’, in this sense, nearly always means the complete commitment of a person to Jesus Christ. It isn’t an intellectual or an emotional state. It is a decisive action.
  
  By ‘one faith’, Paul means that all believers in Christ are bound together because they have made a common act of submission to the love of Jesus Christ. They may describe this in different ways depending on their cultural background, their doctrinal structure or their personal experience. But, however they describe it, that submission is common to all of them.
  
  We can only come to the Father by the Son after John 14: 6; we can only come to the Son by faith. 

There is:

• One baptism.
  
  Again, it’s easy to misunderstand because we are invested in our particular understanding of ‘baptism’, which is tied to our church background and our denominational stance, etc.
  
  I remember when people in the prisons wanted to get baptised by immersion. Believer’s baptism. If they were coming from an Anglican or Roman Catholic background it was always complicated. Catholics, in particular, would believe that if a person who is baptised as a Catholic undergoes believer’s baptism in later life, that they are effectively recanting their Catholicism. That’s a big issue—we are talking excommunication, no less. Also, chaplains from the various faith-groups were employed in proportion to the number of adherents they had in the prison. So, people ‘converting’ from one ‘faith’ to another was a political matter too.
  
  Where church institutions are concerned, it is always complicated.
  
  Besides, which baptism, anyway? Are we talking babies or adults; dipping, immersing, pouring or sprinkling; is it still water or flowing; is it once or three times? And is it the ‘Name of Jesus Christ’ or the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit?’
  
  (I strongly suspect that none of these things matter all that much.)
  
  Some people at Corinth were even getting baptised on behalf of dead people.
  
  What does Paul mean by One Baptism, then, because even in his own time, there was more than one possible way of doing it?
  
  I don’t think Paul is talking about the actual practice of ‘baptism’.
  
  If someone in First Century Ephesus were to be baptised as a follower of Christ, this would be a bold public declaration that Jesus is their Lord.
  
  

o To their family.

o To their community—especially their religious community if they were Jews or members of a pagan cult.

o To the Roman authorities.

A baptismal rite doesn’t save you; it only makes you more or less wet, but:

Romans 10: 9 

if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 

That single verse points to one hope, one Lord and one faith, and indicates one baptism…

… which is why we always baptise people following their confession of faith. One baptism means the confession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. 

There is:

• One God
  
  Paul clearly identifies ‘God’ as the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, in case there should be any doubt, who is also the father of all, from whom every family in heaven and earth derives its name. That God. Just to be clear.
  
  Previously, in Ephesians, God is:
  
  1: 2: God our Father.
  
  1: 3: the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
  
  1: 17: the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory
  
  2: 18: through him [Christ Jesus] we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.
  
  3: 14-17: I bow my knees before the Father [so that …] he may grant you to be strengthened through his Spirit, … so that Christ may dwell in your hearts.
  
  4: 6 (this verse): one God and Father of all.
  
  5: 20 and 6: 23: God the Father.
  
  In v.6, Paul is quite specific. God is the Father of all; he is the source of all life. Every living thing in heaven and earth gets its life from God the Father. Before he’s King or Judge, or even worshipped as ‘God’, he is Father.
  
  Psalm 36: 9
  For with you is the fountain of life.
  
  He is the giver of life.
  
  God is above all. Specifically, Jesus Christ is above all, as we saw in Eph 1: 20 and 21, when
  
  He [God] worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.
  
  And in Phil 2: 11, Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
  
  As we’ve seen, there is one Lord.
  
  God is through all. God didn’t create the world and set it going like some machine. We are not controlled by an algorithm. God is all through his world, guiding, sustaining, loving. We see this, for example in Psalm 2.
  
  God is not absent.
  
  God is in all. As he is the Father of all, the source of all life, if follows that his life is manifested in what he has made, albeit in a manner distorted by sin. 

God is one in essence.

Paul implores the believers—and us—God is one, so be one. Be united. Be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Where we fail to do this—and we often fail to do it, we compromise our testimony, because our testimony is to one body and one Spirit; one hope; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all.

Or maybe it isn’t.

• Is this our testimony?

The single biggest thing that stops unbelievers coming to Christ is the sad fact that his followers are—or appear to be—divided. It is one of the Devil’s greatest weapons and one of our biggest stumbling blocks.

Where we are, or appear to be, divided, we lose credibility in out testimony.

Ephesians Study 3: 14-21

Recap

The first half of Paul’s epistle to the Ephesians serves as a theological overview of the gospel, how God raised Christ from the dead and exalted him to the highest place, where he holds the supreme authority over creation and over every created being—especially the spiritual forces that control the world.

Through his grace, God has done the same for Christian believers. While, at one time, they were ‘dead’ in their sins and in their alienation from God, yet he has brought them to life, raised them up with Christ and seated them with him in the heavenly realm. Where he reigns, they reign also.

This is described as a mystery that has been concealed from the beginning of creation, that Paul is unveiling in his teaching.

The Ephesian believers, and their contemporaries in the other congregations Paul addressed in his letters may not have looked impressive—and we know from Revelation that in some respects their witness was compromised—yet we, 19 centuries later, are part of their legacy.

And of every subsequent generation of believers who have received these words.

So, what’s in this for us?

We are them. We stand in the same place in Christ before God. What is true of them theologically is true of us too. Our context is different, and our experience and expectations of life are different, but these words are for us.

Paul has used two images to describe the congregation of Christ-followers.

He calls them Christ’s body (1:23) and a holy temple (2:21), both images that he uses elsewhere in his letters. Both of these ideas need a lot of unpacking, but in short:

• As the body of Christ in their world, the Ephesian believers carried the full personhood and authority of Christ. When the Roman authorities thought they were conquering them by persecuting them, in fact the opposite was true. They triumphed. Their testimony lived on—and we are the evidence of this.

• The temple is the place where God’s holy presence lived; where heaven touched earth, so to speak. Paul refers to these people as hagioi, ‘saints’. They are holy; separate and undefiled by the world, like the priests in the Tabernacle. But unlike the old priests, they do not make sacrifices on behalf of the people, they bear witness to the Final Sacrifice that has been made by Christ for them; they intercede on their behalf and draw others into discipleship to Christ.

And this also is us. We are Christ body and his holy temple, as we seek to serve him in the Dove Valley, in Stoke or Derby, or wherever we find ourselves.

Ephesians 3: 14-21

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God.

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

v.14

For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father…

We have just recapped Paul’s great picture of the Church. This world is in chaos; there is division everywhere (as we saw in our discussion of chapter 1):

• division between the nations, ethnicities, ideologies and religions.

• Division between people, and

• Division within ourselves.

God is bringing all these into one in Jesus Christ (1: 10). As we’ve just said, this can only be achieved through the witness of God’s people, demonstrating the love of Christ.

This is what Paul prays for, falling on his knees before the Father. The fact that he’s ‘falling on his knees’ indicates the earnestness of his prayer. Culturally, in those days both Jews and non-Jews would normally have prayed standing up.

v.15

from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named,

The Greek literally says:

I bow my knee before the Father (ton patera), from whom every family (pasa patria = ‘every paternal line’) in heaven and on earth is named.

It’s a word-play on patera and patria.

We saw last time the idea of God’s wisdom as polypoikilos (multi-coloured, richly diverse), and his people as a multi-ethnic movement. In Chapter 2, Paul talked about the dividing wall being removed and the two people, the Jews and the gentiles becoming one … and that all people are united in Christ.

Here Paul prays to God as the Father of not just the Jews but of every family (patria) both on earth and in heaven. Not only has Jesus been given the highest place ‘above every name that is named’ by merit of his total victory on the cross and his resurrection, but God is also the Father from whom they all derive their identity.

This also loops back to God’s original promise to Abram in

Genesis 12: 3

in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

v.16

… that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being…

Again—we’ve seen this before—when Paul is praying for the people, they know they’ve been prayed for!

The prayer in Chapter 1 looks as much like a lesson in prayer as it does an actual prayer. ‘Pray for each other like this…’

This prayer seems more personal. Paul is praying to the Father—not ‘God the Father’ in some heavenly office, but God who is actually the source of everyone’s life—that they would ‘get’ this, all the powerful and amazing stuff he’s told them so far, and be filled to their very core with his glorious strength.

• Specifically, what is Paul praying to the Father for?

That, according to the riches of his glory, God would strengthen them with power through his Spirit in their inner being.

Once again, Paul uses big words. Strong phrases.

Riches, glory. Strengthen, power. Inner being (or inner humanity).

The Ephesian Christians will need this as they face persecution. If the testimony of Christ is to continue into following generations, they will need some resilience.

But even without persecution, in their mundane and humdrum world, they will need the power of the Holy Spirit if they are to stand out as distinctive and shine as lights in the world (Phil 2: 15).

• How will the Holy Spirit help strengthen their inner being?

They are the body of Christ and his holy temple, in spite of appearances.



vv.17-19

17 …so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fulness of God.

Paul prays to the Father that they would be inwardly empowered and strengthened:

that Christ may dwell in their hearts by faith…

If they are believers, if the Holy Spirit lives in them, then Christ is in them. So, what is Paul asking?

That they would believe. That their faith would define them in the world. That it would not fail and that they would not become weary—because Christ (through the Holy Spirit) is in their hearts.

In Colossians 1: 27, Paul recasts this mystery he has been describing in Ephesians as ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory.’

Everyone has a ‘hope of glory’ of some sort. We want better things for ourselves or our children. It might take many forms, maybe that one day, things will turn out better than this, or that, we will achieve our goals. Or maybe just that we’ll go to heaven when we die.

But scripture makes it plain that these hopes are not well founded unless they are built on Christ and his promise of eternal life. He is our hope of glory—and there isn’t another.

This is why the gospel is good news to the poor. It empowers, not only in the life to come but in this life too.

• How does having a better understanding of God’s love bring us fulfilment?

So, when Paul prays that Christ will dwell in their hearts by faith, he is declaring a similar thing. He prays that their lives would declare the reality of Christ’s presence, not as a passive thing, but actively and tangibly.

Then he elaborates:

They are to be rooted and grounded in love. Anchored in love—in the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge—and that they might begin to understand its height, depth, length and breadth, the magnitude and enormity of it.

And that as the whole fulness of deity dwells bodily in Christ (Colossians 2: 9), it will also dwell in them.

What does this mean?

The Jews in the Old Testament had God dwelling with them in the Temple. He was separated from the people by walls of holiness. Rite and ritual.

But they profaned it. Right from the outset, the sons of Aaron died because they disrespected God’s presence. Having the temple didn’t make them holy, in fact, in the years before the Babylonian exile they went out of their way to desecrate it.

It seems that, as humans, we are apt to disregard the presence of God, remarkable as that sounds. Think of how the religious people misunderstood and mistreated Jesus. And when he raised Lazarus from the dead, they wanted to kill both him and Lazarus.

We are the body of Christ; his holy temple.

We are.

• Practically, what does it mean to be ‘the body of Christ’ and his ‘holy temple’?

In that case, we might expect something extraordinary to happen. We feel we ought to be transported by visions of glory and angels, or something. (Sometimes these things happen, but it isn’t the norm.)

The norm is that ordinary working people, leather workers, traders in cloth, carpenters, scribes, physicians, soldiers, accountants, sailors, slaves—and a Jailer in Philippi—would be the holiness of God in the world, so that God would be encountered by … the ordinary people.

Good news to the poor.

Isaiah 40: 29
He gives power to the faint,
and to him who has no might he increases strength.

God has invested his glory in places where the world wouldn’t think to look.

God’s promise to his people through Ezekiel:

Ezekiel 36: 25-27

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. 26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules.

Glory in the Church

vv.20,21

Paul finishes his prayer with a doxology—a short hymn of praise.

20 Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Paul’s vision is that all divided things are united in Christ, and the means of this reconciliation is Christ at work in the congregation of the church.

He is glorified right here.

We read these mighty words—and they are mighty words—and we think that we need to be extraordinary, somehow. We forget that Paul is writing them from a prison cell, from which he will later be taken and executed. We think that, if we only had enough faith, that the Holy Spirit would turn us into the X-Men with superpowers.

We could transform the world!

But you don’t reach the Philippian Jailer by being Superman. You reach him by being locked up and singing anyway.

We like the idea of superheroes who can defeat evil. Sometimes ‘saints’ have been portrayed in that way.

• Why doesn’t God give us superpowers?

I’ll say this again.

These believers in Ephesus were not special. In fact, we know that their witness became compromised over the next couple of decades. We know that they faced persecution. Many of them will have suffered, and some will have died.

The evil powers will have rejoiced in their victory.

Yet 1900 years later, we don’t remember much of who their persecutors were. They are lost to time and history. But these words are in every home. The testimony of these mighty men and women of God lives on. We would not be here except for them.

• What will our legacy be?

Next time we’ll begin Chapter 4 and start to see some of the practical application that Paul gives to this theological groundwork.



Let’s pray Paul’s words.

Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, 21 to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Elder’s Report 2020

Greetings to everyone in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

During 2019 we started opening the church building up to other users, notably the Uttoxeter Brass Band, who have been enthusiastic and supportive guests, and this has continued in 2020 with Moo Music, led by Hannah Doyle; Little Hands, led by Joan Kennedy and the U3A Ukulele Group.

It was good, in the first few months of the year, to welcome these groups into our community at the Dove.  This was all severely curtailed by the ongoing situation with the Coronavirus.  We hope that things will return to a kind or normality again before too long.

The first lockdown came just before Easter and took us into uncharted territory.  We had to close the church building, so the priorities became to keep a sense of the church community together and to maintain the rhythm of regular worship.

Like many other small churches, we found ourselves catapulted into the world of YouTube, Zoom and social media.  It was a steep learning-curve, especially at first, and, nine months on, we’re still trying to do it better.  I’m sure that this technology is something we will want to maintain and develop into the future.

We pondered the possibility of ‘live-streaming’ services on Facebook—but since most of our worshipping community don’t use social media, it was a non-starter.  Also, our interactive and rather intimate style of meeting doesn’t lend itself to a live stream, so some editing will always be required.  There will therefore always be a gap between the service taking place and it appearing on line.

I’m still very conscious that we haven’t seen a number of brothers and sisters for a long time.  How good it will be to meet up and share food again!

I want to say thanks especially to Colin, to Nigel and Sharon and to Julie for their continuing support and encouragement, and also to Paul and Lucy, to Elsa and to Rob for their contributions to morning worship and ministry (am I forgetting anyone—I hope not!).  We’ve also had Sunday morning messages from Peter Brassington, Simon Walsh, Sam Dailly, and from Wayne Gough and John Davey.

So, in some ways, the end of 2020 finds us in pretty good shape.  We are hungry to worship God and to serve him more effectively in this community.  I think that the crisis of 2020 has, if anything, galvanised us.  We have been challenged to find new expressions of worship, and we have sought him afresh.  It has also shaken off some of our old and established ways of thinking.  We have been changed.

But there is much work to do.

The Lord has graciously reiterated the ‘founding’ vision of this church, to take the Good News of Jesus to the Dove Valley.  He did this through Peter in January, and then again through Lucy in August.  We must act on this word.

However, one of the things that this year has forced upon us is the idea that any plans we come up with have to be flexible.  We hold them lightly.

O Lord, I know the way of man is not in himself;
It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.

Jeremiah 10: 23

But we must have a plan.  We should be deliberate in our discipleship.  I expect that whatever this plan turns out to be in the coming year, it will include:

·        Active links with other local churches—especially those also serving the Dove Valley—including

·        Collaboration in evangelistic and discipleship activities, and

·        A much more pro-active social media presence (championed by someone other than me!)

When the lockdown knocked us sideways, we were in the process of ratifying a re-worked Statement of Faith, with a view to rewriting the Church Constitution.  We didn’t quite finish that conversation, but I think most people were happy with the new wording. 

The Constitution itself, however, is a matter of some urgency since we are presently in an unconstitutional position.  This will be quite a big job, and one that will require some deliberation. 

Launching into 2021, then, we can know with certainty that God is with us and that he is directing us.  We have a purpose—a mission.

I look forward to living this out with you and with all whom the Lord sends to us.

I wish you a happy new year and every blessing in Christ Jesus,

 

Stephen Dailly

Romans Chapter 5

 

Welcome back to our overview of Romans. So, far in the first 2 chapters, after his initial greeting, Paul spells out why everyone, without exception is falling under God’s wrath—his righteous anger against sin. Then in Chapter 3 he explains the faithfulness of God, that he doesn’t write people off, and that in Jesus Christ, be made a way for people to be cleansed of their sin. Key verses in Rom 3 are 23 and 24:

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.

Paul introduces the idea of God’s grace, is free, undeserved favour.

In Chapter 4 he talks about Abraham being made right—justified—with God by his faith, and that that is the same for everyone. Living well before God is only ever achieved by faith.

In Chapter 5, Paul clearly spells out how God’s grace and our faith work to bring salvation.



We said at the beginning of this study that the key verse in the whole of Paul’s letter to the Romans is Romans 1: 16

For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile.

Having talked at length about God’s righteous anger against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness (1: 18), and the importance of Faith as opposed to Law. He now gets to the central message of the letter.

So far, Paul has talked about how we respond to God. Now he speaks of what God has done. The key verse in Chapter 5 is verse 2:

Romans 5: 2

Because of our faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.

Verses 1, 2 (NKJV)

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

The New King James uses four key teaching words in verses 1 and 2:

• justified,

• faith,

• grace, and

• hope.

While the NLT puts it in simpler English.

• Put these verses into your own words, as if you were explaining it to a non-Christian friend.

You might have something like this:

"Because our sinfulness cut us off, God has reunited us with himself by believing in Jesus Christ. So, now we live in the generous kindness of God, and are filled with hope for the future."

Verses 3-5

We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

Paul gives an immediate practical application. We can rejoice when we run into problems and trials… (v.3). The truth of verses 1 and 2 gives us a framework for facing life’s difficulties.

Let’s think about this for a moment.

Mostly, we want an easy life—but, as we’ve already seen, Paul isn’t about this. He wants us to live holy lives that are effective in serving God. That is our goal.

So, in that case, when we face difficulties, which we always do, these provide an opportunity to test our faith and to prove God’s faithfulness. So:

- Problems and trials, he says, help us develop endurance
- endurance develops strength of character, and
- character strengthens our hope of salvation

That’s our part, becoming stronger through the hardship, but also:

- hope will not disappoint us, because it reminds us, once again, of how much God loves us because we have his Holy Spirit, empowering us.

So:

• Why should we ‘rejoice’ when we have problems?

• Do you do this?

Verses 6-11

When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners. 7 Now, most people would not be willing to die for an upright person, though someone might perhaps be willing to die for a person who is especially good. 8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 9 And since we have been made right in God’s sight by the blood of Christ, he will certainly save us from God’s condemnation. 10 For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son. 11 So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.

More good stuff. These are among the most important verses in the Christian faith!

God came to where we were and saved us.

We were utterly helpless (v.6)… We were lost in our sin and separated from God, and in the middle of our mess, when we least deserved it, Jesus came and saved us (we are reminded of this continually in our ‘hardships’) … but now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God (v.11).

Some things to think about here:

- When we were utterly helpless, Christ came…

- He will certainly save us from condemnation. He has already paid the highest possible price—so nothing and no-one is unreachable to God.

- We are made right with God through Jesus’ blood.

- So… rejoice!

Some things to discuss:

• How do we know that this is true?

• So, who can be saved?

Verses 12-17

When Adam sinned, sin entered the world. Adam’s sin brought death, so death spread to everyone, for everyone sinned. 13 Yes, people sinned even before the law was given. But it was not counted as sin because there was not yet any law to break. 14 Still, everyone died—from the time of Adam to the time of Moses—even those who did not disobey an explicit commandment of God, as Adam did. Now Adam is a symbol, a representation of Christ, who was yet to come. 15 But there is a great difference between Adam’s sin and God’s gracious gift. For the sin of this one man, Adam, brought death to many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of forgiveness to many through this other man, Jesus Christ. 16 And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins. 17 For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and his gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.

As we’ve said, Adam sinned by choosing the knowledge of good and evil instead of life in the presence of God. It turns out that what he was actually choosing was a system of ‘law’, and to be constantly judging and testing (“I know I’ll never be good enough”).

(vv.13, 14) Before the law was actually written down by Moses, it was hard to tell what was ‘sin’ and what it wasn’t; people mostly got away with things until they died. And everyone—all the ‘sons of Adam—die, condemned for sins they don’t really understand.

In this way, everyone falls under condemnation and death because they all fall short. This is a terrible situation, but Jesus reverses it.

Adam’s sin led to condemnation, but God’s free gift leads to our being made right with God, even though we are guilty of many sins (v.16).

But (vv.15-17) Jesus Christ is greater than Adam. Adam brought death, condemnation and separation from God, but Jesus brings God’s free gift of forgiveness and righteousness, and all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one man, Jesus Christ.

Adam was a kind of prototype of Christ. In effect, Jesus’ cross is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It represents:

• Jewish Law (which is also the knowledge of good and evil);

• Roman (or non-Jewish) law – and the natural sense of right and wrong that we all have, and

• The way both these systems became corrupted.

In dying there, without sin, Jesus breaks the power of the Law to condemn us and gives us access to the righteousness of God.

• Think about that for a moment.

Verses 18, 19

The next short section clarifies this: Adam’s sin brought condemnation; Jesus’ obedience brings salvation.

Yes, Adam’s one sin brings condemnation for everyone, but Christ’s one act of righteousness brings a right relationship with God and new life for everyone. 19 Because one person disobeyed God, many became sinners. But because one other person obeyed God, many will be made righteous.

That doesn’t need any explanation; Paul is summarising what he’s already said.

Verses 20, 21

God’s law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were. But as people sinned more and more, God’s wonderful grace became more abundant. 21 So just as sin ruled over all people and brought them to death, now God’s wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

In verse 20 Paul seems to say something a bit controversial. As people’s sin increased, God’s grace also increased.

• How is this true?

• What have you found helpful or significant in the study of Romans so far?

Romans Chapter 4

 

At the end of Chapter 3, Paul was saying that by believing in Jesus Christ, we are saved from God’s righteous anger against sinfulness. He picks this discussion up again very powerfully in Chapter 5. In the meantime, he wants us to learn a lesson from Abraham.

The Jews knew very well who Abraham was. They regarded him as the ‘father of the Jewish nation’ and believed that they were his direct descendants—see for example the conversation that Jesus has with the Pharisees in John 8: 31-59. (The non-Jews may have wondered why Abraham was relevant at all.)

Paul talks about the Jewish ‘Law’. And as he pointed out in Chapter 2, everyone has a ‘law’ of some kind.

Verses 1-3 

Abraham was, humanly speaking, the founder of our Jewish nation. What did he discover about being made right with God? 2 If his good deeds had made him acceptable to God, he would have had something to boast about. But that was not God’s way. 3 For the Scriptures tell us, “Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith.” 

The Book of Genesis, especially after Chapter 12, tells the story of Abraham and his family, and of God’s promises to them. These promises are repeated several times in the form of a ‘covenant’ and are: 

Genesis 17: 5-8 

You will be the father of many nations. 6 I will make you extremely fruitful. Your descendants will become many nations, and kings will be among them! 

7 “I will confirm my covenant with you and your descendants after you, from generation to generation. This is the everlasting covenant: I will always be your God and the God of your descendants after you. 8 And I will give the entire land of Canaan, where you now live as a foreigner, to you and your descendants. It will be their possession forever, and I will be their God.” 

Genesis tells the story of how this is worked out in the lives of his children and grandchildren, and the rest of the Old Testament—the Jewish Scriptures—show how these promises were worked out in the nation of Israel over the following 1800 or so years. 

So, to Jews, Abraham was a big deal: the founder of their nation. He wasn’t made ‘right with God’ by doing good things—in fact, he messed up badly from time to time, but:

Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith. (see also Genesis 15: 6)

So, let’s talk about this for a couple of minutes:

• What is God looking for in people?

Verses 4-8 

When people work, their wages are not a gift, but something they have earned. 5 But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners. 6 David also spoke of this when he described the happiness of those who are declared righteous without working for it: 

7 “Oh, what joy for those
whose disobedience is forgiven,
whose sins are put out of sight.
8 Yes, what joy for those
whose record the Lord has cleared of sin.” 

Most people think that they can get to heaven by ‘serving’ God, or by ‘doing good things’. By obeying rules. It’s basic, but it’s ‘the knowledge of good and evil’. That won’t get us anywhere. If it did, we wouldn’t need faith to be right with God, we would just follow the instructions. 

(v.5) But people are counted as righteous, not because of their work, but because of their faith in God who forgives sinners.

This is the key. Paul explains how it worked with Abraham…

Verses 9-12 

Now, is this blessing only for the Jews, or is it also for uncircumcised Gentiles? Well, we have been saying that Abraham was counted as righteous by God because of his faith. 10 But how did this happen? Was he counted as righteous only after he was circumcised, or was it before he was circumcised? Clearly, God accepted Abraham before he was circumcised! 

11 Circumcision was a sign that Abraham already had faith and that God had already accepted him and declared him to be righteous—even before he was circumcised. So Abraham is the spiritual father of those who have faith but have not been circumcised. They are counted as righteous because of their faith. 12 And Abraham is also the spiritual father of those who have been circumcised, but only if they have the same kind of faith Abraham had before he was circumcised. 

If you’re anything like me, all this talk of circumcision is a bit squirmy. It’s pretty uncomfortable. 

But here’s the relief!

God told Abraham to circumcise the males in his family as a sign of his obedience. (We might think a gold star or a badge might be nicer, but hey… It was a sign that all Abraham’s descendants had that symbolised his obedience. Being Jewish meant—and still means—'I belong to Abraham, who walked with God by faith.’)

Abraham’s circumcision was a sign of his righteousness, but…

• How did Abraham get to be righteous in the first place?

Verses 13-19 

Clearly, God’s promise to give the whole earth to Abraham and his descendants was based not on his obedience to God’s law, but on a right relationship with God that comes by faith. 14 If God’s promise is only for those who obey the law, then faith is not necessary and the promise is pointless. 15 For the law always brings punishment on those who try to obey it. (The only way to avoid breaking the law is to have no law to break!) 

16 So the promise is received by faith. It is given as a free gift. And we are all certain to receive it, whether or not we live according to the law of Moses, if we have faith like Abraham’s. For Abraham is the father of all who believe. 17 That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, “I have made you the father of many nations.” This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing. 

18 Even when there was no reason for hope, Abraham kept hoping—believing that he would become the father of many nations. For God had said to him, “That’s how many descendants you will have!” 19 And Abraham’s faith did not weaken, even though, at about 100 years of age, he figured his body was as good as dead—and so was Sarah’s womb. 

God made massive promises to Abraham and to his descendants. But far from having ‘descendants’, at the age of 100, he didn’t even have one child. 

Verse 17:

Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing.

We could say, ‘What choice did he have?’

He had several choices.

• He could have taken another wife, one who was more fertile than Sarah.

• He could have promised his inheritance to one of his relatives—Lot, maybe.

• Or, maybe to Eleazar of Damascus, who was his chief servant.

• He could have had sex with a slave (he tried that).

But in the end, he always came back, sometimes a bit grumpily or reluctantly, to believing God. And God kept on repeating the promise.

• What choices must we make to live by faith?

Verses 20-25 

Abraham never wavered in believing God’s promise. In fact, his faith grew stronger, and in this he brought glory to God. 21 He was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises. 22 And because of Abraham’s faith, God counted him as righteous. 23 And when God counted him as righteous, it wasn’t just for Abraham’s benefit. It was recorded 24 for our benefit, too, assuring us that God will also count us as righteous if we believe in him, the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. 25 He was handed over to die because of our sins, and he was raised to life to make us right with God. 

Abraham is there as an example of faith for everyone, Jews and non-Jews alike. Verse 21: 

[Abraham] was fully convinced that God is able to do whatever he promises.

Finally, Paul brings it back to the Good News about Christ. The gospel. God’s promises to Abraham were hard for him to understand – based on having a child in old-age and investing in a future that he couldn’t see, but we are right with God when we believe in Jesus.

We need rules, obviously; society would not work without them, but Paul says very clearly that this isn’t enough to make us righteous before God.

• What is the problem with having a religious Law?

In these chapters, Paul describes faith like Abraham’s as the opposite of Law. It can make us right with God, where keeping a law never can.

• What can we learn from Abraham’s faith?

Ephesians Study 3: 1-13

 

Summary of last week’s discussion:

• Addressing the Gentiles particularly, Paul reminds them that at one time they were separated from Christ, and from the benefits of being part of God’s covenant, but now, through Jesus’ blood, they are brought near.

• The strong wall around the holy places of the temple has been broken down by Jesus’ death. There is now no division between Jews and Gentiles. The Law of Moses has effectively been dissolved. He speaks of ‘one new man’ who now stands instead of both Jews and Gentiles.

• 2:19 is a key verse: So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.

• Having previously described God’s people as a ‘body’, he now calls them a temple—the true Temple—a dwelling place for God, built on the testimony of the apostles and prophets, and of Jesus Christ himself.

Paul continues to describe how the gospel—the good news of Jesus—is sent to the Gentiles.

It’s worth reflecting before we dig into this, how global and multi-ethnic the church has become. In pretty much every community in the world, there are Christ-followers. And whereas some other religions will expect followers to adopt their cultural clothes, Jesus doesn’t do that.

God’s Temple is not a Jewish thing. Nor is it a Roman thing, or a white Anglo-Saxon thing. The largest single congregation in the world right now is in Nigeria (previously, it was in South Korea), and the fastest-growing church in the world is in Iran.

Billions of people around the world right now are looking to Jesus for salvation. None of these cultures ‘own’ the church; but God works in and through them all—and against them all, because ‘God’s kingdom is not of this world’, nor of any particular culture. 

Jesus is the Messiah for all people in all places at all times. He is the saviour of all nations. 

Tim Mackie 

How did the gospel get from Nazareth, a small village in the Galilee, to be this vast multi-cultural, multi-ethnic movement?

Ephesians 3: 1-13 

For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— 2 assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, 3 how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. 4 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. 6 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 

7 Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. 8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, 10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realised in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. 13 So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. 

vv. 1-3 

For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— 2 assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, 3 how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. 

Following on from the previous chapter, Paul describes himself as a prisoner of Christ Jesus. 

• What does it mean to be a prisoner of Christ Jesus? 

Objectively, he was a prisoner of the Romans. But they don’t count because Jesus is Lord, not Caesar. Paul could have construed himself as a victim of Roman oppression, or of Jewish persecution, but he doesn’t. He embraces suffering because it gives a platform to the gospel. 

When we are undergoing hardship, unpopularity, material loss for the sake of Christian principles we may either regard ourselves as the victims of men or as the champions of Christ. Paul is our example; he regarded himself, not as the prisoner of Nero, but as the prisoner of Christ

William Barclay

vv.3-6 

3 …how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. 4 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. 6 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 

Paul has already mentioned this ‘mystery’ (1:9, 10), which is God’s plan to unite all things in Christ. A mystery, as we said, is something that has been hidden, but is now revealed: a ‘revelation’, in fact. In Chapter 3, it is mentioned four times more. 

• How does the power of the Holy Spirit enable us to do things that are well beyond our own abilities, and transcend social norms? 

This is not something that Paul has figured out in his study or through his cleverness, and definitely not something that he learned from someone else. This is what God has shown him as part of his commission to take the message of Christ to the Gentiles, that they—i.e. everybody—can get to share in the promises and blessings that God promises to his people. 

As we’ll see in a moment, this isn’t a ‘new teaching’, it has been implied in the Scriptures right from Genesis, but up to this point, it hadn’t been clearly or widely understood. God hadn’t unlocked it.

And it isn’t just Paul, this is revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit (v.5). Jesus’ commission to his disciples was Go therefore and make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28: 19) and Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation (Mark 16: 15). We understand from tradition that Thomas travelled to India, and that Matthew went to Ethiopia, for example, and that Thaddeus went to Armenia. John-Mark is associated both with the Copts in Egypt and with St. Mark’s basilica in Venice and Mary Magdalene is linked to southern France.

We know, however, that at Pentecost, Peter’s message was miraculously translated into multiple languages; and it was Peter who obeyed the call of Cornelius the centurion. A watershed moment.

It is significant that early in both Matthew’s Gospel and the Acts, Roman soldiers come seeking salvation.

It transgresses a strong taboo. The Jews and the Gentiles regarded each other with suspicion, if not outright hostility, and no one seriously thought that:

the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel (v.6)

vv.7-9 

7 Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. 8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things… 

Paul contemplates how amazing God’s grace is. Who is he, after all? 

• God could have given this ministry to one of Jesus’ original 12 who were with him at the beginning, but he didn’t. He selected one who came in later, after persecuting the church and trying to eradicate it.
• He could have opened this mystery to countless Jewish scholars through the centuries, through their diligent preservation of the scriptures. But he didn’t, he revealed it to Paul, on the road to Damascus, when he was up to no good, and reversed the course of his life. 

This is the nature of grace. Paul calls himself the very least of all the saints (v.8), and he means it.

Just to reiterate: Paul is made a minister (or a ‘servant’) of the gospel according to the gift of God's grace (v.7).

In spite of Paul being self-conscious of his frailties and inadequacies, by the working of his power, God has given him the task to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things…

People like conspiracy theories. This is God’s conspiracy with himself; his ‘mystery’, hidden for ages (v.9), but it was hidden in the Scriptures—in plain sight, to be fair:

Genesis 12: 3 (as we’ve already seen). God said to Abram, in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Families and nations and people-groups who were not yet born.

Isaiah 2: 2

It shall come to pass in the latter days

that the mountain of the house of the Lord

shall be established as the highest of the mountains …

and all the nations shall flow to it,

Psalm 22: 27

All the ends of the earth shall remember

and turn to the Lord,

and all the families of the nations.

Psalm 86: 9

All the nations you have made shall come

and worship before you, O Lord,

and shall glorify your name.

So, the idea of God’s grace being available to people other than the Jews was not new. It had been there all along. 

v.10 

so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

Paul reiterates what he has said in Chapter 1: 22, 23: 

And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, 23 which is his body, the fulness of him who fills all in all.

and chapter 2: 6

[God] raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

God raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand, above all powers and authorities and names, and he has given us life too, and raised us up and seated us with Christ in the heavenly places.

All these spiritual powers and authorities, and all earthly rulers are brought under the total dominion of Christ, and this authority is invested in the church—in God’s holy people on earth.

That is, in us.

• This is why he calls us his Temple (2: 21).

• This is why Jesus places his Great Commission to his disciples in the context of his supreme authority:

Matthew 28: 18, 19 

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore… 

And when Jesus teaches his disciples to pray (Matthew 6: 10): 

Your kingdom come,

your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven. 

He gives them his own authority to make this happen. 

• What do the ‘rulers and authorities’ learn from the Church?

These Ephesian Christians were to serve him and establish this bridgehead of his kingdom in the middle of a world that was dominated by the evil powers. They were to put aside their differences, however profound and important they seemed, and stand together as his body, God’s temple on earth. They are the holy place.

The dividing wall has been demolished, not only between the Jews and the non-Jews, but between all the people. There is no hindrance to anyone who seeks God and desires him. There is no obscure Law to keep; no initiation rituals; no secret words.

And, as we read last time in Galatians 3: 28:

28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Tim Mackie describes this as a ‘new humanity’—a new race of people, who, as Peter says, have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God (1 Peter 1: 23).

We are here to transform the world around us.

• To what extent has the world we live in been transformed?

[True, there is much wrong with our world. Sin is clearly evident, but think of all the ways the teaching of Christ and Paul has been embraced:

• The abolition of legal slavery

• Cultural norms (and government policies) that support and protect the poor and the vulnerable

• The idea of the rule of law (rather than of some Caesar)

• Not least, the widespread freedom to worship God

There are many other things.]

These things are partial and imperfect. We have not yet seen the full potential of the church, not only to make space for the worship of God, but to establish righteousness and justice in the world.

• In what ways has the world we live in yet to be transformed?

It will ultimately be transformed when Jesus returns, but until then we are to ‘do business till he comes’.

The spiritual powers of the world will try to introduce divisions among us, but, as Paul will go on to say (in 4: 27), we should give no opportunity to the devil. When we are offended, we must not harbour bitterness and resentment but forgive quickly.

The sign of a healthy church is not the absence of anger and conflict, but the presence of a commitment to work it out, to move towards the person, to forgive and reconcile. 

Tim Mackie

Just another footnote on v.10. Paul says:

that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known

That word ‘manifold’ is πολυποίκιλος, meaning ‘multi-multi-coloured.’ The wisdom of God is ultra-diverse and many-faceted. This implies that:

• It is beautiful.

• It is ubiquitous. It can answer any complication or opposition the world or its dominating powers choose to throw at it.

• How have you encountered God’s richly diverse wisdom?

And finally…

vv. 11-13 

This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realised in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. 13 So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. 

• Why is it that some believers lack the confidence that God would like them to have?

It is our privilege to be ‘in on the secret’, so to speak, and to be part of this amazing, exciting plan, this mystery.

Through Jesus Christ, we have unlimited access to the Father. Jesus said (John 16: 27)

The Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

Paul is in chains on behalf of these Ephesian believers, but before long they would also face persecution (see the messages in Rev 2 and 3). Paul writes to encourage them.

And us.

A final thought, to return to the idea of the global, multi-ethnic “πολυποίκιλος” church that we started with. This gathering of all people in Christ—Jews and Gentiles—was always part of God’s plan, not God’s afterthought when the Jews rejected Christ.

In you, God said to Abram, back in Genesis 12, shall all the families of the earth be blessed.