Robert Jeffress - Holy Living In An Unholy World - Part 1
Hi, I'm Robert Jeffress, and welcome again to "Pathway to Victory". The church in the first century city of Ephesus bears surprising resemblance to our churches today. These young believers sought to grow in their love and knowledge of Jesus Christ, but the pagan culture in which they lived threatened to undermine their sincere intentions. Sound familiar? Well, today we're embarking on a verse by verse study through the book of Ephesians in which we'll discover how to live for Jesus in a godless culture. My series is titled "Holy Living in an Unholy World" on today's edition of "Pathway to Victory".
You may or may not know the name of Hetty Green. She had a nickname during her lifetime. She was known as the witch of wall street. She was the richest woman in America during the time she lived. In fact, when she died, she left an estate in 1916 of $100 million which would be about $3 billion today. She had another nickname, America's Greatest Miser. That's a nice way of saying she was cheap. Now, this is a point that you yell back to me, "How cheap was she"? She was so cheap that she ate her oatmeal cold every morning because she didn't wanna pay to heat the water.
Now that's cheap. She was so cheap that when her son developed an infection in his leg, she spent so much time looking for a free clinic to treat him that he developed gangrene and had to have his leg amputated. Now that is cheap. I could tell you other stories. American history is replete with stories about wealthy people who live like misers. But you know, a greater tragedy than that. There are many Christians today who have inherited endless spiritual wealth because of their relationship to Jesus Christ. They don't realize it and they live like spiritual paupers. And that was a problem that the apostle Paul was concerned about.
In fact, so concerned that he wrote a letter about it, a letter to the Christians at Ephesus that we call Ephesians. And today we're going to begin this study that I'm calling "Holy living in an unholy world". We're gonna discover how we are to live in light of the great wealth that has been deposited into our spiritual bank account because of our relationship with Christ. If you have your Bibles, turn to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. Now, some people may wonder in fact, if you have asked me, why are we choosing the study Ephesians right now at this time in our church?
Well, the simple answer is because we haven't studied it before, but there's a better answer to that. I think there are two reasons the book of Ephesians is especially relevant to our church at this time. First of all, it's a reminder of our sufficiency in Jesus Christ. The sufficiency of Jesus Christ. You know, we're living in a world that is infected with a desire for more. Everybody's looking for more. More money, more pleasure, more recognition and that insatiable desire for more spills over in our spiritual life.
I hear Christians say, "I'm tired of the same old, same old: I want something new". And so, they go looking for new experiences in their Christian faith, new doctrines, new Revelation that will put some excitement in their Christian faith. And yet the book of Ephesians reminds us that if we are in Christ, a phrase Paul uses regularly. If we are in Christ, God has already given us everything we need for a full and satisfying relationship with God. Secondly, the book of Ephesians is a reminder of the centrality of the church. The centrality of the church.
Look at polls, and you see them often. Church attendance is dropping precipitously in America today. And much of that drop is due to Christians who feel like the church is no longer relevant. A lot of people say, you know, the idea of a church that's an antiquated idea. It's quaint, but it's antiquated. The idea of people coming together to encourage one another and worship and hear the Word of God, and so they've dropped out of the church and they're looking for some new organization, something else they think is more relevant to get the gospel out and they get excited about this ministry here or this ministry here or this ministry here and they forget the church.
Ladies and gentlemen, there are a lot of good organizations out there, a lot of good Christian organizations, but the church is the only organization in the world that was designed by God. Every other institution no matter how good, is a manmade institution and is destined ultimately to fail. But the church of Jesus Christ was God's idea. God chose to invest his ministry and even his own reputation with the local church. I know some people say, oh, well, when you're talking about the church, the church in the Bible means all Christians everywhere. Sometimes that's true. The universal church. But out of 110 uses of the Greek word "Ecclesia," church in the Bible, 95 of those times refers to the local church.
The local church is God's plan for accomplishing his mission. In the last benediction of Ephesians chapter 3, remember what verses 20 and 21 say? "Now to him who is able to do exceeding abundantly beyond all that we ask or think according to the power that works within us, to him be all the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus for all generations forever and ever, amen". God wants to be glorified in the world. How is he glorified? Well, he's glorified through Jesus Christ. Jesus was the ultimate expression of God. But guess what? Jesus isn't here any longer. Jesus has left the building. He's in heaven right now.
The world can't see the invisible Christ, but what they do see is the body of Christ which is the church. And what the world ends up thinking about Jesus is largely determined by what they think about the church. And that's why it's so important Paul says, in the book of Ephesians, that we be unified as a church, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, but that we be committed to operating the church the way God says. And we're gonna talk about that in Ephesians chapter 4. It's a reminder of the centrality of the church.
Now today, for the few minutes we have, I wanna do three things. First of all, we're gonna look at an overview of the book of Ephesians, specifically the background of this book, which is key to understanding what it's all about and what it means to us. Secondly, we're gonna briefly survey the book. I call it preview of coming attractions, just some of the things we're gonna discover in the book of Ephesians. And then finally, in a few minutes, I wanna close with two practical applications from the book of Ephesians.
First of all, let's look at an overview of the book. In a couple of hours, I'm gonna get on a plane and go to New York city for some interviews over the next couple of days. And Amy is not worried about my going by myself to New York because she knows I know my way very well around the city. And one reason I'm so comfortable navigating through New York city is something that happened to me when I was seven. When I made my first trip to New York, my parents took me there when I was seven and one of the first things we did was to go on top of the empire state building, tallest building in the world at that time.
And there were these little telescopes you put a nickel in and you could look around and see things. And I remember my dad pointing out to me the city. He said, "Now we're gonna look south first of all, that's battery park and further out the statue of liberty". Then we turned the telescope around looking north and he said, "Now that's central park and the Bronx". Then we looked east and he said, "That's the east river and the Brooklyn bridge". And then we look west to the Hudson river in New Jersey. And getting that in my mind early on helped me navigate the streets and avenues much later in life.
And today I have no trouble 'cause I remember that simple overview of the city my dad gave me. That's the same way with studying a book of the Bible. We need to get an overview of a book before we try to navigate the various chapters and verses of the book. And so, what do we need to know about the book of Ephesians? First of all, look at the author who wrote it. In today's culture when you write a letter, you sign your name at the end of the letter. But in the Greek culture, you put it up front so people would know who this letter was coming from.
Well, Paul identifies himself in verse 1. "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God". We talked about Paul in our study of Acts. Remember Paul was a Jew. He called himself the Hebrew of the Hebrews. He studied under the respected rabbi Gamaliel. He kept all of the laws. He was a pharisee of the pharisees. He was sincere about his faith, but he was sincerely wrong. The fact is he felt like as a good Jew, it was his duty to stamp out this new heresy known as Christianity, and he was zealous about it. He would imprison people, he would torture them, he would put them to death all in an attempt to stop the Christian movement.
Again, he thought he was following God. He wasn't some sadist who enjoyed doing that. He felt like he was doing the right thing. But remember when he was on his way to Damascus to imprison more Christians, he met the Jesus in person that he was persecuting. Jesus thundered from heaven and said, "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me"? And the greatest conversion that ever happened in history happened on that road to Damascus. And Paul was transformed from being a persecutor of the Christian faith to being the greatest defender of the Christian faith. He wrote about half of the New Testament.
Today, you and I are Christians because of Paul. He was the first person to preach the gospel in Europe, in Philippi. We wouldn't be Christians today were it not for the witness and the ministry of the apostle Paul. And I think it's interesting that he calls himself an apostle by the will of God. You know, Paul could have said I'm an apostle because of the learning I've received from Gamaliel, the teaching I've received. I'm an apostle because of my righteousness or my zealousness. No, he said, "I am the greatest of all sinners" in 1 Timothy 1. "I am an apostle simply because God chose me by the will of God".
Now notice who he wrote this letter to, to whom he wrote this letter, the audience. It's found in verse 2. "To the saints who are at Ephesus". Now that word saints is a word "Hagios" in Greek. Comes from the Hebrew word "Kadosh". It means to separate something for a special purpose. In the Bible, the New Testament, saints are not little plastic figurines that you put on your dashboard to keep you safe while you're driving. A saint wasn't somebody who was a super spiritual follower of Christ. A saint wasn't somebody who paid a lot of money to get Ecclesiastical recognition. A saint is a term for anybody who is truly a Christian. If you are a Christian, you have been set apart for God for a special service.
John Calvin said it this way, "There is no believer who is not a saint and there is no such thing as a saint who is not a believer". In the Bible, everybody who is truly a believer is a saint. Every one of you listening to this message has been set apart for God for a unique purpose. And then it says, "Who are at Ephesus," at Ephesus. The Book of Acts remember records four missionary journeys. You thought it was three. It's actually four. Three were voluntary. One was involuntary when he was taken to Roman chains, but he still used it as a chance to preach the gospels. But Paul first encountered the Ephesians on his second missionary journey.
I want you to turn to Acts chapter 18. This is on the second missionary journey. It's about 53ad, 20 years after the resurrection of Christ. Paul first visited the city of Ephesus. He arrived there with two of his friends he had met in Corinth, a couple named Priscilla and Aquila. Sometimes they're named Aquila and Priscilla. But they were a husband and wife team who were involved in ministry. And so they came from Corinth to Ephesus and Paul only stayed there for a little while.
Look at verses 19 to 21. "They came to Ephesus, and he left them there. Now he himself entered the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews". Now this is what is interesting. Even though Paul's primary ministry was to gentiles, people like us, he always ministered to the Jews in any city he went in. The first thing he did was make a beeline to the synagogue to talk to the Jews. What did he talk to the Jews about? Talked to 'em about Jesus. Reasoning that Jesus was the Messiah. He was the fulfillment of all the Old Testament prophecies.
Now, why did he feel compelled to do that? When people tell you that Christians are intolerant because they believe Jews have to accept Christ to be saved and to go to heaven when they die, just remind them of the apostle Paul, he was a Jew. And yet he knew that Jews apart from Christ, just like Baptist apart from Christ or Catholics apart from Christ are lost and destined towards separation from God. Paul reasoned with Jews to introduce them to faith in Jesus Christ. Don't buy into this two covenants theology that everyone has to come to faith in Christ to go to heaven except the Jews. They've got a separate covenant. No, there are not two covenants. There's one way to heaven and it's through Jesus Christ.
And Paul understood that he loved the Jewish people. He was a Jewish person, but he knew they had to come to faith in Christ. "When they asked Paul to stay there for a longer time, he did not consent, but taking leave of them he said, 'i will return to you Ephesians again if God wills'". I love that about Paul. He was a man with a plan. He always had a plan for getting the gospel out. He knew where he wanted to go, but he always said, if God wills. He realized his plans were subject to the sovereign will of God. There's nothing wrong and everything right with making plans but realized they were subject to God's sovereignty.
Now he went to Ephesus. He would come back on his third missionary journey. Let me just say a word about the city of Ephesus itself. It's modern day turkey where it's located. It's western part of Asia Minor. It was a great city of commerce and very prosperous. But there are two things Ephesus was known for. First of all, had a large amphitheater. Open air amphitheater with about 25,000 seats. Many of us have been there before. Much of that amphitheater remains. I've preached at that amphitheater before.
Now, that's one thing to know about it and you'll see how that plays in the story of Paul in just a moment. But the city's greatest claim to fame secondly, was the temple to Artemus or as the Romans called her, Diana. It was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world. It was a temple that was four times the size of the Parthenon in Athens. It was a pagan temple. It was serviced by 200 temple prostitutes. And Paul came back and in the third missionary journey and he ended up spending two years preaching the gospel.
Now, I want you to notice what effect that had on the temple worship of Diana. In Acts chapter 19 verse 20 it says, "So the word of the Lord was growing mightily and prevailing. And about that time there occurred no small disturbance concerning the way". That's what Christianity was known as, the way. Jesus said, "I am the way". So he's talking about Christianity. There was a disturbance. "For a man named Demetrius, a silverSmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, Diana was bringing no little business to the craftsman".
The big industry in Ephesus was making these little figurines, silver figurines of the Goddess Diana for people who would come to Ephesus. They would hold on to them and pray to them and so forth. So that was their livelihood. "So Demetris gathers them together with the workmen and said, 'men, you know that our prosperity depends upon this business. You see and hear that not only in Ephesus, but in almost all of Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away a considerable number of people, saying that Gods made with hands or no Gods at all". He's hurting our bottom line. We're about to go bankrupt because of this man Paul, preaching that Artemis is not real.
Verse 27. "Not only is there a danger that this trait of ours will fall into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great Goddess Artemis is regarded as worthless and that she whom all of Asia and the world worship will be dethroned from her magnificence. And when the people heard this, they were filled with rage and they began crying out saying 'great is Artemis of the Ephesians'. And the city was filled with confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theater".
That's the amphitheater I was telling you about. "And they dragged along Gaius and Aristarchus, Paul's traveling companions from Macedonia," they would have loved to have had Paul come in there too. Paul wanted to come but his associates said, "You'll get killed if you do and God's got other things for you to do". So under protest he stayed away, but they took his associates in there. Now notice what happened, verse 35. "After quieting the crowd, the town clerk said, 'men of Ephesus, what man is there after all who does not know that the city of Ephesus is guardian of the temple of the great Artemis and the image which fell down from heaven? So, since these are undeniable facts, keep calm and do nothing rash".
This little thing called Christianity, it's gonna burn out soon. We've got the great temple of Artemis. It will stand forever. I love to preach in front of the ruins of the temple of Artemis. They're there. I always read this passage. I said, look at the temple of Artemis today. Hardly anything left of it. Does anybody even know in today's world who Artemis is?
You would be hard pressed to find one person in the world who said I am a follower of Diana. They're all gone. Nobody's meeting on Sunday mornings around the world to worship Diana. It's gone. You can't find a follower of Diana after 2000 years, but there are hundreds of millions of followers of Jesus Christ, the Son of God 2000 years later. The church is stronger today than it's ever been in history. That is the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That was Paul's experience in Ephesus. Now, let me just say a word about this epistle to the church at Ephesus. Paul left there after two years. He ended up in Jerusalem where he was arrested and he was taken to Rome for his trial and he was imprisoned in Rome.
Now, there are two imprisonments of Paul, I believe. The first imprisonment was in an apartment. He had rented quarters that he paid for. He was under house arrest, so to speak. It was from there that he was able to write some of the pastoral epistles like Ephesians, Colossians, Philemon and Philippians. And but even though he was under house arrest, he was chained to a different Roman guard every eight hours. And these guards were special guards. They were members of the praetorium, a special unit that guarded Caesar. And remember just think about it, Paul was chained to a different guard every eight hours. What do you think they talked about? I guarantee you, they didn't talk about the weather. They didn't talk about the stock market. They didn't talk about the outcomes of latest chariot races. Paul used that opportunity with a captive audience to share the gospel.