Series Introduction: Several years prior a two or three was discovered dead in their loft. Their post-mortem examinations uncovered that they had both passed on of extreme hunger. At the point when specialists looked through their home, they discovered a few paper packs loaded up with cash; some $40,000.00 altogether. How silly is it to bite the dust of starvation when you have a lot of cash to purchase food?[i]
In 1916 a lady named Hettie Green passed on. At the point when she did, it was found that she had left a domain esteemed at 100 million dollars. That is a huge measure of cash today; it was a cosmic sum back then. Hettie Green may have been rich, yet she was known as America's most prominent grumpy person. She would frequently eat cold cereal since it was too exorbitant to even think about warming the water to cook it. Once, when her child experienced a serious leg injury, she invested such a lot of energy searching for a free center that the leg must be removed. She even hurried her own demise by permitting herself to get stirred up into an angry outburst in a contention over skim milk, since it was less expensive than entire milk.[ii] Hettie Green was a lady who had extraordinary abundance, yet she didn't can take advantage of it.
The book of Ephesians was composed to individuals actually like that. This letter was composed at some point around 61-63 AD when Paul was detained in Rome. The city of Ephesus was situated at the mouth of the Cayster River, on the east side of the Aegean Sea. It was the capital city of the Roman territory of Asia. It was a rich city known as a political, business and instructive focus. It was classified "The Queen City of Asia". A gigantic sanctuary to Diana was situated in Ephesus. It was one of the seven marvels of the antiquated world. In Paul's day, the city bragged a populace around 300,000 individuals. However, it was a city saturated with profound agnosticism, shamelessness and evil.
In Acts 16:6, as Paul was going to begin his subsequent evangelist venture, he considered going to Asia (Ephesus), yet the Holy Spirit didn't permit him to go there. In a little while, the Gospel advanced toward Ephesus, likely taken there by Aquila and Priscilla, Acts 18:18-19. Close to the furthest limit of his subsequent preacher venture, Paul at last made it to Ephesus, going through about three years there lecturing the Gospel and assisting the juvenile church with getting its feet.
Timothy followed Paul as the proclaiming senior in the congregation at Ephesus. Under Timothy, the congregation was tormented by the bogus instructing of Hymenaeus and Alexander, 1 Tim. 1:20. The congregation additionally has issues with legalism, bogus precept and absurd contentions among the individuals.
In this way, here is a youthful church, best with issues. They resemble the old couple I referenced before. They resemble Hettie Green. They are wealthy in the things of God, however they don't have the foggiest idea. This book came to them to tell them exactly what they had in Jesus; who they were in Jesus; and how to spend what they had in Jesus!
Section 1 tends to this book to "the holy people which are at Ephesus". This letter was kept in touch with this congregation, however not to them alone. Numerous researchers accept that this was a round letter. That is, it was replicated commonly and shipped off every one of the temples in Asia Minor. Numerous old duplicates of this letter don't contain the word Ephesus. In a considerable lot of them, there is a clear where the name would go. This would clarify why there are no close to home or geographic references in the letter. It is a letter, to one nearby gathering, however to, as section 1 says, "the dedicated in Christ Jesus". This book was kept in touch with us as well!
Ephesians was composed to show us all whom we are in Jesus Christ. What we have due to our relationship with Him. Also, how to utilize what He has given us for the brilliance of God.
Today, we will start a progression of messages that will take us section by passage through the book of Ephesians. In this first lesson, I need to present the book and educate you concerning a portion of the incredible facts we will reveal here.
This book has been given many taking off titles. It has been classified "The Alps of the New Testament"; "The great epistle"; "The crown and peak of Pauline theology"[iii]; Samuel Coleridge called it "The divinest arrangement of man".[iv]
Ephesians falls flawlessly into two sections. Parts 1-3 are doctrinal in nature, while sections 4-6 are commonsense. The initial three sections mention to us what we triumph ultimately; the last three parts guide us with what we have. The initial three parts uncover our wealth in Christ; the last three disclose to us how to spend what we have been given in Jesus.
Somebody has called Ephesians "The adherent's checkbook". Envision having a record whereupon you could compose checks as frequently as you wished, in any sum you wished, and that record could never be lessened. That is the thing that the adherent has in the book of Ephesians.
This book uncovers the wealth of God's effortlessness to the devotee. It shows us what we have in light of who we are in Jesus. Then, at that point, Ephesians tells us the best way to spend what we have been given in Christ. This is a book about wealth.
· 1:7 – The wealth of His beauty
· 3:8 – The unsearchable wealth of Christ
· 3:16 – The wealth of His wonder
This is additionally a book about the completion we appreciate in Jesus.
· 3:16 – be loaded up with the completion of Christ
· 4:13 – to the proportion of the height of the totality of Christ
· 5:18 – be loaded up with the Spirit
These wealth and this totality emerge from:
· 1:2, 6, 7; 2:7 – His beauty
· 1:2 – His tranquility
· 1:5 – His will
· 1:9 – His pleasure and his propose
· 1:12, 14 – His brilliance
· 1:18 – His calling
· 1:19, 6:10 – His force and strength
· 2:4 – His affection
· 2:10 – His workmanship
· 3:16 – His Spirit
· 5:2 – His contribution and penance
· 6:11-13 – His defensive layer
Ephesians makes reference to "wealth" multiple times. "Elegance" is referenced multiple times. "magnificence" is referenced multiple times. "completion" or "filled" is referenced multiple times. "in Christ" or "in Him" around multiple times. The possibility of "in", "with" or "through" Christ is tracked down exactly multiple times. This is a book about the mind-boggling, boundless abundance we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. Devotees are incredibly rich in light of their relationship with Jesus, Rom. 8:17; 1 Pet. 1:4.
Ephesians is a book about wealth and completion, however it's anything but a book about a heavenly secret. At the point when the Bible alludes to a secret it is discussing "a fact recently covered up, however presently uncovered".
With regards to God, there are numerous secrets. These secrets fall into three essential classes. To start with, there are secrets that nobody however God has ever, or will ever, know. These are heavenly mysteries that God uncovers to nobody, in any spot, whenever, Deut. 29:29.
The second kind of secret incorporates those things that are stowed away from a great many people, yet uncovered to a select gathering. All men know something about God, Rom. 1:19-20, however they don't know comprehend the more profound realities about His Word and His temperament. They can't have the foggiest idea about these things since they are dead and incognizant in regards to the facts of God, 1 Cor. 2:14. The recovered, then again, do comprehend these facts and they find out about God than lost individuals can at any point know.
A third sort of secret spins around truth that has been covered up for a period and afterward uncovered to individuals of God. That is the sort of secret we find in the book of Ephesians. "Secret" is found in Ephesians multiple times, 1:9; 3:3, 4, 9; 5:32; 6:19. The secret Paul is discussing is uncovered in 3:1-6. It is the secret of the congregation.
The old Jews were searching for a Messiah. They were searching for a King Who might come to Israel to rule. They were anticipating that a King should come who might convey them from their foes and set up an interminable realm on the earth.
At the point when their Messiah came, He as not Who they anticipated that He should be. They dismissed Him, John 1:11, and they wouldn't remember Him as their King. At the point when Jesus was before Pilate, they said, "We have no ruler except for Caesar," John 19:15. Then, at that point the Jews looked as their King was killed in a Roman cross. The Jews continued searching for a realm and for a King. They are as yet searching for Him today.
What the Jews neglected to see was the age wherein we are living today. The Old Testament prophets never saw this day. The Jewish copyists and researchers never saw this day. We are living in a heavenly secret. We are living in a sovereign enclosure.
Nobody at any point envisioned that there would be somewhere around 2,000 years between the appearance of the Messiah and happening to His everlasting realm. Actually, while there is no actual realm of God on the earth today, the realm of God is genuine, dynamic and amazing. We are trusting that the Lord Jesus will go to the earth to set up His realm here. Be that as it may, while we pause, the Lord Jesus runs His realm from Heaven at the present time. He controls His realm as He survives His kin.
In the Old Testament God's kin were known by numerous allegories. They were known as a plant, Isa. 5:2. They were known as a lady of the hour, Hosea. They are known as a group, Isa. 40. They were additionally called a realm, Ex. 19:16.
Those equivalent analogies apply to individuals of God in this day also. The congregation is a plant, John 12. The congregation is His lady, 2 Cor. 11:2. The congregation is known as a herd, Luke 12:32. The congregation is additionally called a realm, Col. 1:13.
The congregation is called something in Ephesians that it was never called. It's anything but a body. Devotees are in a real sense the group of Christ, 1 Cor. 12:27. He abides in us through His Spirit. He empowers us with His life. As we respect Him and permit Him to live through us, Jesus Christ is effectively seen moving and working in the wo
