Ephesians - Lesson 11

So let's go back to chapter two of Ephesians. I think you get the point. Paul says, look, you were dead to one and Trespasses and sins You had no spiritual life Gentiles You had you had no access to the promises of God in Christ You had no desire to pursue righteousness in accordance with God's standard of The law but you walked instead corresponding to the present evil age according to the ruler of the authority of The air now he's going to further define This ruler of the authority of the air in verse 2 notice this language here According to the ruler of the authority of the air the the spirit which is now Watch this language working in The sons of disobedience Again, let's think about this So here when he says the spirit he's not talking about the Holy Spirit He's already stated in the previous verses in chapter 1 that those whom God has chosen in Christ Jews and Gentiles Those whom he predestined in Christ.

We've received redemption the forgiveness of our sins We heard the gospel and we believed it and Because we heard the gospel and we believed it that we were sealed by the promised Holy Spirit big difference here between the spirit that feels Believers who've received the good news of the gospel Who've received the announcement about Jesus the Messiah and that God has fulfilled all of those redemptive promises in Isaiah and other places in the Old Testament in Christ a big difference between that spirit who comes to us because of the messianic age According to Isaiah the messianic age is this age Isaiah 11 in which the spirit is given when the Messiah comes and and we are in that age and those who are in Christ are Living in the messianic community sealed by the Holy Spirit However, those who do not have the spirit particularly these Gentiles here They're ruled by this ruler and he identifies Him as the spirit working in them. The spirit is a is a demonic spirit represents the devil because he's working in the sons of Disobedience. So so why is it think about this? Why is it that that? unbelievers rebel against the gospel even unbelievers who are upstanding citizens in society Well, the reason why they rebel against the gospel is because they don't have the spirit in them They don't have Transformation in them.

They are sons of disobedience They have in fact think about this think of the weight of this They have the the power of of the devil working then in them Why do you know that because they reject the gospel? There are many things that we can do in our lives to show that we reject the gospel but the fundamental thing is is to reject that Jesus Christ is the Lord and Savior who can redeem us from our sins in one sense anybody who rejects Jesus as Lord is a son of Disobedience and has a the demonic Spirit of the devil working in them now This will become I think more clear in a moment when Paul says but God But a point I want us to feel right now is is that the unbeliever Jew or Gentile has no hope apart from the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ and Apart from two five the spirit working in that person to respond to it in faith Dead people can hear the gospel all day long But if the Spirit of God does not breathe life There's no life to be had through the hearing of that gospel That's why Lazarus for example doesn't move in John chapter 11 until Jesus's word Penetrates his heart and raises him from the dead by way of analogy the gospel will fall on dead hearts unless the Spirit Works why because in those dead hearts is the Spirit of the of the devil Who is working in the sons of disobedience now? Let's say what about this word working here. It's a word that Sounds a lot like energize This is if you look back with me earlier in Paul's letter to the Ephesians in chapter 1 He uses this word when he describes God's work in us who believe you go back to chapter 1 Verse 11 He describes this inheritance that we've obtained in Christ because we were predestined According to the purpose of the one and here's this word the one who is working all things corresponding to the counsel of His will so here Paul uses this same word that Paul uses to talk about The spirit of the ruler working in the sons of disobedience, but here he talks about God working for those who are in Christ Further we see Paul using this similar language when he describes What he did when he raised Jesus what God did when he raised Jesus from? the dead in chapter 1 he talks about Verse 19. He wants them to understand the surpassing greatness of his power toward us or in us or with respect to us who believe in accordance with The supernatural working of the strength of his might now this this word for working here It's a noun in English.

You can't tell it but it's a noun But it's a noun that's similar to that verb to work The idea is the same here that the point here is is that notice God is working in believers chapter 1 previous verses by his power here. He's working he's working in Christ by his power He says verse 20 Which he worked in Christ having raised him from the dead. So God worked for believers And he works in Christ verse 20 displaying his supernatural power Over verse 21 every ruler every authority every power so on and so forth.

So go back to chapter 2 then notice that there are two powers that are working There is God's comprehensive sovereign power Which quite frankly triumphs over all anti God powers? Because he predestined in other words, he took the initiative by the way parenthetically I hope you see why predestination had to happen Because every human being conceived into this world even the elect is conceived in sin and is enslaved to sin and unless God took the initiative to choose to save some to predestine some in love then everybody would be ruled by the demonic powers of evil But instead God's power worked in believers and worked in Christ to raise us with Christ so that he triumphs over This power was the power of the devil We'll see this in a moment when Paul says but God made us alive together with Christ But feel the weight of this there are two powers that are working Against each other in this present evil ways now hear this These two powers are not stalemates By which I mean It's not unclear who's going to win God's power triumphs over the devil's anti God power Again, we see that because he predestined he chooses he saves people from the power of darkness and he raised Jesus even death the chief Anti-god power that even death God defeated when he raised Jesus from the dead He shows us clearly that the victor is God and victory is in Jesus that his power triumphs over the anti-god powers But let there be no mistake about it. We are at war with an anti-god power We've won the victory in Christ But there's no victory for those who are dead in trespasses and sins unless they come to faith in Christ and Paul says that this spirit is working in you as the sons of disobedience Obedience And notice now in verse 3 He's going to now change his use of pronouns. It's fascinating to me He's focusing on Gentiles and Then he turns towards use here's one thing that Paul does I want you to understand this This is so crucial to understanding his argument in Ephesians He will emphasize the Jew and Gentile distinctions Gentiles didn't receive the law Jews did Gentiles were not circumcised in accordance with the Abrahamic Covenant and Mosaic Covenant, but Jews were He'll show the distinctions between Jews and Gentiles to show us the unity that we have in Christ and to show us that while Jews and Gentiles are different in terms of their ethnic identities and how they related to Yahweh They both share of the same plight apart from faith in Christ the plight being That we're all dead in trespasses and sins For him to make that statement as a Jew it is a bit innovative in one sense because while there are examples of Repentance and confession in the Old Testament of Jews Psalm 51 for example David confesses his sin Asking God to give him a pure and contrite heart.

We see other examples where you have You have repentance Manifested through the sacrificial system the contrite heart we see this and we also see it in early Jewish texts where you see Jews who? Cry out to God they ask God to do in their hearts what they cannot do So there is a pattern of recognizing that Jews are sinners and need to repent There is no in my view understanding in the Old Testament that Jews are these perfect people They don't think that about themselves They recognize they are sinners who need God and that God has revealed how to know him through his law to them But here's the point. I want us to recognize about what Paul says here is that Paul doesn't say that there are some pious Jews and Ungodly Gentiles He seems to group the plight of Jews and Gentiles under the same category as Opposed to saying there's one way for Jews and there's one way for Gentiles In other words, my point is is that while he fully understood because he was a good Torah observant Jew He understood that there are numerous examples in the Old Testament Of people who have faith in God and who sought to honor God by keeping the law and repented when they fell short But what he says however is a bit innovative in that he recognizes that What's true of the Gentile? Is true of the Jew? That's why he says in verse 3 Do you notice his statement amongst whom? Referring to these sons of disobedience Amongst whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh now. Let's stop there for a moment We'll come back to the rest of the verse But just notice what he just did He doesn't say amongst whom you all live Which is what he's been saying in the previous verses but now he's making the shocking turn to include himself Representing other Jews into this plight now think about this for one moment This is a Innovation because if you recall Paul's description of his life Before he gave his life to Christ.

He describes it in for example Philippians as a Hebrew of Hebrews as To the law he was blameless It was a Pharisee of Pharisees, and I don't think he means that in a negative way by the way One thing I'm going to say in these lectures in this section is correct some Misunderstanding about how people perceive of Jews and Judaism in the second temple period and how they perceive of Jewish groups from from our perspective, we're so used to negatively Categorizing the Pharisees that when we hear the word Pharisee, we automatically think something negative when in fact There are many examples in early Jewish texts and even a couple in the New Testament where the Pharisees are pious godly people To the point where one Pharisee in the gospel of Luke Tells Jesus he needs to get out of town because Herod wants to take his life another point where Nicodemus is kind of speaking out for Jesus when Jesus is on what is being considered to be one worthy of death if Joseph of Arimathea was a Pharisee he took his body and put it into a brand new tomb And we see other examples where in Acts chapter 15 that there were believers in Jesus from the sect of the Pharisees and then we see in early Jewish texts Pharisees risking their lives Because they love God now there are exceptions to any group of people There are always some bad characters. Everybody has a crazy uncle or cousin that we don't want to come to the family reunion But the point is when we think about Paul's description of himself as a Pharisee He's saying I was living my life in accordance with God's design And we also see him saying this as much when we see in 2 Corinthians When he is arguing against these super apostles who are claiming to be better than Paul Because they don't suffer for the gospel and Paul uses his suffering as a reason why his gospel is Authentic and theirs is not But it also or his ministry that they can theirs is not but but also Paul will say these things in 2nd Corinthians He'll say look are they Hebrews talking about the super apostles? Are they Hebrews? So am I? And then he goes through this litany of examples of how he is a good Jew and even in Romans 11 He says I'm a Jew. I am an Israelite.

I'm from the tribe of Benjamin so on and so forth Well, my point here is is to say is that Paul is making a move here theologically That he would not have made prior to what happened on the Damascus Road Now that God has revealed his son to him now that Jesus has helped him understand how the Messianic age changes everything He understands better himself in light of God's revelation He understands himself better now in light of the Spirit's Entrance into history in a way that he had not entered prior to the the death and resurrection of Jesus He understands now these Messianic promises realized in Christ. He understands now that the plight of all humanity Whether one is a Jew or a Gentile is one of spiritual darkness So he says we also conducted ourselves Formally and notice he doesn't say just we but he says look at look at the adjective We all We all what does he mean by that? Every Jew and every Gentile when Paul says for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God This is what he means There's no human being outside of that indictment. So we all conducted ourselves formally in the desires or DSV says and the passions of Our flesh let's talk about this for a moment this word for passions or desires The term does not necessarily need to imply negative desires or sinful desires or passions Not all desires are bad.

The desire to be married is a good desire As long as you are desiring to be married To the one whom God has called you to be married God created male and female one man one woman To be united and holy matrimony So it's a good desire for a man or woman for a man to desire to marry a woman It's a good desire for a woman to desire to marry a man Genesis 1 and 2 this is a beautiful thing in the context of a marriage husband and wife come together and They become one flesh and are the means by which they procreate But here Paul is talking about evil desires Because he links these desires or these passions with the present evil age With the ruler of the present evil age And he also links these desires with this word here Flesh now the ESV says Body the desires of the body, but it's not the word for body here the word for body that Paul Often used is the word that he uses in chapter 1 when he talks about the church as the body of Christ That's a different word from here Here the word flesh the word flesh that he uses the Greek term is Sarx the word Sarx can refer to a physical body so John's Gospel for example says The word referring to Jesus became Sarx became flesh so he means Jesus became a human being and that that word just simply means Human body or human being there's no sinful idea attached to that word as it's used in John's Gospel chapter 1 verse 14 Paul uses that term in a similar way in Galatians chapter 2 when he says I Have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but the life I now live in the flesh I Live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave his life for me So when he says the life I live in the Sarx in the flesh He means the life I now live in my human existence my body But this word here Sarx here is a word that's linked with the present evil age Because it's linked with Desires that are evil and the ruler of the authority of the air and walking in the and the path of disobedience to the power of sin and to to sin as transgression Paul uses the word flesh in in that way in Galatians chapter 5 verse 16 when he says walk by the Spirit And if you do that you shall by no means gratify here it is the desires of the flesh and Then when you read the rest of Galatians 5 16 to 26, he'll give you Desires of the flesh or works of the flesh. He'll switch words on us And he'll give you the fruit of the Spirit and the fruit of the Spirit love joy. Peace patience kindness compassion goodness gentleness self-control against such things But the lust of the flesh or the works of the flesh are these Massive sins that he gives as a sample of the pattern of life lived by Gentiles who don't love God so here when he says Conducted ourselves in the desires of the flesh Certainly the bodies related to that but he's not simply talking about the body He's talking about these proclivities.

What is it desire? These proclivities that are evil that are contrary to the kingdom of God and aligned with the kingdom of Darkness give you a few examples from Ephesians chapters 4 and 5 the desires to slander To be impatient to have vulgarity of speech To live a foolish and shameful life These are things that represent evil anti God Desires now a practical thought here Before I finish the verse It's important to recognize that we as believers We have desires at times that are evil. I Remember years ago years ago. I was teaching a Sunday school class at a church and an older Christian said confidently as I was teaching on this very issue if You're really a Christian you would never have any evil desires and I just said really Never any Evil desires.

I'll never be tempted to have road rage early in the morning I'll never be tempted to be a glutton I'll never have the desire to lash out in response to someone who who hurts me I'll never have those desires. Well brothers and sisters be encouraged Paul is not saying here That if you're really a Christian, you'll never have these evil desires We will have evil desires, but what he is saying is this is so important that those who walk in accordance with these evil desires are those who are enslaved to their Trespasses and sins and are those who have not yet been raised from death to life now that's coming here in a moment But here this very clearly here. Yes believers have Desires often that are evil against which we must fight in the power of the Spirit Otherwise, why does he give us Ephesians chapter 6 where he commands us to fight against the devil? makes no sense for Me to say will never have evil desires on the one hand and we must fight against the devil on the other hand makes no Sense Paul's point here is is that these people who had these desires they didn't simply have desires They walked in accordance with them and by walking he means they lived in a pattern of life that rebelled against the gospel So he says He carried out the desires Of our flesh carrying out the desires of The of the body and Notice he uses another word here doing the the desires of the wheel of The of the body And of the mind, you know Paul loves to use these What many have said these anthropological metaphors? so he uses words like human or Man the new man the old man or the old human the new human He uses words like flesh He'll use words heart and mind to kind of capture the the the human constitution Like who we are in our very essence and his point here is is that those who? practiced the desires of the of the flesh they did so because This is who they were fundamentally in their heart So there's a relationship between the heart and the mind.

I don't think he's talking about the brain Now, of course our thinking matters so important that I clarified this point In order for our mind our hearts To live in a way that honors God we have to think Clear thoughts about God and what he's revealed in his word So I'm not saying that the mind has nothing to do with Cognition, it's not my argument. My point is when he says mind, he's not simply talking about my brain Like he's talking about our the seat of our emotions Where decisions are made where morality is is Felt where the conscience is is pricked. I Go back with me to chapter 1 remember Paul's prayer In chapter 1, what does he pray? Well multiple things But one thing he prays in verse 18.

He prays that they would have the eyes of their hearts Enlightened now notice the word he uses next so he's praying that the eyes of their hearts would be enlightened and Now he's saying that you may look at this no, ah, you see that so in chapter 2 he says these people we all Who were practicing a way of life? Contrary to the Spirit basically in accordance with the flesh anti God power That we did so because we were doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind And previously he prays that those who are in Christ that they would their hearts would be enlightened So that they would know What God has done for them? So go back to chapter 2 then it seems to me that Paul when he talks about we were doing the desires of the of the flesh and of the mind He seems to be making the point that we were living in a way that revealed We did not know God Because our hearts Had not been transformed by the gospel because we were dead in trespasses and sins now Again, practically here. Let me apply this Before I work throughout the rest of the verse This is important for us to recognize that It's unhelpful For Christians to be anti-intellectual And here's what I mean. There are some Christians who think it's more spiritual to feel and not think but to the contrary we want to have both head and hearts move toward God and one way our affections are stirred up and Moved toward God is by supernaturally by the Spirit Comprehending that's what Paul prays comprehending Understanding what he's done and the only way the only way we can understand what he's done is yes prayer But by immersing ourselves in his word thinking about what it says and of course sitting under preaching and teaching in our churches and having Bible studies and wrestling with passages and Praying those passages for our our lives.

I have absolutely no category in my brain for a Christian who does not want to think I Have devoted my life to biblical and theological education and I am The stage of my life Want to see it go far and wide to people and places that do not have access to it Because one way we strengthen in my view Pulpits and churches is by providing for people an accessible biblical and theological education And I'm committed to that my school is committed where I teach to providing quality to people on campus and on Online and we've committed our lives to helping ministers of the gospel missionaries preachers teachers or Or lay people who simply want to get a better theological education to serve their churches to think more carefully As best as we can help them do so about God by teaching them his his word brothers and sisters never think That you can outgrow thinking as a Christian Never think that you can outgrow the Bible as a Christian never think that there's a there's a moment in your life Where you graduate from thinking to feeling what we want What Paul wants from us is to be moved in our affections by these rich truths of God choosing predestining us calling us Giving us the Spirit giving us these redemptive promises But the only way we can be moved in our affections to love God more because of these things is immersing ourselves heart soul mind and strength in Thinking about these things praying these things studying these things reading about these things I'm not saying if you read more books, you'll be more sanctified What I am saying is if you want to understand the supernatural work that God has done in you and in me we've got to give our efforts to thinking about his word and Asking God to move us So that our minds will be our hearts will be our lives will be transformed Paul's life Was on a crash course Course Headed toward eschatological wrath. He'll say it here in a moment until God disrupted his path on the Damascus Road and transformed his thinking about Jesus and Gave him an epistemological shift so that everything in his life began to be rethought in light of God's revelation of his son in Christ so now he can say to the Ephesians We were enslaved to this pattern of living why because his thinking has changed Because of God's revelation to him of the Son So notice then he says and I'll I'll take a pause here in a moment. Notice what he says then verse 3 still Again first person plural We were children of wrath by nature Just as also the rest of mankind, oh my goodness That word nature there This is a word that means here we were Basically born Naturally conceived that's a better way of saying it as Children of wrath he uses this same word in Galatians chapter 2 verses 11 through 14 when Peter comes down to Antioch to have table fellowship with these Gentiles and Some people from James come down and they say something to Peter We don't know from the text what they said But they said something to Peter and Peter becomes afraid of this group called the circumcision party I think that party is the different group the different group from the James people that come down That's that's debated.

But here's the basic point The group from James tells Peter Something that makes him afraid of The circumcised party and then Peter instead of sharing in table fellowship with Gentile Christians as a Jewish Christian He withdrew from table fellowship Because he feared the circumcision party and consequently Paul says he Carried Barnabas and the rest of these other Jewish Christians into a pop hypocrisy and then Paul sees that and Paul says in Galatians 2 that He saw Peter was not walking in a straightforward manner in the truth of the gospel So he said to Peter in the presence of them all Peter if you are a Jew But you're living like a Gentile and you're not living like a Jew Then why are you compelling these Gentiles to live like Jews? It's a very powerful question. In other words, here's the question Peter You have already come to realize that in Christ Jesus The law no longer separates Jews and Gentiles from each other and you've been living that way Peter You haven't always been eating kosher at some of these meals. We've attended you haven't always been Keeping laws of ritual purity as they're outlined in the law of Moses because you recognize in Christ Jesus The boundary markers of purity and impurity are now redrawn to focus not on the law of Moses But on Jesus especially for these Gentiles Who never had to keep the law to be a Christian anyway it's true of Jews as well, they don't have to keep the law to be a Christian, but Jews act like Jews and Gentiles don't have to become Jews to be saved So Jews who become Christians, they don't stop becoming Jews and Gentiles who become Christians don't start becoming Jews, but Jews and Gentiles in Christ follow Jesus as Jews and as Gentiles So Peter you're acting in a very hypocritical way and then he says this in Galatians 2 15 Says Peter we are Jews, here's the word by nature.

We're born Jews Well, notice what Paul says here I Honestly in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 3. I cannot I cannot believe in 2 3. He says this He basically says we Jews We're children of wrath by nature Now, what does he mean hear this very very carefully He does not mean They're children of wrath Because they are Jews. That's not what he means He's not saying there is something deficient About Jewishness, that is not what he's saying. He celebrates his Jewish identity in Romans chapter 11 the point that he's making is is that the human predicament is the same for Jews and Gentiles and slaved to sins Power that's why he said we were children of wrath now remember in terms of the Jewish scheme of things Jews were children of Abraham and God even calls Israel his son Correct.

Oh, yes, correct Paul is not denying those biblical truths But he's affirming here That now that Christ has come he understands that Israel's son or that God's Son Israel and The apple of God's eye Israel Like Gentiles Need God to work to deliver them from their sins. Isn't this in fact the promise of Isaiah 40 to 66? I mean, this is robustly Jewish here We'll see it when we get to the middle and the end of chapter 2 but Isaiah 40 to 66 talks about Yahweh His promise to redeem Israel out of exile and the promise of restoring Israel and The promise of Gentile inclusion within that restoration and we see as we're reading through Isaiah That the restoration to which Isaiah is ultimately pointing is not simply rebuilding the walls in Jerusalem But to recreate the world as the SIS 65 17 to 25 a new Jerusalem a heavenly city That includes both Jews and Gentiles and the way he does this is is by means of this Servant who has the Spirit of God upon him And he's going to die 53 of Isaiah and take the sins of the people upon himself So Paul here hear this very carefully. It's so important that we get this as Christians who are living and breathing and and reading this text on The aftermath of the Holocaust But to remind ourselves that It is not anti-semitic For Paul to say Jews and Gentiles were children of wrath Because he's saying Jews and Gentiles the human predicament is one of Enslavement.

Oh, yes. God creates human beings in his image and every human being has dignity and value Because they bear God's image and even though the image of God has been Negatively impacted because of Adam's transgression. It still is there But Paul's point here and more explicitly later is God is going to recreate Humanity in Christ and began the process of resurrecting creation and human beings in Christ because of the resurrection of the second Adam and Here he makes the point that we were children of wrath Just as the rest of mankind just as the rest of the sons of disobedience