LETTER TO THE EPHESIANS
The Messiah Jesus as Head over All
Ephesians 1:1-14
INTRODUCTION
If you were to try to describe the condition of our world in just one or 2 words, you would have to use words like "hostile," "disunity," and "conflict." At this moment the Jews and Palestinians are engaged in a life-and-death struggle over a narrow strip of land bordered by the tiny Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. Children 10 years old are strapping themselves with explosives and blowing themselves up in order to extract a few more casualties from the Israelis. More than that, even though we have driven the Taliban from power in Afghanistan, snipers continue to plague our forces still located there. North and South Korea continue to live in a hostile relationship with each other, while China is ominously looking constantly at taking over Taiwan. It's just a matter of months now before we start bombing Iraq forward into the Stone Age.
These are just the hot spots right now. Tensions exist throughout the rest of the world also. For example, the English dislike the French to such an extent that they call them, "Frogs." Nobody likes the Germans, while everybody considers the Italians to be irrelevantly crazy. Although things are calm right now in Northern Ireland, it still remains a powder keg which could blow at any time. Things are quiet in Serbia only because we bombed the Serbs our allies into submission, even though both the Croats and Bosnians persecuted the Serbs notoriously in the past.
The threat of armed conflict is not the only evidence of hostility in the world today. No matter which party holds the White House, the "loyal" opposition is going to try to thwart the president in implementing his agenda even if it is good for the country. All this falsely assumes that the political parties themselves are united. They are not. Some Democratic senators may bolt from their party if the Democratic leadership does not quit steering the party to the far left, while several "moderate" Republicans have been a constant source of pain for the Republican leadership. Many in the Republican party are furious at their Republican president because of his lack of support for Israel.
This is an analysis just of the world of men. Nature itself is in a constant state of hostility. I really enjoyed the opening to the movie Dr. Doolittle 2 in which Dr. Doolittle and the Crocodile Hunter Steve (CH) were filming a video in which the CH told the people he was going to sneak up on the crocodile and capture him. Dr. Doolittle hears the crocodile saying that he is going to play dumb and act like he is going to be surprised but then at the last moment he is going to whip around and bite off the CH's arm. Although it is a perfectly funny scene, it demonstrates the hostility found in the animal kingdom.
What has caused all this? Is man really all that bad? Human nature alone is not sufficient to explain such hostility. In the previews to the TV miniseries The Holocaust, the announcer said: "How could the Germany of Goethe, Beethoven, Bach, and Wagner commit such atrocities? Simple. They were not in power." Well, more is involved here. According to the Bible, a demonic force is leading out in an armed rebellion against God and is energizing those hostile to God to continue to disrupt unity and destroy God's creation. According to Rev. 12 this demonic rebellion which is led by Satan originated in heaven and continues to play itself out here on earth between followers of Jesus Christ and those opposed to Christ. The effects of Satan's works are seen in the disunity and hostility so prevalent in the world today.
It is God's plan for the ages that unity be restored to the universe, that peace and harmony are brought back not only to the world of man but also to the entire realm of nature. In order to accomplish this, God planned to send the Messiah whom He would anoint with His Holy Spirit so that He would be able to carry out the plan God has for Him and His creation. (The word "Messiah" literally means "The One Anointed [by the Holy Spirit]." When it was translated into Greek, it became the word "Christ." For the sake of clarity throughout our study of Ephesians, we will translate the word as "Messiah" instead of "Christ.") This Messiah sent from God was not only to bring in the kingdom of God and restore order to the chaotic universe, He was to rule in God's stead. When all things were subjected beneath His feet, then order would return to the universe of nature and the universe of mankind. In Jesus, the Jews got more than what they bargained for. They believed that although the Messiah was going to be an extraordinary man, he was nevertheless going to be nothing more than just a man. What they got, though, was God the Son who became man.
This concept of restoring order by means of sending Jesus to be the Messiah is the dominant theme of Ephesians. The key verse to this theme is 1:10: "an administration suitable to the fullness of the times, that is the summing up of all things in Christ, things in the heavens and things upon the earth." The key words are "summing up." The idea of "summing up" is like the writing of an outline for an English paper. At the top of the outline is the heading. Everything which falls beneath this heading must relate to the heading; otherwise, you need to create another heading which covers all of it. Well, God says that He has a heading for all that He has been doing since the beginning of creation. That heading is one word: "Jesus."
The words "summing up" also can be used for a summary statement at the end of a long speech or paper. For example, somebody may talk for 2 hours about a certain topic and then at the end of the speech say, "To sum up . . . .” In those next few words, he says the same thing it took him 2 hours to say. Well, God says that when you sum up everything He has been doing and saying, you sum it up with the words, "The Messiah Jesus."
The point is supported by the phrase "in Him" which recurs throughout Eph. 1. The phrase "in Him" refers to Jesus, the Messiah (Christ). God's choosing and predestination occur in Him, that is, in the Messiah (Christ). Redemption occurs only in the Messiah, while the inheritance which awaits us is found only in the Messiah. Everything, and I mean everything God does with respect to His creation, He does in the Messiah Jesus or not at all.
JESUS: GOD'S HEADING FOR ALL THE UNIVERSE (1:3-14)
Introduction (1:3)
Before Paul explains how Jesus is God's heading for all He does, he first blesses God: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ . . . ." God is blessed in 2 senses. First, He lives in a state of eternal bliss, free from the presence of sin, hostility, disunity, devastation, etc. Only a blessed God like Him could give us the blessings we will study in the next 11 verses. Second, He is a blessed God in the sense that He blesses His people. God is not a tyrannical despot who delights in harming his creation. He wants to bless us so much that He even sacrificed His beloved Son so that we might enjoy those blessings.
Paul says that God has blessed us with the entire spiritual blessing which belongs in the "heavenlies." Many of our translations translate the phrase "the entire spiritual blessing" as "every spiritual blessing." The reason our translators translated it that way was that they did not understand the meaning of the literal translation, "the whole spiritual blessing." By "the whole spiritual blessing" Paul means that God is not going to give us only part of the spiritual blessing. Instead, He is going to give us the whole thing. For example, in the following verses Paul is going to list predestination, adoption, redemption, and inheritance as part of the spiritual blessing. Well, God does not simply choose and adopt us; He gives us the inheritance as well.
Unfortunately, because we want to do things our own way, many times we miss out on the entire blessing God is trying to give us. Many of us have heard the story of the man who desperately wanted to go on a Caribbean cruise. He saved all his pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters until he could purchase the ticket for the cruise. Unfortunately, he did not think he had enough money for the meals on board the ship. "No matter," he thought, "I’m still going to get on the boat!" So for the next 7 days he sailed on the cruise ship eating the crackers and peanut butter he brought along for food. Each day as he walked along the deck, he would look into the portholes and see the lavish banquet prepared for the passengers. Although he regretted not having enough money for the meals, he nevertheless was satisfied that he got to be on the boat. Towards the end of the cruise, one of the crew told him that he had been missing him at mealtime. Although they had set a place for him at a specific table, they had never seen him there. The man wasn’t going to be embarrassed, though, because he still got to be on the boat. He told the member of the crew that he simply had not raised enough money for the food. The member of the cruise told him that the ticket he purchased covered not only the room on the ship but also the food at mealtimes. For the past several days he had been missing out on a banquet which had been prepared for him! Unfortunately, many times we Christians do the same. God has got a banquet for us, and yet because we want to do things out way and hold onto our things, we miss out on the glorious banquet God has for us.
Finally, Paul says that these spiritual blessings are "in the heavenly places." This means one of 2 things: (1) God in heaven gives us these blessings or 2) the blessings from God which we enjoy right now are the very things creatures in heaven enjoy. Heaven should not be a complete change for believers. It should be more, much more to be sure, but nevertheless more of the same. What that is so we shall discover later in this chapter.
We are going to place so much emphasis on Jesus in this passage that it almost seems like we are going to ignore the Father. Well, like any good Father, God has no problem at all with us focusing on Jesus. For the Father to be upset with us for focusing on Him would be like me getting mad at everybody in the stands cheering for Nathan whenever he makes a tackle in football or at people rooting for Molly whenever she plays soccer. What kind of sicko dad would that make me? I don't shout out, "Applaud for me because I bought Nathan's running shoes!" I try to be his and Molly’s biggest cheerleader! That's what dads do. And if that is what sinful dads do, how much more does our perfectly heavenly Father do the same for His Son?
Second, notice that verse 3 informs us that God the Father Himself is behind everything we are going to study in this passage. He is the One who has chosen us in the Messiah Jesus, adopted us in the Messiah Jesus, redeemed us in the Messiah, and given us the inheritance in the Messiah. The reason we will focus so much on Jesus is that this is what the Father himself has demanded. To focus elsewhere is not merely a rejection of Jesus but a rejection of the Father Himself. The way I respond to Jesus and what He has done for me indicates my response to the Father himself. Do not delude yourself into thinking that you can have the Father without the Son; the Father comes only WITH the Son according to Christianity.
Predestination and Adoption (1:4-5)
The first areas in which God has blessed us in the Messiah Jesus are those of predestination and adoption. In the Messiah, God has chosen us to be blameless and holy, and has predestined us to adoption as His sons. Unfortunately, some brilliant theologians have perverted the doctrine of predestination. They claim that before the beginning of time, before any of us had a chance to hear the gospel of salvation, God said, "You are going to heaven, and you are going to hell, hell, hell, hell, heaven, heaven, hell, heaven, heaven, hell, hell, etc." Totally capricious and whimsical. Well, there's a real problem with this view of predestination. It does not occur in the "Messiah Jesus." It does not fall under the heading of "Jesus the messiah." How is that so? Jesus the Messiah is not mentioned in predestination until it comes time to say, "And God chose to save them by the Messiah dying on the cross." That is referring to redemption, not to predestination, though. Moreover, it is not in the "Messiah" because it is something Jesus the Messiah would never ever do. You might be able to imagine God choosing people to go to hell before they ever heard the gospel; however, I have yet to hear one person say that Jesus would ever do such a thing. Such an act would totally contradict what we have seen about Jesus in the Bible.
How does God's choosing and predestinating us occur "in the Messiah"? When God decided to create mankind, He used Jesus the Messiah as the model. In Gen. 1:27 we read that God created man in His image. Paul says that Jesus is the image of God in creation (Col. 1:15). In other words, Jesus was the prototype or the blueprint God used in creating mankind. As a result, God chose that each of us be His son or His daughter. Notice that in making us His children in the Messiah, God adopted us. In other words, before God adopted us, we were not his children. This repudiates completely the New Age contention that we are all children of God, non-Christians in addition to Christians. Paul claims that is not true. It is only those who are rightly related with Jesus the Messiah who are adopted into God's family and thereby become His children.
Notice that this choice was for the purpose of adoption and for us being blameless and holy. God did not choose us simply to be His children. He now expects us to act like His children, especially like His perfect Son Jesus. No matter what activity we are engaged in, we are to be like Jesus the Messiah. The other night when my team was practicing for the volleyball tournament, I told my team that no matter what happened, win or lose, we had to act like Christ. Christ would have given His all in the game; however, He would have done it with a Christ-like spirit and attitude.
Redemption (1:7)
The next topic which falls under the heading Jesus Christ or Jesus the Messiah is redemption. Since redemption is only in the Messiah Jesus, salvation is not found in Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Confucianism, or any other -ism. Why? Because these religions exclude Jesus. Since redemption is found only in Jesus, then they are excluded from this redemption: "There is no other name under heaven which has been given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12).
The idea behind the word "redemption" is that of prisoners of war. In any war, some soldiers are taken captive. In order to gain their release, their home country many times must pay a certain amount of money called “a ransom.” For example, right now in the Philippines 2 of our SBC missionaries have been kidnapped by Al Qaeda-related terrorists groups. The U.S. government has paid a large ransom for their release. As horrible and dramatic as those circumstances are though, they do not compare with the situation we find ourselves in. Each and every one of us at one time was a prisoner of war captured by Satan in this conflict between him and God. To gain our release Jesus the Messiah paid the ransom, not just any ransom, but the ransom of His shed blood on the cross. Moreover, in setting us free, He freed us by binding us to Him. Real spiritual freedom consists not in doing our own thing but in following Jesus the Messiah on a daily consistent basis.
Probably the best illustration of redemption was given by the great SBC preacher R.G. Lee. We know the story is true because R.G. Lee never made up illustrations like this. According to Lee, during the early 1800’s word spread like wild fire throughout the South that the most beautiful black woman had just recently been captured in Africa. She was on her way across the Atlantic on a slave ship to be auctioned off in Memphis, TN. For the next several weeks before the auction, slaveholders across the South collected their wealth in order to be able to bid as much as they could for this new slave, as much for the prestige they would gain as for her productivity value.
Finally, the big day arrived. The auction started with the selling of lesser slaves, older men and women, and little children who would not be as productive. Next came the strapping young men and women who would make valuable additions to any southern plantation. After all the other slaves had been auctioned off, the moment arrived. When the young lady stepped up to the platform, to be ogled at, the people at the auction saw that the rumors were true: she was the most beautiful black woman they had ever laid eyes on. As soon as the auction commenced, the bidding price jumped up rapidly. Soon they were bidding tens, even hundreds of thousands of dollars (as valued today) for this woman. As the day wore on, the number of bidders fell until finally one bidder was left. When he gave his final bid, no one countered it. The auctioneer slammed down the gavel and said she was sold to the final bidder. As a hush fell upon the gathering, the man mounted the platform, took her by her arm, and led her out of the auction house. He led her to a tree outside the city where the 2 of them saw down. He then took out a piece of white paper covered with words in black ink; it was the contract which bound her to him. Through the tears streaming down her face, she saw that he was writing down the only word she knew in English: the word "free."
As wonderful as this event was, it does not begin to compare with the freedom that Jesus the Messiah gives us. Freedom from ourselves, from all the anxieties and worries we heap upon ourselves, freedom from death and from the fear of death, freedom to be Christ's once and for all.
Inheritance (1:11-14)
The next area in which Christ has blessed us is "the inheritance." An inheritance is basically everything a parent owns which he leaves to his children at the time of his death. In this instance the inheritance is everything God has which He willed to us and which came to us at the point of the death of God the Son on the cross. Notice that in verses 13 and 14 the inheritance is tied to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the One who makes the inheritance real in our lives. He comes into our lives to transform us spiritually right now, physically and completely spiritually when Jesus the Messiah returns so that we will be exactly like God the Son on that day.
The Spirit according to Paul is the pledge of this inheritance. The word "pledge" is similar to "deposit." Whenever I buy a house, I have to put down a deposit. This deposit first begins the series of payments on the house and second guarantees that future payments are forthcoming. Sometimes people forfeit their deposit. Not so with God. The deposit of the Spirit in our lives is the first payment ensuring the final payment we see in Rev. 21-22. Right now because the Spirit lives in us because of our relationship with Jesus the Messiah, we are experiencing heaven to a real, though limited degree right now.
Note in verses 11 and 12 that Paul distinguishes between two different groups who receive the same inheritance. The first group consists of "we," while the second group consists of "you." The "we" including Paul refers to those Jewish Christians who were the first to believe in Jesus the Messiah; the second group "you" consists of the Ephesian Christians who were Gentiles. In these verses Paul is touching upon the matter which led to the writing of Ephesians. God by sending the Messiah Jesus is determined to bring harmony back to the universe. He is starting this process by bringing harmony to Jews and Gentiles. If they can be reconciled, anything else can be reconciled.
Although we've seen hostility between other groups, few hostilities have rivaled that between the Jews and Gentiles. It really is despicable the way "Christian" civilization has treated the Jews during the last 1700 years. We look at the Holocaust in horror because of the death of 6 million Jews. Little do people realize that Christian Europe persecuted and killed Jews for over a thousand years before that. The Jew has been the most hounded of all races since Constantine became a Christian Roman emperor. Unfortunately, the Jews began all the cycle when they persecuted the early Christians; however, after Christians gained the upper hand, they should have shown Christ's love toward the Jews. Paul's point is that if God is able to reconcile these 2 groups, then He can and will reconcile everybody else and the rest of the physical creation. The reconciliation between the Jew and Gentile, their harmony is a preview of the reconciliation of and harmony in the rest of the universe.
A Lavish Banquet
Before leaving this passage, we need to note that several times throughout this chapter Paul mentions that when God blesses His children in Jesus the Messiah, He does so in a lavish manner: "the kind intention" (1:5); "the grace which He freely bestowed upon us" (1:6); "the riches of His grace" (1:7); "which He lavished upon us" (1:8); and "kind intention" (1:9).
I experienced a taste of such treatment last year (2001) when my family and I spent 10 days in England. My Dad had trained a young man from Ireland named Pat Kieran to be a store manager in London. My brother Al worked for him. The 3 formed a very special relationship. When my family and I began to make plans to go to England, my brother received word from Pat that he wanted any of the Ford family who traveled to England to stay with him and his wife, Lillian. I did not really know Pat; however, since my mother, who knew Pat well, was going, we accepted his gracious offer. We thought that we would spend just a few nights there. Were we in for a tremendous surprise.
At first I thought we would have to take the train from the airport to go to Pat's home. No. Pat and Lillian picked us up in their Jaguar and Mercedes. Nathan was so excited about being whisked around London in a Jag! Next, when we got to their house, we decided we would go to Hampton Court. Well, Pat wanted to take us there himself. This time it was a wonderful ride in the Mercedes. When we got there, Pat purchased our entry tickets to Hampton Court. Then he bought us souvenir books. None of these were cheap. That afternoon he bought us tea at the little café attached to the palace. That evening (and several evenings following), Lillian put on a big spread for supper. We could not eat everything she put on our plates because there was so much on them. Each night was a banquet.
The next day Molly was sick. Mom stayed home with Molly. Who entertained Molly? Pat. Molly and Pat formed a very special relationship. She really wanted him to be the tour guide instead of that stuffy old tour guide at Hampton Court. We returned to their house that evening to find out that Molly had had a great day of playing games with Pat. The next day Molly was sick again. (I don't know if she was really sick or just enjoyed being with Pat and Lillian.) Well, we got home that evening and Molly had had a tremendous time. Food, lodging, transportation, great tourism advice, care for the sick—all in superabundance. That's what we experienced with Pat and Lillian. Do you know what? That experience gave me a real taste of how lavishly God pours out his blessings upon us, His children.