This letter was written by Paul toward the end of his glorious life. He had faithfully been serving the Lord for many years. He had declared the truth about Messiah far and wide. He had seen great results. The Lord used him to start and establish many congregations in a wide area. The Lord had done extraordinary miracles through him. He had suffered much for the Lord, but remained undeterred.
Ephesians, along with Philippians, Colossians and Philemon are called the “Prison Letters” because they were written by Paul while he was incarcerated. He had been arrested in Jerusalem and taken to Rome, where he wrote this from prison. Even while the Rabbi from Tarsus was in jail he was doing something for the Lord. That tells us that there is almost always something that we can do to serve the Lord, no matter where we are, no matter what our circumstances are. You have more freedom than Paul. What are you doing to serve the Lord and advance the truth?
Paul is writing to the believers in Ephesus. Ephesus was a big city in ancient Asia, which is now present day Turkey. The city was a commercial, political and religious center, the great temple of Artemis (Diana) being there (Ryrie). The population of the city was primarily made up of non-Jews, but there was a Jewish community there. When Paul first came to Ephesus he went to the synagogue and reasoned with the Jewish people there, and they listened to this great teacher and wanted him to stay longer. But, he didn’t spend much time there on his first visit. He left, returned later, and went back to the synagogue, and some Jewish people became believers. Paul remained at Ephesus for two years, and kept preaching and teaching and God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, and many Gentiles also became Believers. So, the congregation in Ephesus was a community made up of Jewish and Gentile Believers – much like ours.
This may have been a letter that was meant to be sent not just to Messiah’s holy community of believers in Ephesus, but from there to other congregations in other cities. This letter doesn’t deal with specific problems, but it lays out Paul’s theology in an organized way. The first part deals with theology, and the last part deals with applying these theological truths to our lives.
Paul starts off with a very short but powerful introduction. Paul, an apostle of Messiah Yeshua by the will of God. Other than giving us his name, he only says of himself that he is an apostle of Messiah Yeshua, and he is an apostle due to the will of God. He didn’t give a long biography about himself, and detail all his amazing accomplishments. For Paul, what was important wasn’t what he had done, but who he was connected to and who he represented.
The word “apostle” means an emissary – someone who is sent by someone else to accomplish the desires of the one who sent him. Paul was sent by Yeshua the resurrected Messiah. The sending of Paul by Messiah Yeshua was the will of God. It was the desire of God that His Son would send Paul. Paul was primarily sent by Messiah Yeshua to the Gentiles, and to the Jewish communities living among the Gentiles outside of Israel. He was sent to preach the Good News about salvation made possible by the coming, death and resurrection of the Messiah. He was sent to use his great mind and education to teach us, and help us understand what the coming of the Messiah meant for all of us, particularly relating to the Gentiles. Paul was sent to write large portions of the New Testament. Paul was sent to do miracles which validated his authority and apostleship.
Since this great Rabbi from Tarsus, who was exceedingly learned in Judaism was sent to us by Messiah Yeshua, the Living Savior, the Son of God, our king and savior, and this was the will of God the Father, do you think that we should pay attention to, and take to heart, and try to apply these inspired words that we are about to read?
This Hebrew of the Hebrews is writing to the saints who are at Ephesus and who are faithful in Messiah Yeshua: a saint is a human being who is set apart by God to accomplish special purposes. He is set apart from the grasping and destructive power of sin. He is set apart from the forces of sin and death. He is separated from a lost and dying world. He is set apart for salvation, set apart to be close to God, set apart to serve the Lord, set apart to live forever. Every born again child of God is a saint. A saint may not always and every moment act saintly, but he is still a saint. The Lord calls us saints – holy ones, set apart to accomplish special purposes. Our duty is to live up to that high calling, to live in a way that reflects our sainthood, to conduct ourselves with holiness, to act in a way that shows forth purity. Are you?
“In Messiah” is a phrase that Paul uses often in his letter. When you read “in Messiah” think of “joined to Messiah” or “part of Messiah.” Because we have come to know that Yeshua is the Messiah, that He is the One sent by God as the ultimate prophet, priest and king, combing the three offices of leadership into one Person; because we have come to believe in Yeshua, that He is the Messiah, and the Son of God, and that He died and rose again, and is alive now, and we place our faith and trust in Him, we are “in Messiah.” We become joined to Him. We become part of Him. There is a real connection that takes place between us and the living Son of God. Are you in Messiah? Do you have that connection? Do you sense it? Do you know it?
The saints who were at Ephesus and were in Messiah were faithful. This was a community of Believers that had faith and were acting on that faith. They had faith in Yeshua, and they were faithful to Him. They were committed to Him. They were obeying His teachings. They were embracing His values, goals and priorities. They were doing what He wanted.
There are those who have faith in God, who believe, but are not faithful. We must have faith, but it must be more than mere intellectual assent to truth. Our faith encompasses more than knowledge. The demons have a kind of faith. They are quite sure about the reality of God the Father and Yeshua the Son, but they oppose God. Genuine faith, saving faith, means that our faith, our belief, our knowledge is being properly applied. Is yours? Are you faithful?
After introducing himself, and making it clear that he was addressing the children of God, this greatest of evangelists prays for them: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. Paul prays that grace – unmerited favor, undeserved goodness, unearned blessings; and peace – a life that is lived the way God wants so that wholeness results; a life that is full of integrity so that well-being is experienced, comes to them from the Three-In-One God – from God the Father, who is our good Father who made us in His image, who in redemption imparts His nature to us and gives us His Spirit; our Father who cares for us and meets our needs, our Father who watches over us and protects us; our Father who teaches us, our Father who, when we fall down, picks us up; our Father who when we make mistakes, lovingly corrects us.
Grace and peace also come to us from the Lord Yeshua the Messiah. He is the Lord – the Lord of Heaven and Earth, the Lord of man, the Lord of the angels, the Lord of the elements and the forces of nature. He is the Lord, but the Son is distinct from God the Father as to His person, but one with the Father as to His nature.
Grace and peace can’t come from a false god – only from the true God, the God of Israel, the God of the Scriptures. Grace and peace can only come when we have faith that Messiah Yeshua is the Lord and that God the Father is our Father. The fullness of grace and peace can only come to those who are in Messiah, not to those who are outside of Messiah. The fullness of grace and peace can only come to those who are faithful, not faithless. Are you in Messiah? Are you faithful? Are you experiencing grace and peace?
As we get into the body of this inspired letter, Paul begins with a blessing of praise to God for who He is and what He has done. Good thinking and sound theology must begin with God – knowing that God really exists, and who He is and what He has done, is doing and will do.
When we have knowledge about God, and when it is mixed with faith, it causes a reaction in us. The more we know about the Lord, the more heartfelt desire we have to praise Him and bless His holy name!
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Messiah. The object of this great blessing is God the Father. As you read the Scriptures, you will find that almost all of the prayers in the Bible are directed to God the Father. The Son of God is fully divine, and is worthy to be worshiped equally with the Father, but nevertheless most of the prayers in the Scriptures are directed to the Father. I think the reason is that God the Father is superior to God the Son as to His authority and position. Paul teaches us that God the Father is the God and Father of the Son. As far as His position to His Son, He is the Son’s Father and the Son’s God – superior in authority and position, and first in worship.
The Father of our Lord Yeshua is also our Father. Just as a good father on Earth blesses his children with good things, so our Heavenly Father is very generous with us. He has blessed us – not with a few, not with some, but with every spiritual blessing that is in Heaven! Out of His vast treasury of spiritual resources, He has given them all to us! Wow!
And, those spiritual and heavenly resources are available to every believer. We don’t need to go here or there, to this ministry or that ministry and have people lay hands on us, or pray for us to receive Heaven’s spiritual blessings. We can go directly to God and receive them for ourselves.
When we trust Messiah, and understand who He is, and what He has done for us – coming to Earth, becoming a human being, dying on the cross, rising from the dead, ascending back to Heaven, He becomes our High Priest, our mediator between God and man, and He brings us close to God the Father, and brings the blessings of God to us.
The blessings that Paul is thanking God for are spiritual blessings. They are good things that come from Heaven that benefit us in the realm of the spirit – not in the realm of the physical.
The first blessing is the blessing of being chosen, and this is a very special chosenness. Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. God the Father is the Supreme Being. He makes choices. His will is supreme. One of the choices He made, and He made this choice before He created the first atom in the universe – was to choose certain human beings. These chosen ones would be created. These chosen ones would come into existence by being born to human parents. These chosen ones would at some point in their earthly lives be presented with the Good News about Yeshua, and because of the grace of God at work they would come to know that Yeshua is the Messiah, and they would place their faith in Him. They would be able to rely on Him, trusting Him to save them from sin and death and Hell. They would trust Messiah to give them eternal life. They would depend of the Son of God to raise them from the dead.
These chosen ones – not just from Israel, but from many nations were chosen to be holy and blameless. I am sick of being unholy. I am tired of making mistakes, sinning and doing the wrong things. But, because of the choice of God, one glorious day when the Lord has finished his work with me, all that will change. I will be holy – separate from ignorance and sin and evil and error and corruption. I will be deliciously pure and clean and fresh and new. I will be blameless – all of my sins will be perfectly atoned for, all of my guilt gone, all of my shame ended.
One day, after the resurrection and judgment, all of us will be holy and blameless – all of our moral and spiritual pollution gone. And, knowing that this is our destiny, this is what the Holy One has chosen us to be like before the universe began, motivates us to try and be holy and blameless now, to be men and women of integrity and godly character, living the right way. From eternity past, to eternity future, that is God’s plan for us!
The inspired Rabbi continues: In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Messiah Yeshua to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will. Before the beginning of the universe, the Supreme Being, who is perfect and complete in Himself, and doesn’t need anything else to be complete, or add to His perfection, but motivated by love and kindness, wanting to do good things to creatures of His making, decided to create certain human beings, and form these human into His eternal sons and daughters. And so, He determined ahead of time, before they were created, to create them in His image, and bless them with mind, emotion and will, and the ability to be aware of themselves, and the ability to think, reason, and make choices, and by means of creation and then redemption make them partakers of the Divine Nature, and recipients of His Spirit. This receiving of divine sonship is only possible through Messiah Yeshua – through His divine activity of salvation and redemption.
To be a son or daughter of God is the highest possible honor. It elevates us to the highest status, even greater than the mighty and glorious angels. So, when you are feeling bad about yourself, feeling like a failure, feeling unimportant, or that life isn’t living, you remind yourself: I am a child of God. The eternal Lord had a plan for my life, and chose me before He created the universe. I am the object of His love and affection and the recipient of the kindness and the good-will of my loving Father. One day I will be perfectly holy and blameless in the sight of the holy God. Until then, I will hang in there and do my best!
One other concluding thought: To live a meaningful live it is important to know who we are, where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going, and how to get there. In just a few words this great man that Messiah sent to us answers these questions.