Tonight, we're going to look at a new section of Ephesians and the lead question that I gave you is what do you believe concerning the unity of the Church? And it's perhaps special that you, this evening, represent all kinds of denominations, theological histories and theological convictions that we would discuss the question on the unity of the Church. As we look at Ephesians, that will be something that will concern us, that will take our interest and is one of the main points of emphases in Ephesians. Now, I would like to begin by drawing your attention again to the chronological table that I gave you out of which I drew one or two questions for this evening's little quiz. If you wouldn't mind turning to that, the page number 17 on the lecture handouts and the outline of Paul's life. There is some debate where Ephesians should be located in our image of the airport and the various connections to the various airplanes, the letters of Paul to Acts. Where should we locate Ephesians in this entire spectrum? I think there are two major viable options. One is that Paul wrote Ephesians from Caesarea as he awaits trial under Felix and then Festus prior to his deportation as an imprisoned person to Rome. So according to this plan, when would that be? When was he detained in Caesarea? 57 to 59 so subsequent to his return from the third missionary journey? So that would be relatively early in terms of the total chronology and the alternative is that we travel with Paul to Rome and that from there he writes this letter to the Ephesians. Now why would we be quite certain that it's either Caesarea or Rome? Well as you look at Ephesians, you will see some references to being imprisoned. And I do not believe that Paul simply uses a formula of I am in bondage figuratively speaking of being constrained, not having perhaps the opportunity to witness freely, maybe experiencing some opposition, that may be but I think it is more plausible to see that the references in Ephesians speak of imprisonment. They are in chapter 3, verse 1, and so that we just get the setting clear. Chapter 3 verse 1 says, for this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles. Sounds still fairly general. The same thing may be the impression as you read Ephesians 4.1. There again, as a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. So 3.1 and 4.1 are general references to imprisonment. Please just notice in parentheses here that whatever the circumstance of Paul is, he does not consider his external circumstance and his situation to be determining his welfare in Christ. He can say, judging from verse 4, chapter 4 verse 1, that he can live a life worthy of his calling as a prisoner. And so the contrast is, I am in chains. And he says to those who are not in chains, live a life worthy of your calling, don't live in bondage. Don't live in prisoned lives out there in your freedom. Live free lives. And he says it with his hands bound. You have this contrast of him being dedicated to witnessing wherever, in whatever circumstance and situation he is in. He has seen that God's ways of guiding him as a living letter are not determined by his success externally by being able to live free from opposition, by living a comfortable and decent life, etc., etc., but by succumbing and surrendering to what God allows in his life, and they are in at all times to seek to be a witness. Perhaps we need to flash back briefly to Acts in which Jesus appears to him at one point and in chapter 23 verse 11, and says the following two Christ, a two Paul. Take courage as you have testified about me in Jerusalem so you must also testify in Rome. So there is a clear commission. This is really the apostolic commission of Paul to be a witness, and so he can instruct his recipients in Ephesus that they should be free as he is free. Namely, free to live for Christ, free to be a witness, free to be that which God has designed them to be rather than to be busy with their sin. Perhaps the more the clearest reference, however, to imprisonment is Ephesians 6.20, and we are going to look at that just briefly to close this particular investigation. He says, I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, converging with his sense, and then verse 20 in chapter 6, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should. Not pray that my chains would go away, pray that my circumstance would get better so that I could live in ease, but that I may be a worthy witness, that I may declare fearlessly that I would not look out for my own good, but that I would show my love to my master by being able to declare what he has done. Even though I know it is a stone of offense, of stumbling, to Jewish people, and it is a foolishness to the Gentiles. They will ridicule me, they will think ill of me, they will look down on me, but pray for me that I would be courageous. And that is easier said than done. Maybe you have been in situations where you would have life to be more courageous, more bold, where you have perhaps just been silent in academic circles that can be a very tempting thing, in circles where you are among important people that may make important decisions about your life, you kind of become a little more quiet. Now I am not advocating that we should be foolish and put our feet in our mouth and offend people and just make everybody as miserable as possible and then be hated by everybody and then think, look, I am suffering for Christ, isn't it wonderful, I am following the gospel, and all you are doing is suffering from your own foolishness. I am not advocating that. I think we need to be skillful, we need to be sensitive, we need to be caring, we need to know how to speak to people, but there needs to be an element of courage that we do not look out for our own self. And that is difficult, that is very difficult. So Paul is praying actually to the recipients to be clear in that sense. So these three passages are primarily references in Ephesians to know that Paul is in chains, I do not have my doubts concerning that. I would personally tend to say Rome is a more likely place of composition of Ephesians than Caesarea and the reason for that will come out as I go on a little bit. I think there is some time that has elapsed from Caesarea, a time that has elapsed from his time in Ephesus, which was from when to when. Now your detailed learning comes in to kind of understand the tone of Ephesians. So some factual knowledge, some details are not only good for true false questions, but they actually make sense to undergo some arguments that we are looking at at this point. So in Ephesus, and we don't know exactly the length of the time, 52 to 55, and obviously you will see other dates for that. If your Pauline chronology is a little earlier, started, then all of these dates will change somewhat, although there are some fixed points in there, like the Galeo inscription in Corinth. But if you see this as a time of Paul Sojourn with the Ephesian church, 52 to 57, and then say when did Paul arrive in Rome? What date would you draw from my little line here? 60, 61, it's a little hard. So let's say 61, just as a rough identification. You have maybe five years plus minus five years in between, and that will be interesting as we look at the content of Ephesians. I'm kind of developing a case here. Let's look first a little bit at the further question here, namely the purpose of the Ephesian letter. Occasion and purpose, I'm still a number one here of your outline for tonight, page 10. The purpose would be to speak to the Ephesian church about unity, unity in Christ, and we will certainly reflect on that question tonight primarily. Now the way Paul addresses this issue, the way he follows that, is perhaps not so much in the literary genre of a letter as it is in the literary genre of an epistle. So the address, the purpose that he pursues is by means of an epistle, not so much a letter. Now as I use these words, I use them in a literary sense, namely that an epistle would be a little less personalized, a little less particular to the recipient church. A little more general, some people would say that even Romans is more an epistle than a letter. Philemon is certainly a letter, very specifically addressing the situation between Onizamas and Philemon. Colossians, I would say clearly is a letter. There are some issues maybe going beyond Colosse, such as Herapolis and Laudicea, there are some concerns in that region, but there are some particular issues that pertain to that church at that point. First and second Corinthians, I believe are letters in that sense that they address specific issues in Corinth. Ephesians is a little more broad. You don't get quite the feel that there is a particular issue, a particular concern in Ephesus that Paul has heard about and he needs to address. In some ways you get the feeling from reading Ephesians that things are in fairly good shape and Paul is encouraging them and not only them but an audience beyond Ephesus to continue to grow here as a goal, unity. It's comparable to Philippians as far as I can see it, where there's also the sense where Paul can breathe and he can take joy. He can say good, well done, let's keep on going. You don't get that feeling in Galatians. You don't get that feeling in First Corinthians. You don't get that feeling with Philemon. There's a different atmosphere and here in Ephesians you have that atmosphere of a settleness and perhaps that dovetails with the literary structure of an epistle. Yes, there are some greetings at the end. There's a reference here that we're going to look at in just a minute as we look at the ones who transmit the letter. There is a greeting, there's an introduction, but it's faint. Certainly less than even what you find in Romans. So I would suggest that we have a statement on unity to the Ephesian church in the literary form of an epistle. I believe that Tichicus and Onizumus are sent alongside that letter and most likely alongside the letter to Philemon and the letter to the Colossians. Perhaps all three are taken as the Tichicus is sent along by Paul from Rome most likely to Ephesus. In Ephesians 6, 21 we read, Tichicus, the dear brother and faithful servant in the Lord will tell you everything so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing. I'm sending him to you for this very perfect purpose, that you may know how we are and that he may encourage you. So that is on Tichicus. Now if you go over to Colossians a little further down the road in your Bible Colossians 4.7, you will see an interesting dovetailing notice there at the end of Paul's greetings there. Namely it says in chapter 4, verse 7, Tichicus, the same one, will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. I'm sending him to you for the expressed purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts. He is coming with Onizimus, a faithful and dear brother who is one of you, a-ha Colossians. They will tell you everything that is happening here and then greetings from Aristarchus, etc. So if you put these lines together and follow the general thrust that Ephesians is most likely written from Rome, you will have a more general epistle written to the Ephesians and other churches. You will have Colossians, a particular letter written to the hinterland of Ephesus, and you will have a very particular small letter of appeal by Fahleman that is all sent with Onizimus and Tichicus as human emissaries of Paul to the Ephesians and also partially to the Colossians. So that would be my little spiel on the occasion and the purpose, let's look briefly at the author. I do need to make you aware, at least briefly, just in passing, that there has been some debate on whether Paul actually wrote Ephesians. Some have the impression that as you read Ephesians, you are really in a post-apostolic time looking back to the apostolic time and these are some of the arguments that have been put forward and I'm not going to go into much detail here, I'm just going to enumerate them. First of all, critics, critical scholars who question the authorship of Paul have noted that there is a different style in Ephesians in the Greek than in the other letters of Paul. That is really an unfair accusation because you need to make the counter-check, such as looking at Romans, there are some stylistic particularities in Romans that you do not find elsewhere. Are there particular stylistic references in Philippians, which nobody questions to be authentically from Paul, there are particular to Philippians. If you write a telephone book and a love letter, you will use different styles. The subject matter dictates certain different style and use of vocabulary. It's unfair to say Ephesians doesn't sound like Paul, it can be shown that Romans doesn't sound like Paul if you compare it with the rest of Pauline style. You have to be very careful with these literary critiques. Then it has been said that there is a certain character of establishment of the church, the whole structure and order, the offices of leadership in the church seem to indicate that things have been established. The volcanic eruption of the charismatic young church has settled down and now they are fixed with saying, who is in charge, who is leading service, who is leading this, who is doing that, let's organize. That's a false reconstruction of the only church because I believe the early church had simultaneously from the beginning structure but also a living relationship with Christ, a dependency on his word and his spirit. So again, I find that to be a questionable argument against Ephesians fitting into the time of Paul's life. Another argument is that Ephesians is too similar to Colossians and they have been questions addressed to the apostolic authority and authorship of Colossians as well. But if you read Colossians and you read Ephesians, you know that there are clearly distinct themes, major themes. Here unity in Ephesians and in Colossians I'm not going to tell you yet that's still a secret unless you've already read Colossians and know that there are three problems which are connected with the Harrasean in Colossians so we're going to come to that. But in their clearly identifiable themes, however it is true and validly observe that there are some points of connection. In some ways you can read Colossians and then read Ephesians as a commentary on Colossians. There's a sense in which Ephesians goes beyond and explains a little more the order in the family and in the household is in Ephesians more clearly explained and in more detail developed than you have that in Colossians. So those connections would be explainable if Paul writes a more general epistles to the Ephesians and the hinterland in general and then a more specific letter addressing some specific problems. With some connections to these issues to the Colossians. It is basically the so-called tubing in school of the last century in Germany that has developed a hypothesis that Ephesians really brings together various lines completely distinct and in struggle and its appeal to unity is really the appeal of somebody in the first part of the second century to bring this wagon where the wheels seem to go in two different directions together. So it is an attempt to bring the church together much later than Paul himself. Well, I think we will see that these points of accusation while we cannot go into detail here are really not that significant when you look at them with any care. Let's move on to Adressees and continue to uphold that Paul actually did write Ephesians. If you look at some of these arguments you will see that they do not hold as well as they seem to. Paul, having written the letter to the Ephesians, there is clear reference to the adressees in verse 1 to the saints in Ephesus, a faithful in Christ Jesus. Some people have argued however and this seems to be a stinging observation that Paul really doesn't know these people intimately. Listen to that maybe with a little bit of a critical eye what I am going to read to you from chapter 1 verse 15. For this reason ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints I have not stopped giving thanks for you remembering you in my prayers. Some people suspect that this doesn't sound like somebody who has just spent three years with that church five years prior. Now if we date Ephesians in Caesarea we would even be earlier it would be just two years or so. So that's a little uncomfortable at a certain juncture. However one thing I can reject out of court immediately is that this is just kind of a formula that is used by Paul when I hear about you I pray for you. Paul does use formula. He uses the formula of letter writing but he always fills it with the heart that you see beating the pastoral heart that you see beating. So while there is repetition of formulation I think in terms of the general performance of what Paul does there is not a repetition of just some words. So it must be from the heart and perhaps I can give you a little anecdote that will fill you in into this situation where you can see that Paul actually ministered in Ephesus while he also traveled elsewhere he was not there the whole time. Ministered for an extensive time in Ephesus and still could write this kind of a little distant type of a reference to the Ephesians as he writes now. I take that also an indication that Paul wrote Ephesians from Rome by the way and that little anecdote is this. I just recently had a visitor from Germany here he was actually in our class my former pastor from the church that I was involved with in Germany. Initially a journalist friend and mine were involved with the church exclusively and we just both had full time jobs and were involved in this church plan. We just kind of didn't see the end of the tunnel anymore so we had to have somebody come and so we called this gentleman to be a pastor of the church. Well we labored for years together shoulder by shoulder we knew every single member of that church coming in and out visitors we were intimately acquainted with that church. Now I have been gone from that church five years my pastor friend I think he has been gone maybe a year or a year and a half. He said I recently went back and I didn't recognize 50% of the people in that church. Now be careful the mobility today is high even in Germany. We don't know exactly how the situation looks in Ephesus except that it was a very strong economically strong melting pot in a place. I believe that's why Paul stayed there because it was so great people came and went all the time. The house of Tyrannus which you filled in correctly just a few minutes ago, dramatically remembering that event was a place where people would come you know they would have done their business they would hang out at the house of Tyrannus and say let's listen to somebody before I go back to the hinterland to Colosse, to Herapolis, Laudicea etc. So there is a mobility and while I have not studied the sociological phenomenon of mobility with Ephesus there is more chance of that than perhaps for Colosse or even full of pie. But the movement at the time of the Greco-Roman Empire the Roman Empire in particular was high. So if I would go back to this church the church that I have been intimately acquainted with five years ago perhaps I would recognize 20% of the people. When my friend told me about various people there was always this discussion of did you still know them? No. There are two elders now of four in that church that I never even met five years later. There are one or two elders in that church that were just appointed shortly after I left. So there is an enormous change and certainly if I would write a letter to this church now the past of which I have never met I would probably formulate for this reason ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. I have not stopped giving thanks for your remembering you in my prayers. And this is the church I was intimately acquainted with. So I think we need to be a little careful to fall into the traps of some argumentation that simply questions immediately what somebody may have said. I see though that Rome is a more likely time of composition for that reason a certain distance of time has elapsed that still Paul is acquainted Paul knows about the situation. And he sends Tushikos and Anisimus Tushikos in particular mentioned here for Ephesians to reestablish those ties to get things up to Paul. So the visitor the pastor that came I have updated my understanding of the church quite a bit through his report. I'm more in touch with what is going on right now some of the old stories some of the new stories. Some of the problems that confront the church now and that continue to confront the church and some of the things that have actually changed. So I would conclude here concerning the author and addresses that we have a good place in looking at the total chronology of Paul looking at the Ephesian letter the addresses that sometime elapsed between Paul's stay in Ephesus and his composition of the letter his writing. The letter his writing of the letter and we now proceed to the content of the letter now since I don't have a lot of time let me start at least with the content and then we're just going to take a two minute break. You've had so much break already tonight you had a break with a with a test that was already a kind of a breeze and a bowl of cherries and a day at the beach and whatever else you have as idioms for that. So we're not going to have a lot of break. The basic structure of the letter to the Ephesians I have given you on the outline namely the indicative imperative structure and I do not get tired in mentioning that. Now this sounds awfully cerebral grammatical uninteresting and boring indicative imperative and I have given you the question here at the summary question for tonight why does Paul always begin with indicative and I always want to start with the imperative. Somehow we are conditioned in our natural unregenerate disposition to say tell me what to do and I'll be okay tell me how to behave but you see we are created for relationship we are created for a fellowship with God and our behavior is to emanate from that. The purpose the design for man is not to have a code of behavior and to follow that the purpose and the design for man is to be related to God and so Paul does not tire against stoic pressures against the pressure of skinarian behaviorism the first century AD to say think of who you are in Christ. Know what Christ has done for you know that you are acceptable to him on the basis of his work and then let your action come out of that. Now to us that sounds a deviation don't waste all that time to talk about all these wonderful truths about the Christian faith I need to know how to live I need to know how to act. How should I conduct myself don't waste this time and Paul says we're not wasting time at all because if you go for the imperative first you won't reach the goals that God has for you namely to live a godly life if you begin cranking things out yourself you will lose out. So we're coming back to the whole gospel message that we have seen with filemen that we have seen with Corinthians that we have seen with Galatians and Romans in particular that we need to have a Christ centeredness that we need to know our identity in Christ and it is amazing to me myself in my own personal experience but also in talking with others how many people speak about the covenantal love of God and his faithfulness. But they do not believe they're accepted creatures they do not believe they are lovable they do not believe that they are pleasing to God's eyes those two don't come together well if you do not know that you are acceptable to God obviously not on the basis of your merit but on the basis of God's deeds having paid the price for you and therefore reaching out his hand and saying come. I'll take you on I love you as a son and a daughter now work with you that's the greatest joy that a person can receive we recoil and we do not respond to that we say tell me how to act tell me how to behave tell me how to conduct myself so that I won't stick out so I'll be acceptable. So I will conform to whatever societal constraints I'm under what a loss and so Paul starts with the indicative he tells you this is what Christ has done. This is the truth of God's work and the beginning of Ephesians is particularly rich in embracing you and filling you and overwhelming you with the table that God has said for you. Chapters one verse three to three twenty one do nothing else but present to you what God how God has filled your table. You can sit there salivating you can sit there looking you can sit there receiving you're supposed to soak in you're not supposed to get up and act at all we can sit down and let that sink in and that's our problem. We need a lot of care and a lot of instruction and a lot of prayer so that we would actually accept the gospel of grace. Look at chapter one verses three to fourteen what enormous panorama is being presented to you here in Ephesians one if you ever need a eye widening a broadening perspective when you kind of stuck in your little life with another broken down car. Don't we have somebody here who just broke down with her car just before coming to the exam all kinds of things going down you're just so narrowed you know I'm not blaming you or myself I've had a love hate relationship with cars my whole life you know I think it's one of the worst inventions since the invention of the wheel. So we are so narrowed because there are such obnoxious problems in our lives and then the more these problems come the more narrow we get somebody once said to me that I'm so narrow minded I can look through a keyhole with both eyes. So that's what life does to us and Ephesians one three to fourteen sorry yes three to fourteen broadens that scope just listen to what is being said here in verses four and five a looking back to the design of God before all time. For he chose us the Ephesians Paul and the Christians in Rome and you in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight and now remember it's not this cold-hearted decree of God it says in love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ. In accordance with his pleasure and will there is will there is design there is election there's call but there is a lot of heart moving out towards mankind and obviously it is in Christ we already see the cross out there coming to be holy and blameless in his sight how can we be unless. Christ is sacrifice on our in our stead so here we look back to the design before all creation how God sees life with our life with him then in verses eleven in this big panorama presentation Paul focuses on the present he seems to be repeating himself but not really here he says in verse eleven in him we were also chosen having been predestined according to the plan. Of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will why have we been predestined why have we been called and chosen in order that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be for the praise of his glory that's a present description of why God has purposed that before all ages that now there would be some people. On this world of all nations of all races of all tongues that would live to his glory think to his glory after his glory work to his glory scheme to his glory relate among each other to his glory everything brought under that design of God that is God's choice that is God's predestination and then if that's not enough having looked back into eternal counsel of God and the present purposes Paul looks forward and says in verses fourteen who is namely speaking about the Holy Spirit working in us now who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until future anticipation the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of his glory. Possession now final future full redemption then being bought free yes we are bought free now but there is this tension of already and not yet in these verses that are echoed over and over in Paul namely present reality future culmination present truth present down payment present beginning future culmination. And so as Paul spans out this panorama of God's design with mankind before all ages presently and future you have one thing one line in love to have a people onto himself purpose before all eternity begun now culminated and found in full fruition then. And then within that there's a rich language such as the adoption of his sons which we could dwell on a lot our resident pastor pastor in residence currently Reverend Scotty Smith is giving a class on some ship maybe some of you are doing that where that is being brought home and applied to the individual heart fascinating how that all relate so Paul begins to remind the Ephesians about the panorama of what God has done in a much greater way than you would find even in the other letters after this introduction there is more reference to prayer and thanksgiving which we have already begun to read in verses fifteen following and then in chapter two verses one to ten Paul still speaks about this contrast between them and now. He likes that contrast because it gives you a mirror of where you have been and where you are now it's wholesome for you to think about that sometimes just say where would I sit what would I do who would I be related to right now if God had not made true this wonderful glorious design that we've just read about what would I do what would I be occupied by right now. And then see that that was then and God has transferred you out of that into a new circumstance and a new setting there's great cause for gratitude and then in verses eleven Paul begins to speak about the unity in Christ and that is really what we need to focus on tonight and I hope I can finally want my way around to it. Chapter two verses eleven to twenty two the unity of the church and its apostolic foundation in chapter three verses one to thirteen let me just briefly conclude this overview and then we'll look at the theme of unity after a very short break chapter four one till six twenty two deals with the imperative. Do you realize how much mileage we have left behind how much we have reflected on the indicative the truth and the realities of God's work see we need to have God's perspective and God's work on behalf of his people so that we don't get discouraged so that we in our commission to live out the Christian life don't become so absorbed with ourselves they were just overwhelmed but that we see ourselves kept by the powerful hand of God. That we can trust that especially when things seem to run completely chaotically when we can see and know that God is still the sovereign God that holds you when your your life seems to be dissipating and when when the two tracks that your rail is supposed to go on clearly are spreading. And you don't know what's going to happen or they even across is starting to get cross eyed and you see there's going to be there's going to be a major collapse when you experience these things and you know the indicative of God's enduring hand you are not saved from depression you are not safe from throwing up your arms and saying where is my God but there is a foundation established of knowing that God is not saved. God has carried this world through these great histories and he has been faithful and he will see you through. So I think there is enormous amount of truth established in indicative before we come to the imperative namely the single most important imperative of unity in the body of Christ. Paul dwells on the theme of unity the gifts of gifted people of a leadership of facilitators in chapter 4 verses 1 to 16. Again a little then and now contrast in verses 17 to 24 and then a commission and a call to life in community and walking in the light. Chapter 4 25 to 5 21 and then it seems to kind of break off Paul in 5 22 comes to speak about what is called the household order as one section among the imperatives household order but actually if you understand his his understanding of the elective purpose of God to have a people on to himself and to have unity in the body that also shows himself itself in the family and in the workplace then you see that Paul is just consistently thinking about how does unity in Christ affect the church, the workplace and the individual family. 610 to 20 seems to be tagged on as well initially namely the well-known armor of God but here it seems that Paul is attaching to the imperative the instrument by which we grow. How do we fight how do we appropriate the indicative the reality of Christ what tools has he given us the armor of God in chapter 6 verses 10 to 20 explain those so that we may grow in the imperative in the instruction of unity in the church and in the workplace and in the family. Now it's high time we think about what is unity as an easy word to say and probably there are a hundred definitions in this room of what the unity is that Paul is speaking about uniformity unity of feeling we all feel good kind of unity is being talked about let's take a two minute break and then come back and address that issue briefly thank you very much.