All right, why don't we pray and then we'll get the teaching portion of our study time started. Lord, we are so thankful that in your precious word, you've provided so much insight that even a child can understand it, and yet just the mysteries are often so profound that we can study this over and over and over again and constantly be learning new things about you and your character.

Would you help us tonight as we just launch our Ephesian study, that you would really cause us to want more, help us to be hungry and excited students of the word? We pray these things in Jesus' name. Well, we're going to be doing this for about a year. So some people have complained that Philippians, we went so fast and that it was hard to do like inductive questions for like 14 verses at a time.

So the people have spoken, the leaders have listened. So we are going to slow it down, especially since Ephesians is so rich in theology. What I'm going to do is rather than just, because we've done this for Colossians, we've done this for Philippians to like go through each section.

And for the most part, I believe you guys are probably now proficient in those skills. But what I do want to do is just walk through just the first two verses. And in these two verses, there's going to be a lot that you will see that will help us to understand the book.

So I want to start with the first verse. It says, "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to the saints who are at Ephesus who are faithful in Christ Jesus." I'm sorry if the lettering is small. I mean, it's on the Facebook page. You can download that.

So who is the author? And it's important to start with his pre-Christian days. So Saul is likely born between the years of 5 BC and 5 AD. So he is pretty much at the same age-ish of Jesus. He's a Roman citizen by birth from a devout Jewish family. And he's a Pharisee.

And you guys have learned this from the book of Philippians. And he is possibly even a descendant of the Herodian family. So in Romans 16, 11, you actually see him say, "Greet Herodias, my kinsman." So it's difficult to really prove that, but perhaps that helped him to get his citizenship and make his family prominent.

We don't know. He was trained under a great Pharisee named Gamaliel. He persecuted the church and was responsible for the death of many saints. Who was the most famous of the saints that he was responsible for the death of? Stephen. And so he was a very young man with a lot of power, right?

What is wrong with the... Is this the... Is it the court? It's the Apple computer. Okay. So there's clearly some prejudice. For the record, he doesn't have a smartphone. For those of you who are watching at home, I'm talking about Yong Lee. And then Paul, interesting, compared to the other apostles, he's directly appointed by Jesus as an apostle.

So these are things that you guys are familiar with, but they're important to remember because this is a man who wrote one of the most theologically rich books in all of the scriptures. Apostle of Christ Jesus. So he gets converted around 32 to 35. And for the first... If you look at the dates, you don't really know what happened the first 12, 13 years.

But in 46 to 47, he's actually spearheading this Judean famine, helping the poor effort. One thing you'll know about Paul, if you study through his letters, he's obsessed with three things. One, preaching the... Just preaching the gospel and building up the church. Two, making Christ known in unreached places.

Okay. Romans 15, 13. That's my ambition to make the gospel known to where Jesus hasn't been preached. And third, helping the poor. Okay. Galatians 2.10. He goes, "I was obsessed with helping the poor." Okay. So he's very much an apostle to the Jews. And then you have his three missionary journeys over the course of 10 years.

All right. Then he gets arrested. And from prison, he writes Ephesians. And you guys know what the prison epistles are? Philippians, Colossians, Ephesians. So we've just been in his prison time, right? Over the last year and a half of our church. But he writes Ephesians around 60, 61. So if you look at this, he's been ministering for 30 years, but half the time it was to the Jews.

Most people know Apostle Paul as an apostle to the Gentiles, missionary to the Gentiles. But most of his ministry time actually was to the Jews. So he was a minister to the Jews for about 15 years, and then a missionary to the Gentiles for about 10. Okay. Why was he, all the other 12 original apostles, their ministry was mostly to the Jewish people.

But Paul is uniquely appointed to the ministry, missionary work to the Gentiles. Because one, what kind of talents and skills did he have? He had Roman citizenship. He was trained not only in all the best Jewish training, but also he was trained under like Stoic philosophers. So he had like Gentile training.

And he probably was very multilingual. And so I share this to say, the first sphere of ministry that God's going to call you to is to your own people. But he's usually going to use you in a way that he's been equipping you from the beginning of your life.

All right. So one way to really discern a mission's call, who are those in your harvest field? Think of all that God has given you already, and that'll be a kind of a sign. Okay. So just on a side note, I think it's very funny when you have, when we were doing ministry in China, like some of these Chinese underground church students were like, "I'm going to go to Zimbabwe and Uganda." And I was like, "Why?" Because they're like thinking we have to go to the ends of the earth.

But God's not going to call you there. First of all, that country is not going to take you. You don't have a high school diploma. You don't speak English even. How are you going to go there? So the farther away you go, the harder it is to minister. And the ministry that you're going to be doing is going to just start from your Judea and then go to your Samaria and then Lord willing to the ends of the earth.

And one apostle doesn't do all of it. So just to, I mean, the reason I share this is Paul's, most of his ministry was to his own people. And then he was a minister to the Gentiles for 10. He actually spends two stints in Ephesus. First is in a second missionary journey.

And then the third one, he actually spends three years in Ephesus between 55 to 57. So he's familiar with the Ephesian church. And that's actually a very interesting question or an interesting thing that we're going to be talking about in a little bit. So Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God, by the will of God is actually a very important theme in the book of Ephesians because you're going to be hit again and again and again and again.

God's will is perfect. Okay. God's will is absolute and perfect. And it does not change from the beginning of time. So if that were to be the case, if God's will is perfect, what are some of the things that have taken place by God's will and what are some of the things that Paul's prescribing to the churches for all eternity's sake by the will of God?

The first one is there is divine sovereignty versus free will. So we don't fully understand the balance between God giving us free will and him preordaining everything, but that's fact. So we're going to wrestle with this. Predestination and election before the creation of the world are real things. And some people wrestle with that.

Well, how do I know if I'm, what if I'm not chosen? Right? Well, then I have no chance. Well, God doesn't reveal that to you right away. Right? So people wrestle with these things. But in scripture, predestination is actually, like you can't miss it if you're saying the scriptures.

Okay. There is spiritual warfare and God allows it. Wouldn't it be nice if God didn't allow spiritual warfare? It'd be awesome if whenever you preach the gospel, there was zero opposition. God is God. Amen. And everyone just goes, hallelujah. Right? That would be awesome. But he allows spiritual warfare by the will of God.

Right? So why? Worship in the church, including the diversity in forms. Okay? The way our brothers in Tanzania worship is very different from the way you guys worship. The way the worship is done in Ecuador is very different than the way people worship in Crail in Haiti. Okay? So there's a diversity in forms that Ephesians touches upon.

Gender roles in marriage. Now more and more, the society is pushing against this. Okay? And most likely, you have been impacted by this to some degree. But there are clear gender roles. And I'm not offended by it. Right? I mean, I don't use the words to my wife, hey, submit.

That's very dangerous stuff. Right? And she doesn't go, just love. Oh, she does just say, just love me. But you're careful. Right? And so, but gender roles are clearly defined in scripture by the will of God. Racial reconciliation is in here. Ministry through the church, unity of the church.

Offices and roles in the church. Pastors, elders. Okay? Apostles. Missions and evangelism is there. Role of prayer is here. Resurrection of the dead. Resurrection from the dead. All of this is in here by the will of God. Okay? And so, a lot of these are hot topics. What in the world?

Spiritual warfare. Right? Stop. Okay? So, these are things that you're going to wrestle with today. Right? These are things that are very pertinent to today's culture. So, by the will of God, all of these things have been prescribed. All right? Next, the saints. We've covered this in Philippians, so I'm not going to spend too much time.

What does it mean to be a saint? If I were to say, oh man, yeah, I love Elise. She's such a saint. Then you're thinking, oh, she's like a holy moly person. Right? No, but the biblical definition of a saint just means someone who's been called out. Okay? Set apart.

So, if you've done a cursory reading of Ephesians, how does one become a saint? And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formerly walked according to the desires of the mind and of the flesh. Right? We were by nature children of wrath, but God being rich in mercy saved us.

And for by grace you have been saved. For by grace you have been saved. You have it twice in that section in chapter two. Okay? How are we become saints? How do we become saints? Completely by the grace of God. Why do we become saints? For we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus for what?

To do good works which he prepared before Adam and Eve. Okay? So, how do we become saints? Completely by the grace of God. Why do we become saints? To proclaim the grace of God. Okay? That's the purpose. Now, I want to do a quick little study on saints. All right?

A lot of you have Catholic backgrounds. Okay? So, hopefully this is a helpful exercise. Are saints people to be worshipped or people who worship? So, the Roman Catholic Church, this is who a saint is. Someone who's exalted in heaven because of his or her exemplary virtue or merit. Saints actually skip purgatory according to the Catholic tradition.

Canonized saints by the decree of the Pope are venerated. They're a model whose life is to be emulated. If you're a really good saint, you get celebrated by festivals and holidays. And church members are encouraged to appeal to the saints to intercede with God on their behalf. But for the Christian, what is a saint?

It's basically a Christian. Right? Paul's favorite term for addressing Christians. And we become saints how? By calling on the Lord. Okay? Raise your hand if you're a saint. And you all better raise your hand. Okay? This is participation time. Raise your hand if you're a saint. Raise your hand if you're a saint because of your merit.

Raise your hand if you're a saint because of God's grace. Yes, hallelujah. All right? Anyone who comes to faith in Christ is a saint. We are not to be venerated. The one who has made us saints alone is to be venerated. Amen? Okay? And those saints are called to be separated from sin.

This is an identity. This is not a goal to be attained. All right? So Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus. Ephesus is actually a very, very important city. It's mentioned in the book of Revelation. It's mentioned a whole bunch of times.

So I'm going to, we're going to talk about the city of Ephesus. It's the mother city of Asia. Strong influence over politics, commerce, and religion. It's the major port city of the West. It's very ethnic, multi-ethnic, cosmopolitan. It was probably the third or fourth largest city in the Roman Empire.

So there are a lot of people there. Okay? And the Jewish population, percentage wise is not large. But when you have 250,000 people, 5 to 10% is a lot of people. Okay? So there's a lot of synagogues there. Okay? And there's persecution there. Okay? Ephesus was famous for its great temple, a shrine to the goddess Diana.

Anyone know what Diana is? Or who, oh, I put it there. Goddess of fertility. Okay? Anytime you are a goddess of fertility, you represent wealth. Because back in, today, if I had seven kids, some of us are close actually in this room, but if I had seven kids, that would be a burden.

But for most of human history, if I have seven kids, I have a little army of free labor. Okay? So goddess of fertility are very important. And one of the seven wonders of the world was this temple of Diana. Okay? It's still standing because they made it in marble.

All right? So 425 feet in length, 220 feet in breadth. And so this was a religious center of all of Asia. This is like the Mecca of the times. Okay? So all of the spiritual warfare talk is very important in context of where Ephesus is. There's a large stadium there seating 24,000 people.

Paul actually goes in there in Acts chapter 18 and 19. He causes a riot. Okay? Can you imagine a riot starting with 20,000? Go to Dodger Stadium and say something silly and everyone's mad at you. 27,000. So he caused a riot there. Okay? In Ephesus, there were demon castings, failed demon castings.

You have all kinds of funny stuff. But because people are turning to Christ and they're giving up their idolatry, the economy suffered. So Ephesus is actually very important. Mentioned 20 times in the New Testament. Okay? So just to give you a visual, where is Paul? Can you guys locate where Paul is?

He's in the very far, what is that? Upper left-hand corner for you guys. He's in a prison in Rome. Now with your eyes, locate Philippi. You guys see it? You should go straight. Epaphroditus visited him in there, right? There's a reason why he almost died. It's really far. Okay?

Tychicus, the pastor, has to go farther than Epaphroditus did. Right? So he's going from Rome, carrying these letters all the way to Ephesus. He actually has to cross how many bodies of water is that? At least two. Okay? So it's not close. So Paul, taking two years to get somewhere, it makes sense.

All right? So by airplane, this would not be close. Okay? So just think in Rome is where Paul is at, and from there he's writing a letter that's supposed to be circulated to these major cities. Okay? This is the Temple of Diana. Artistic rendition of it. It's huge. This is in Turkey now.

It's still kind of standing. All right? So when I go, when I'm thinking, I'm going to go to Egypt. What do I have to see if I go to Egypt? Pyramids, right? If I'm going to Paris, what do I have to see if this is my only time? Eiffel Tower, Italy, Leaning Tower of Pisa, right?

But if I'm going to Great Wall, I mean, that's a really long wall, so you can go anywhere and see that thing. But Ephesus, you go there to see this. This was a tourist attraction at the times. Okay? So there's a lot of religious stuff going on in here.

Okay? So here, this brings us to a problem. Okay? Was this really written to the church in Ephesus? Some of you guys who may have done some commentary work are like, because even if you're a familiar, like if you're just a Bible student, familiar with stuff, Philippians, is there a lot of personal stuff?

I urge you, I urge Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord and help you loyal yellow fellow, help these women, right? Along with Clement and the rest of my coworkers. So there's all of these personal people, Epaphroditus, okay? Overseers and deacons in the church. But Ephesus is where Paul spent more time than any other city.

But Ephesians is the most general letter that Paul has ever written. Nod your head if you picked up on that. Give me some feedback, yeah? It's kind of weird. He mentions nothing except Tychicus, the pastor who carried these things, right? So that's why there's a little bit of a question, did Paul really write this to the Ephesian church?

From the second century all the way to about the 19th century, everyone thought this was to the Ephesian church, okay? What is going on? Ephesian church, can you guys still see? Whatever, just pay attention, okay? Look at my face. God made it pretty, okay? But the oldest and most reliable records that they found, the manuscripts that they found that are trustworthy, actually don't have the words Ephesus in there.

NIV actually, the, hallelujah, okay? The NIV actually interprets this as to the Ephesian church. You guys notice? The God's holy people in Ephesus, the faithful in Christ Jesus. All the other translations are like those who are at Ephesus and everyone else who's faithful. So if you guys, I mean, you might not pick up on that if you're just doing one translation.

And it's interesting, oh my, okay. For the video people, they're like, why is he freaking out, right? There's a lot of technical difficulty, all right? So in 115, he says, I have heard of your faith. Can you imagine if during my time in China and Korea, I wrote emails to some of you, it's like, hey, I've heard of you guys at Berean.

That would be so weird, right? 'Cause I spent most of my ministry at Berean. So Paul, this is a very strange way to write a letter, okay? Frank Fehlman, a very well-known scholar says, this is one of the most difficult textual problems in all the New Testament. Did Paul write this to the Ephesian church?

If I had to retitle this book of the Bible, I would actually call it the Epistle to Ephesus and the Churches in Asia Minor, okay? It's supposed to be, well, I'll go to that. So the consensus among all the scholars is this, Paul did write it from prison. And Tychicus came holding these things as proof, okay?

Paul wrote it, but Ephesians was actually a circular letter intended for multiple cities. And I've listed a bunch of cities that you can get to within a day and a half of walking, okay? So this was meant to be circulated. Now if I'm going to spend three years in China, logically, where would I first go?

What would you guys think? I go Beijing. Why is Beijing so important? It's the center, right? So my first destination will be Beijing and then maybe all the other big cities. So because perhaps this was actually first taken to Ephesus because that's the hub, it was probably very closely associated with the Ephesian church, okay?

So R.C. Sproul, someone you guys are familiar with, I only put up people you're familiar with. So this is what he says. It seems likely that Paul, toward the end of his life, had a burden to write to the church in general, a synopsis of the revelation that was given him as the apostle of Jesus Christ, a summary of the great truth of Christianity.

John MacArthur, many scholars think that this letter was an encyclical, intended to be circulated among all the churches in Asia Minor. It may be that the letter was sent first to Ephesus and therefore became especially associated with that church, okay? So it's okay that it might not be only to Ephesus, okay?

But we call it Ephesians because I'd rather call it that than Paul's letter to the Ephesian church and the other churches in Asia Minor, okay? So it's supposed to be... So early texts, actually some of them, had the church name missing. So it's like a copied letter with Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, to the saints who are at blank, who are faithful in Christ Jesus.

Are you guys following this? So Ephesus definitely is on his mind, but this is not the only audience that this letter was intended for, all right? Verse two is 100% exactly the same as Philippians. If you guys have memorized Philippians, this should be very familiar, "Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." 100%, so I'm not going to talk about grace or peace, okay?

Other Ephesian similarities, Colossians and Ephesians are very similar. 155 of the Ephesian verses, 75 of Colossians, it's very similar to the book of Ephesians. Ephesians 6, 21 to 22, Colossians 4, 7 to 8, almost 32 words are like almost word for word, slight variations. So Paul probably wrote these at the same time, okay?

So he had a lot on his mind, and then he distributed it to their intended churches. So the book of Ephesians is extremely important. It's some people's favorite books throughout the history of Christendom. This is one of the favorite books, okay? So Paul wrote it for a general audience to start with at Ephesus.

So this is why we study this. Clinton Arnold, who was actually one of my favorite profs at seminary, this is what he says, "This letter summarizes what it means to be a Christian better than any other book of the Bible. William Barclay, by common consent, the letter to the Ephesians ranks very high in the devotional theological literature of the Christian church.

When the Scottish Protestant reformer John Knox was very near to death, the book that was most often read to him was John Calvin's sermon on the letter to the Ephesians. John MacArthur says, "Ephesians has been given such titles as the believer's bank, the Christian's checkbook, the treasurer of the house of the Bible," because you see like inheritance, riches, fullness, fill to fill to fill, you see that a lot, okay?

This beautiful letter tells Christians of their great riches, inheritance, and fullnesses in Jesus Christ and his church. Ephesians focuses on the basic doctrine of the church, what it is, and how believers function within it. Why should we study this? So we can do church God's way, not Orange County's way, not America's way, but God's way.

You guys following along? It's not helpful to go like verses three to eight, verses nine to 14. That's helpful when you're doing a personal study, but here's one easy way to just remember Ephesians. First three chapters, doctrine. So there's a lot of heavy stuff in there. Last three chapters, application.

The because, and then you have the therefore. So chapters one through three is very theological. Chapters four through six is very practical. So from here till June, we're going to be very theological. We're going to do theology. We're going to do a lot of it, like predestination, spiritual gifts.

We're going to do all this stuff. But then toward the end of the year, we're going to be like, then what does that mean for my life? Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful in building others up according to their needs.

Oh man, I have to apply this. Let him who steals, steal no longer. Oh man, wives, submit to your husbands. Ooh, I got to apply that. I mean, half of you do. I don't have to. So chapter four, you have that hinge, therefore, and therefores are very important words because you have to say, what is that therefore, therefore?

And then you have the therefore. Here's what is to be expected. So chapter four starts with, therefore, I, prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called. The word in a manner worthy, it's literally suitable, fitting, snug.

Walk snug of the gospel, as appropriate to. So he's going to give you three chapters of what God's done. And then we're going to look at three chapters practically of what we ought to do because of what God has done. So that's the overall view of the Ephesians. Couple things to remember.

Who wrote it? Paul. Super general letter to generally the churches in Asia Minor, starting with Ephesus. Very theological. First three chapters, theology. Last three chapters, church. How do we live this out in the context of our people? So you're going to do some discussion time. Here's some questions. What are some things that Ephesians says about the will of God that you have a hard time coming to grips with?

Because we're going to cover them in the first few months. I have a hard time trusting if God really is good, then why does this happen? That's actually part of that heart is in all of us. So I'm going to grapple with this. Some of you husbands are passive.

I don't know how to lead my wife. But as Christ loved the church, but sometimes she's mean. You're going to have to wrestle with this. What are the things of the will of God that you have a hard time wrestling with? Two, in what tangible areas of your life are you praying that the letter to the Ephesians speaks into this year?

In your marriage, in your spiritual warfare, in your understanding of theology, in your being filled with the spirit rather than being filled with drunkenness. What is that for you? Because we're going to spend 2020 not only doing evangelism, but we're going to study how God wants church to be done.

And the third question, Ephesians 6 describes our struggles not being against flesh and blood. People are never your enemy. Nod your heads if you agree with that. If the person sitting next to you, you don't like him, you don't like her, he or she is not the problem. There are spiritual forces at work that's causing division and strife.

So in your life, there are probably people that you want to hug very, very tightly to hurt them, right? Or punch them in the face. But our spiritual struggle is against the spiritual world and not people. People are never the enemy. Donald Trump, he is not anyone's enemy. Obama, Clinton, the thief on the cross is not people.

What are some of the battles you feel you are currently engaging in that you need prayer over? And that's how I want you guys to kind of share practically. And that's it. Let me pray for us and then we'll dismiss you to discussion. Lord, we're embarking on an interesting year.

And Lord, in the pit of all of our hearts, we want to do church your way. So would you teach your people how to properly be your people? And would you help us to live out what we say we believe? For your name's sake, in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.