Ephesians: Paul's Background
Tom Shrader opens a new expository series through Ephesians by walking through Paul's dramatic conversion and apostolic calling in Acts, establishing who Paul was before the letter's first word is unpacked. He draws out the close parallels between Ephesians and Colossians, showing how Ephesians expands on themes of Christ's all-sufficiency into a broader vision of cosmic reconciliation. The broad structure of the letter is previewed — doctrinal foundations in chapters one through three giving way to behavioral imperatives in chapters four through six — framing the entire study around God's great love displayed in redemption.
“God loves you with great love. God sent Christ to come and die so that you would have eternal life, and He did this while you were dead in your sins — not while you were in union with Him, not while you were one of His kids, but while you hated Him.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Ephesians
Recorded: 2010 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 48 min
Themes: redemption, grace, calling, love, reconciliation, bible study, transformation, purpose, new believer, longtime churchgoer, searching for purpose, spiritually curious, returning to faith, young adult, small group leader, feeling spiritually stuck
Scripture: Ephesians 1:1-2, Ephesians 1:3, Ephesians 1:5, Ephesians 1:7, Ephesians 1:10, Ephesians 1:18, Ephesians 1:22, Ephesians 2:1-5, Ephesians 3:2, Ephesians 4:1, Ephesians 4:4, Ephesians 4:22, Ephesians 4:24, Ephesians 5:22, Colossians 1:1, Colossians 1:10, Colossians 1:14, Colossians 1:25, Colossians 1:27, Colossians 2:13, Colossians 3:9, Colossians 3:18, Romans 1:1, Romans 1:7, John 14:16, Acts 1:4, Acts 1:7-8, Acts 2:37, Acts 2:41-42, Acts 2:47, Acts 4:12-13, Acts 7:54-58, Acts 8:1-3, Acts 9:1-15, Acts 18:18, Acts 20:36
Theological Themes: apostleship, soteriology, salvation, cosmic reconciliation, expository preaching, pauline theology, sanctification, biblical authority
Full Transcript
it the key to the whole of Paul's writings. And somebody else says it is the crown of Paulinism. So, these are people across the centuries who have endorsed, in a sense, the book of Ephesians. I want us to understand that as we start this.
Introduction to the Study
Open your Bibles to the book of Ephesians. If you don't have a Bible with you, raise your hand and the guys will give you a copy of the Old and New Testament.
We are starting something new today. Whenever we do a new book study, there is always an excitement, not just within me, but I think even within the church. I have spent more time preparing, reading, praying, meditating, thinking, studying, and anticipating this study than any study I have ever done — and that is without exception.
One of the great challenges I have in presenting any lesson, and I really felt this in preparing for the book of Ephesians, is the reality that as a church, we are all at different places spiritually. If you are teaching a college class, there are prerequisites and everyone understands what they are. Here, we have people at all different places spiritually, so my prayer has been that God would take this study — not just today, but our entire study of the book of Ephesians — and apply it to our lives right where we are.
I had an incident last summer that illustrates this challenge well, though it happens regularly. I finished a message and a man came up and said it was his last Sunday at the church. When I asked why, he said, "This is just fluff. There's no meat to what you teach, there's no depth to what you do." The very next man behind him said he didn't think he could come anymore either — because it was way over his head. That is the challenge. My prayer is that God would meet each of us in the book of Ephesians right where we are.
Endorsements for the Book of Ephesians
I was walking across campus one Sunday night when someone asked if I had read the new John Piper book, *Spectacular Sins and Their Global Purpose in the Glory of God*. I said I hadn't, and both he and his son told me it was an incredible book. A couple of minutes later, the man came back and said he had found it in the bookstore and wanted to buy me a copy.
I want to be transparent with you: I receive about ten books a month from people, and I almost never read them. People give me books and seem to expect a book report within a week — it just isn't going to happen. But this man's recommendation, along with his son's, made me take notice. Then on the back cover I found endorsements from Joni Eareckson Tada, Matt Chandler, Chris Tomlin, and Randy Pope. Inside the flap were further endorsements from Rick Holland, Miles Van Pelt, Darren Patrick, and Stephen Childers. And when you open the book, the very first two pages after the dedication are filled with recommendations.
When I am in a bookstore, I will regularly look for a recommendation, even if I am already familiar with the author. I was looking the other day at a book on Abraham Lincoln, thinking how many books could possibly be written about him. But when I checked, I found endorsements from James McPherson and a number of well-regarded Civil War scholars. I am not saying it was a good book, but those names elevated it considerably in my mind.
I mention all of this because, as we start this study, I want to share what several people across the centuries have said about the book of Ephesians. One author calls it the quintessential Pauline epistle. Another says that only Romans could match Ephesians as a candidate for exercising the most influence on Christian thought and spiritual action. Another writes that it is the quintessential Pauline book because, in large measure, it sums up the leading themes of all of Paul's epistles. One calls it the divinest composition of man. John Calvin called it the key to the whole of Paul's writings. And another describes it as the crown of Paulinism. These are endorsements from people across the centuries, and I want us to hold that in mind as we begin.
Introduction to the Book of Ephesians
John Knox, as he was dying, asked that he be read continually John Calvin's sermons on the book of Ephesians. It is called the queen of the epistles. The recommendations go on and on, and you get a sense, even as you casually begin to acquaint yourself with the Christian faith, that the book of Ephesians is an important book.
Over the last year, especially in the last six months, we have seen huge numbers of people coming to East Valley Bible Church for the first time, many of them very new to the faith. Maybe you are one of those. Maybe you have just walked in today and found yourself in this book study. I would ask you to hang with us until we are done with this book, because I think you will discover what really drives East Valley Bible Church as we talk through Ephesians. You will understand who we are.
I encourage you to come with a Bible. Bibles are a lot like drivers — it helps to be fitted for them. Maybe you want a study Bible, maybe one you can carry easily, or one you can put in your purse and make notes outside of. Come with a Bible and a notebook, and let us dig in and see whatever time God wants us to spend in this book.
Opening Prayer
Father, thank You for our time together here today. I thank You for the Apostle Paul. We understand that as this pen was moved, and though this embraces his personality and his thoughts, this is a book that was inspired by You. We hold Your words and ideas in our hands.
Thank You for preserving this, and for allowing us to be here today to begin to tear into this letter and understand some of these amazing truths. God, I really do believe that You have written to us this book, the Bible. If we say that You are our Lord, our Master, our Savior, our God, and if You have communicated to us, then we ought to be pretty familiar with the things You have told us. What You tell us in this book is how great Your love is for us, and how You desire for our understanding to grow. You send Your Spirit to do that work in our lives.
Father, here is our bold request — based not on our own confidence, but on Your promise that Your Spirit would apply Your Word to our hearts. I pray especially for those for whom this might be a whole new experience, the first time they have actually spent time going through a book chapter by chapter, verse by verse. God, I pray that You would excite them, speak to them, and that they would become lifelong learners and lovers of Your Word. God, do that work in our lives. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.
Getting Started in Ephesians
If you have a Bible from us and you are back in the New Testament — about two-thirds of the way back — turn to page 150. If you have your own Bible, it is Ephesians chapter 1. As we look at the book of Ephesians, let me tell you how far we got today. We got to Ephesians chapter 1, verse 1, word one. That is all the further we got. The pace will pick up, but there is some groundwork to lay. There are 155 verses, so we are not going to take it one word at a time, but it sometimes helps to get familiar with Paul, the background, and what he is doing.
Oftentimes in Paul's letters — and there are 13 of them in the New Testament — he is writing to address a specific situation. He is writing to correct behavior, to correct a problem in the church, to correct some doctrine, to encourage someone as in 1 and 2 Timothy, or to admonish someone. He is dealing with some specific issue, oftentimes a crisis. This letter is not that kind of letter at all.
The Nature and Setting of Paul's Letter
Let us read verses 1 and 2: "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, and who are faithful in Christ Jesus: grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."
Though the letter says it is written to the Ephesians, it is important to note that in the earliest manuscripts, the phrase "at Ephesus" is not present. As you read through this letter, you will see that it was designed to be a general epistle — one that would be sent to Ephesus, where it would be important, but also copied and circulated to the other churches in Asia Minor, and ultimately brought all the way down to us today.
Ephesus was the fourth largest city in the world at that time. There were about 250,000 people living there. Paul is writing into this major city, and what he is doing is not addressing their specific local issues, but writing a general letter designed for broad circulation. There is some real strategy in this.
Ephesians and Colossians: A General Letter with a Dual Focus
Paul designed this letter so that it would be taken from Ephesus — a place of political power, economic power, cult worship, magic, and religion all mixed together — and disseminated outward from there. In the broadest sense, Ephesians is a general letter with a dual focus: a focus on Christ and the sufficiency of Christ, and a focus on the church.
Ephesians is remarkably similar to the book of Colossians. There are 155 verses in Ephesians, and 75 of them are either verbatim or strikingly similar to verses in Colossians. Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Philemon are four epistles Paul wrote in prison.
When Paul was traveling, he dealt with crises as they arose and would write letters in response. Even in writing Colossians, he was addressing specific doctrinal issues within that church. But now he is in prison and, we would suggest, he has time. After penning Colossians, God moved him to take those themes and expand on them — to take the idea of the sufficiency of Christ and develop it further. That is the relationship between these two books.
Parallel Passages: Seeing the Similarities
It may seem a little tedious, but looking at some of the similarities between Ephesians and Colossians is genuinely helpful. Not all 75 parallel verses, but enough to see the pattern.
In both books, the introductions are almost identical. Ephesians opens: "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who were at Ephesus and who are faithful in Christ Jesus." Colossians 1:1 reads: "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, Timothy, to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ who are at Colossae, grace to you and peace from God our Father."
In Ephesians 1:7, Paul writes about redemption: "In Christ we have redemption through His blood and forgiveness." In Colossians 1:14, Paul says, "In whom we have redemption and forgiveness of sin." In Ephesians 1:18, Paul speaks of believers being enlightened "so that we may know what is the hope of His calling and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints." In Colossians 1:27, Paul writes "to whom God willed to make known to them the riches of the glory of this mystery."
Ephesians 2:5 states, "Even though we were dead in our transgressions, we were made alive together with Christ." Colossians 2:13 echoes this: "When you were dead in your trespasses and your uncircumcised in your flesh, He made you alive together with Him." Ephesians 3:2 reads, "You have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which is given to me for you, that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery." Colossians 1:25 parallels this: "I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so I might fully carry out the preaching of the word. That is the mystery which has been hidden from ages past."
The pattern continues into the practical sections. Ephesians 4:1 says, "Therefore I, a prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of your calling." Colossians 1:10 says, "So that you may walk in a manner worthy of the Lord." Ephesians 4:22–24 introduces the theme of laying aside the old self and putting on the new. Paul says in verse 22, "Lay aside your old self which was corrupted in accordance with the lust of the flesh," and in verse 24, "Put on the new self." He then gives examples, including: "Lay aside falsehood but speak the truth." Colossians 3:9 mirrors this directly: "Do not lie to one another since you laid aside the old self with its evil practices and put on the new."
Practical Life: Household and Relational Teaching
This parallel pattern extends even into the most practical instructions. Ephesians 5:22 addresses wives and husbands, then children obeying parents, then the work relationship — slaves being obedient to their masters. Colossians 3:18 covers essentially the same ground: wives with their husbands, husbands loving their wives, children obeying parents, fathers not exasperating their children, slaves being obedient to their masters, and masters treating their slaves with dignity.
Colossians and Ephesians: Core and Expansion
At its core, Colossians is a book about the sufficiency and all-sufficiency of Christ. Paul says that pertaining to wisdom and knowledge, we find everything we need in Him. Ephesians then becomes Paul fleshing that out in even grander terms.
Within the book of Ephesians itself, there is a logical and obvious pivot point at chapter 4. Chapters 1, 2, and 3 are heavily doctrinal. Chapters 4, 5, and 6 are very practical — though those distinctions are not entirely absolute.
The Structure of Ephesians
Ephesians 1 through 3 is theological, and Ephesians 4 through 6 is behavioral. Chapters 1, 2, and 3 focus on truth, while chapters 4, 5, and 6 are the consequences of that truth. The first three chapters are indicative or declarative, and chapters 4, 5, and 6 are commands.
You see Paul, and the minute he gets to verse 3, he floods you with this idea: "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing." He's given us everything we need, and then he begins to talk about what that means. He talks about salvation and all the things that go with it. When he gets to chapter 4, there is again that pivot point. He says, "Therefore — therefore because all that doctrine is true, because that's who you really are — I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of your calling."
In other words, Paul is saying: take these doctrinal truths, get them in your mind and your heart, so that they will affect the way you behave. When he talks about walking, he is not talking about a primitive mode of transportation of placing one foot in front of the other. What he is talking about is a lifestyle — the way we live.
So what he is saying is: here are these great truths. God loves you. God sent Christ to die for you. You are now His child. You have been redeemed. You have been forgiven. You were dead, and now you are alive. He has taken the Gentiles and the Jews and said there is no more of that — we are now all one in Christ. And because that is true, start to live that way. It affects how you behave, how you think, how you respond, and your relationships with each other and as a church. He begins to talk about the church and the idea of one body, one Spirit.
Cosmic Reconciliation
In a broad sense, what this book is about is cosmic reconciliation. We sense that something is wrong — that things are not as they are supposed to be in the world. When we read Genesis 1 and 2, we see Adam and Eve in perfect union with God in this place called paradise, and yet by the time we get to Genesis 4, we sense something has gone terribly wrong. Genesis 3 holds the key.
We sin, and when we sin, we turn everything upside down. Everything began to change, so that life becomes a constant struggle to keep things in place. That is simply how it is.
What We Say Versus How We Live
I have had a half a dozen conversations already today about the new year and getting things straight. I went to the gym yesterday — nobody is in the gym on Saturday — and that place was jammed. I just have to be patient, because another couple of weeks and it will thin out. It is a bunch of New Year's resolutions, and you may be one of them.
I met a really interesting man after the first service. He mentioned he had not been in church in fifteen years. What is interesting is that at the end of our lives, by and large, we are going to say that what mattered most to us was faith, family, and friends. But we live as though what is more important are things other than faith, family, and friends.
Consider what happened at the national championship game the other night. Forty-five minutes before kickoff, the stands were essentially full. When they kicked off, there was not an empty seat anywhere. The noise level was so high that Chris Fowler was trying to talk to Pete Carroll on the field and they could not hear each other. I am not saying there ought to be that kind of volume in here on a Sunday. But it is interesting how we prioritize things.
They can arbitrarily say that on January 7th at 6:20 Mountain Time, this game will kick off — and businessmen who fly their own jets, who cannot return your call, who are too busy to meet with you for fifteen minutes, can arbitrarily block out that entire day and be in Pasadena. No one consulted their schedule to ask whether it worked for them. I am not putting that down. I am simply saying that is how we are. We are pulled into that way of thinking. We say faith, family, and friends, but we really live like football, food, money, and work matter most.
Something Is Wrong in the World
Something is wrong in the world, and we sense it. There is strife. There are people around the world — hundreds of thousands of them — whose stated goal is to come here and kill us. There are families that do not talk to each other. There are friends who do not speak to each other. There are neighbors who only communicate through the homeowners association or through lawyers.
Something is wrong. And what this book is about is God not merely putting us together individually — though we do see that. We see that we were dead and now we are alive, saved by grace through faith. But there is a bigger theme. When Paul gets to verse 10, he...
Christ as God's Instrument of Reconciliation
This is the summing up of all things in Christ. Things in heaven and things on the earth are in Him. This has all been brought together in Him. Chapter 1, verse 22 says, "And he has put all things in subjection under his feet, and he gives him as a head over all things to the church."
There is a big picture here about reconciliation. Look at the words in chapter 1: in verse 5, the idea of adoption; in verse 7, the idea of redemption; and throughout the balance of the chapter, the idea of reconciliation — the idea that we now have access to the Father. We don't have to go through a priest, or some sort of cleric, or a pastor. We have direct access to Him.
The temple curtain was torn not from the bottom up, but from the top down, to signify that God is the one who did that. He put together Jew and Gentile. And in chapter 4, verse 4, He declares one body, one Spirit, one Lord, one calling, one baptism. The idea is not that we find unity — the idea is that we are in it. He calls us a body. We are all knitted together.
Christ has died, come, and redeemed, and is in the process of restoring things to the way they should be, though it will never happen fully until Christ returns again. On a grand theme, the idea is this: Christ is God's instrument of reconciliation, and we, the church, are Christ's instrument of reconciliation to the world.
The Witness of a Changed People
When people see us, they should see something different and unique — not odd, but different and unique. Someone should walk in here and sense something different. My father, years ago, was sitting right over there one day, and after the service he said, "I am amazed at how many people here smile." Now, that doesn't sound like a big thing, but what does that tell you? Something as simple as a smile speaks volumes in this world.
After 9/11, they were interviewing a lady on the streets of New York, and she said, "I think this has really changed the city. A man today held the door for me." Can you imagine that? A small gesture — holding a door — speaking volumes. God has done something far greater than that. He has redeemed you.
Look at chapter 2, verse 1: "You were dead in your sins and trespasses." Verses 2 and 3 say you were dead, and you lived like you were dead. Verse 4: "But God, because of his great love with which he loved you..." That is the whole message of this book — and by "book" I mean the Bible. The whole message is how much God loved you.
God loves you with a great love. God sent Christ to come and die so that you would have eternal life, and He did this while you were dead in your sins — not while you were in union with Him, not while you were one of His children, but while you hated Him. He loved you, and He ripped out of you — whether you acknowledge it or not — a heart of stone and replaced it with a heart of flesh.
Observations from Ephesians 1:1
Let's go back to chapter 1, verse 1 of Ephesians. As I said, we are only going to get past word one. But if I just gave you a piece of paper and said, "Make some general observations," you could do that. You don't need extensive study for this part.
First, you have the man who wrote it: Paul. He identifies himself as an apostle, and then he tells you how he became an apostle — by the will of God. Then he tells you who he is writing to: in this case, the saints who were at Ephesus. He tells us true things about them — they are faithful. And then there is a very important phrase that becomes important for the whole book: they are in Christ Jesus.
You can already see that phrase again as your eye drops down to verse 3, where he says He blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. So you begin to pull things out of verse 1 with just a notebook and a pen. In verse 2, Paul says he is wishing two things for you — grace and peace — and then he tells you the source of those. The grace and the peace are not natural; they are supernatural, and they are gifts of God.
This is a standard Pauline introduction, and it appears in virtually every one of his letters. I started going through them and thought I would wear everyone out, but book after book he identifies himself — either as a bondservant, as in Romans chapter 1, "Paul, a bondservant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle," and then when he reaches verse 7, "to all who are beloved of God in Rome, called as saints: grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ." It is a recurring theme. Paul is driving at something. This is more than just a greeting — he is telling us there are these two things called grace and peace, and they are not naturally produced; they are supernatural.
Who Was Paul?
I want to focus on the very first word of this letter from Paul to the church at Ephesus — and that word is Paul himself. There are so many of you who are new, and even people who have been around for a while hear the name Paul and wonder who he is — just another guy, probably someone raised in the church, who went to Sunday school, went to student ministries, went to winter camp, went to some Bible college, and then came back and started a church. He is far more than that.
Turn with me to the book of Acts — it is page 91 in the Bible we gave you. When Luke ends his gospel, Jesus has told the disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait. That is where we find them in Acts chapter 1, verse 4. They are gathered together, and He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem but to wait — to wait for what the Father had promised.
The Promise of the Helper
What Jesus had promised, Jesus had said to them the night before He died: "I'm going to leave you, but I'm not going to leave you alone." This is from John chapter 14, verse 16: "I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper, and He may be with you forever. He is the Spirit of truth." A little later in this address, Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I don't go away, the helper will not come. But if I go away, I will send Him to you."
Jesus also said, "I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. But when He, the Spirit of truth — that is, the helper — comes, He will make these things known to you." So they are in Jerusalem, anticipating and waiting. Jesus appears, and they are wondering about the last days.
Jesus says in verse 7, "It is not for you to know the day, the hour, the time. But you will have power when the Spirit of God comes upon you, and then you will bear witness — Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the remotest parts of the earth." Then Jesus ascends into heaven.
They continue to be there together in the upper room. Verse 14 says they are of one mind, praying. Mary is there, the other women are there, and Peter stands in the midst of these people — about a hundred and twenty gathered together. He says, "Brethren, this scripture has been fulfilled which the Holy Spirit foretold from the mouth of David."
Then, through the end of chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2, the Holy Spirit comes. That helper comes. They are now prepared and have the power to do what Jesus said they would do — to be His witnesses.
The Transforming Power of the Holy Spirit
Peter stands, and here is evidence of the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. Roughly a month and a half earlier, Peter had denied Christ three times — once to a little servant girl — embarrassed, ashamed, intimidated. Now he stands and delivers a message that is powerful in itself and used powerfully by the Word of God.
Chapter 2, verse 37: when the people heard this, they responded. They were pierced to the heart and said, "What should we do?" And Peter said, "Repent and believe, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." The promise came to them, and verse 41 tells us that about three thousand people were saved that day.
Verse 42 says they continued to meet together, going about the business of church — studying the Word of God, spending time together, sharing communion, and praying together. There was a general sense of awe. They began meeting each other's needs, liquidating property when necessary to care for one another within the body.
They were growing day by day. Verse 47 says they were praising God and praying for each other, and they had favor with people. The outside world was looking at them and saying, "There is something unique and different there." Even those who did not understand it, or who disagreed with it even when they did understand it, still had to admire them. And God was continually adding to their number those who were being saved.
The Growth Strategy of the Early Church
So what is the growth strategy for the church? I would suggest it is teaching, prayer, fellowship, communion, and living life. That is what they were doing — just living life, going house to house, going about their daily activity. And in the course of that, God was blessing it, growing the church, and bringing people to faith.
That is who you are. Just as they were witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, you are a missionary, you are a witness. In a few minutes these doors are going to open and out you go — to the commons, home, the gym, Costco, getting together with friends to watch the game. Four weeks from today, if it is anything like a national holiday, it is Super Bowl Sunday.
What Paul is saying is that as you live life, you do not have to stand on a street corner shouting "Repent." As you live life, people begin to see something distinctive and different about you, and they are drawn to it — drawn to you, not repulsed by it. Living out the Christian faith is not designed to repulse people. We understand there will be conflict and opposition — we are going to see that in a moment — but there is something winsome about this as God begins to expand the church.
Uneducated Men Who Had Been with Jesus
Peter and John, in chapter 4, continue to teach. The Jews, the Sadducees, and the temple guard are upset by this. They arrest them, bring them before the Scribes and the Pharisees, who have seen the healings that have taken place. And all Peter can say, in Acts chapter 4, verse 12, is: "There is salvation in no one else. There is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which you can be saved."
Now look at verse 13: "As these people observed the confidence of Peter and John, they understood they were uneducated and untrained men. They were amazed and began to recognize them as having been with Jesus." They did not say, "Where did they go to school?" — and I am not against education at all. They did not say, "What a pedigree, what a training." They looked at them and said, "There is something unique and different about these men. It is not where they have been to school. It is that they have been with Jesus."
So the one appropriate question to ask is this: when people see you, do they say, "There is a man, there is a woman, there is a student who has been with Jesus — I can see Jesus in them"? They cannot stop this movement. They try. They try persecution.
Stephen and the Spread of the Church
By the time we get to Acts chapter 7, there is a man by the name of Stephen who has been converted.
Stephen's Martyrdom and Saul's Role
In Acts chapter 7, Stephen delivers a powerful, unrestrained message. When the Jews heard it, they were cut to the quick. Unlike the people back in Acts chapter 2, who were asking what they must do to believe, these men were gnashing their teeth. But Stephen, filled with the Holy Spirit, gazed intently into heaven, saw the glory of God, and saw Jesus standing at the right hand. He said, "Behold, I see the heavens open and the Son of Man seated at the right hand." They cried out with a loud voice, covered their ears, and rushed him, dragging him out to the edge of the city to stone him.
Verse 58 records that the witnesses laid aside their robes at the feet of a young man named Saul. That man, called there Saul, is the man Paul who writes this letter.
Paul's Persecution of the Church
Paul was in hearty agreement with putting Stephen to death. As recorded in chapter 8, a great persecution arose against the church that day, and believers were scattered everywhere. Paul began ravaging the church — a word used in secular literature to describe a wild animal ripping apart its prey — going house after house, dragging off men and women, and putting them into prison, killing them if necessary.
So effective was Paul at this that by the time we reach Acts chapter 9, he was still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord. He went to the high priest and requested a letter to the synagogue at Damascus, intending to go there and find anyone belonging to the Way — men or women alike — and bring them back bound to Jerusalem.
The Road to Damascus
It was on that road to Damascus that God encountered Paul, and this is very important. Saul was not looking for God. He already believed he was on God's team. He was not searching for some deep theological truth. He was attacking the Christian faith because he believed it was opposition to the God and the religion he served. But on that road, something took place. A light came, he fell to the ground, and he heard a voice saying, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?" Saul said, "Who are You, Lord?" And the voice replied, "I am Jesus whom you are persecuting."
In that moment, there was a complete reversal of all that Saul was. Though the name had not yet changed, Saul of Tarsus became the Apostle Paul. A man — not an angel, a man, because that is so often how God works, through people like you and me — came to him and said in verse 15, "Go, for you are My chosen instrument to bear My name to the Gentiles, the kings, and the sons of Israel, and to show him how much he must suffer."
Paul's Transformation and Connection to Ephesus
Paul's life was now transformed. He came to the church at Jerusalem, where they were understandably very skeptical. He assured them he was one of them, spent some time with them, and then escaped under the genuine threat of death. Paul then entered a period in which he was trained by God Himself, beginning the missionary journeys that carried the gospel message outward.
At the end of his second missionary journey, recorded in Acts chapter 18, Paul had partnered with a couple named Priscilla and Aquila. At the end of that journey he left them in Ephesus, promising to return. Then, during his third missionary journey, Paul came back to Ephesus and spent two and a half years there. His relationship with that church was remarkably close. Timothy, the man Paul loved more than anyone else in the world, was left there to pastor. Tradition holds that the Apostle John spent much of his later life there, and that Mary, the mother of Jesus, attended church there and was buried there.
The Surprising Tone of the Letter
Given all of that history and intimacy, it is striking that when you read through the letter of Ephesians, none of that closeness appears — none of it. At the end of chapter 20, Paul is making his way back toward Jerusalem and stops at Ephesus. He greets the elders, warns them, and calls them together. Verse 36 records that he knelt down and prayed with them, and they began to weep. You can see the intimacy and connection in that moment, and yet in the letter itself there is none of that. This is one of the reasons many people believe Ephesians was designed to be a general epistle, intended for a broader audience beyond just the Ephesian congregation.
A Personal Application
What Paul experienced is available to each and every one of you — a reversal of ways. You may not have even been seeking God when you came in here today. You may have arrived thinking you were fine, and now, as you pause, you realize you are not. That is God working in your heart. What do you need to do? Come to Him in repentance and faith. Believe that Jesus is who He said He was.
Looking Ahead
We did not get very far today — one hundred and fifty-five verses, ten words of verse, perhaps fifteen hundred words of text. We will be out of this book in fifteen hundred Sundays at this pace. We will pick this up next week, and my intention is to get a meaningful chunk covered. It is worth noting that verses 3 through 14 in the Greek are all one sentence, making them a single continuous thought. We will begin to chip away at that next week.
If you are with us for the very first time, I am glad you are here. And if you have been around East Valley Bible Church for a long time, I truly believe this is an important season in the history of our church and that this is an important book for us to be studying right now. Grab a Bible and a notebook, and we will see you back here next week.
Closing Prayer
Thank you for the gift of eternal life that we find in Jesus and Him alone. Thank you for the Apostle Paul preserving this letter. When we read his story, we see that he was a scoundrel, a religious bigot, a religious scoundrel. He wasn't seeking You, but You were seeking him — the Hound of Heaven. That's who You are. God, I pray You would hunt us down and do whatever You need to do in our lives to conform us to Your will. In Jesus' name, amen.