Ephesians - Lesson 30

Well, to continue the discussion about the Messianic Age and the Spirit, we in the previous lecture talked about how Paul's remarks to the Ephesians regarding in Christ Jesus they have the Spirit and all these redemptive promises in Christ with Gentiles and Jews being recreated, created in this one new man that Paul is drawing from this prophetic tradition. We found that we see in the Old Testament and texts we looked at were Ezekiel and Jeremiah and Joel and Isaiah, but this Messianic expectation to usher in the Age of the Spirit, you find this continuing into what we call the Second Temple Period. Now, we've talked about this a little before, but let me mention a few words about what we mean by Second Temple Judaism.

Once again, I basically mean the pattern of life lived by Jews coming after exile, after the Temple was reconstructed, and their desire and way of life that sought to maintain a Jewish way of life after the exile in diasporic communities, as well as for Jews who go back to Jerusalem. So when we think about the Second Temple Period, we basically date it sometimes as late as the 100s of the first century AD from the BC era coming out of exile, even though the Second Temple technically was destroyed in 70 AD, because there's a body of literature that's emerging coming out of exile in the Second Temple Period that continues to be written even after the Second Temple is destroyed that will give us insight, that body of literature will give us insight into what Jews are thinking and how they're trying to live a Jewish way of life after the exile during this Second Temple Period. So by Second Temple Judaism, again, I just simply mean the Jewish way of life and the diversity of that Jewish way of life that's lived after the construction of the Second Temple, entering into the Christian era.

And in that period, you have these Jews, different Jews who are writing a variety of different texts. We have texts like the Apocrypha. We call these texts the Apocrypha.

The Pseudepigrapha, which means false writings, takes a pseudonym and then it's written by an author claiming to be a famous figure, like books like First Enoch. We have books called the Apocalypse of Abraham, Second Baruch, and then some books that don't take on a name of a person, but books that are called Jubilees and other books that are part of this body of literature that gives us insight into different Jewish perspectives within the Second Temple Period. And then the Apocrypha, you have texts such as 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, 4 Maccabees, the Book of Judith, the Prayer of Manasseh, numerous other texts as well.

And then we also, when we think of Second Temple Jewish texts, there's Philo, who was a Hellenistic Jew, thoroughly Hellenized, but also thoroughly Jewish, who wrote philosophical treatises, allegorical expositions of the Bible, wrote personal correspondence to leaders. And then we also have Josephus. Josephus, who claims to have been a Pharisee, who wrote in a time wherein he looked back on a lot of the events that took place in the New Testament era.

He talks about John the Baptist, for example. He makes reference to Jesus, the Christ. There's a recent monograph that's been written on that line from Josephus in which a scholar is actually arguing that Josephus actually wrote that word or those words about Jesus as the Christ, whereas scholars before have challenged the notion that Josephus actually wrote those words because he calls, as a Jew, Jesus the Christ.

But yeah, Josephus is talking about Jesus. He talks about the Herodian dynasty, talks about the sects of Judaism, and so on and so forth. And then we also have a body of literature known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, which represents a sectarian group of Jews and And there are sectarians amongst the sectarians in this Qumran community.

These Jews break away from Jerusalem, go off into the desert, and they have their own little communities in Qumran, and they were responsible for these texts known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. So Second Temple Judaism and understanding Second Temple Judaism, it helps us understand that there's not a straight line to be drawn from Malachi to the Gospel of Matthew. There's a lot of history that is continuing the Old Testament prophetic tradition and the Mosaic tradition in the era prior to the birth of Jesus.

So that by the time you get to the birth of Jesus, there's several things that have happened geographically, linguistically, that will impact and shape the ways in which the Christian Gospel is expanded and impact the ministry of Jesus as well. Give you one example. There's a whole history about Galilee that is important prior to the birth of Jesus.

When Jesus comes along as someone who is from Galilee, Jesus of Nazareth of Galilee, and he is raising up a following to show loyalty and commitment to him, it makes people nervous for many reasons. And one reason is because Galilee has a history of a Jew, a Galilean who rose up and led a following to revolt against the Roman Empire, which happened before Jesus began his ministry. But nevertheless, you have another Jewish person from Galilee rising up and saying things about the kingdom of God, which is some level challenging.

Those things are challenging the kingdom of the empire. And people hear word about this, and it makes some people nervous so that by the time you get Jesus nailed to a cross in the Gospels, there's a whole set of host of challenges that have precipitated his death related to his teaching and to the history within which his teaching occurs in terms of the history of Galilee and uprisings that emerge in that era. Another example of how is as to how the world of secular Judaism is impacting and shaping how the Christian gospel is being received or how it's expanded would be the New Testament was written in Greek.

And the language of the of the of the New Testament is Greek, because by the time you get to the New Testament era, you've had the Hellenistic age. And and you also have in the New Testament era, Latin as a language, because it's also a Roman age. So Greek and Rome merged together.

Hence we say the Greco Roman world so that Jesus is nailed not to a Greek cross, but to a Roman cross, because Rome is the power structure. Crucifixion is their form of capital punishment. And guess what? Jesus was crucified just because God wanted him to be crucified.

But he was also crucified because he was not a Roman citizen. Roman citizens were, generally speaking, protected from crucifixion. Paul, on the other hand, was a Roman citizen, so he wasn't crucified.

So it's helpful to understand that that the world of secular Judaism helps us to understand why things are happening the way they happen in the New Testament. Now, but more specifically, as it relates to this question about the Messianic age and the spirit, we're also helped here when we think about what certain texts say about the Messiah and the age of the spirit. Not all Jews who live in the Second Temple period wrote texts, so we don't know what Jews believe, what all Jews believed about everything.

But of the texts that we do have, we see some things that Jews believed about certain things, and sometimes those texts often, really, those texts are diverse. There are a diversity of things about Jews. But we see some texts that speak specifically to the issue of the Messiah and the spirit as the moment coming about, the moment the Messianic age is ushered in.

So there are a couple Psalms, I'll just refer to one, in this body of literature known as the Pseudepigrapha, called the Psalms of Solomon. Now, the Psalms of Solomon were not written by Solomon. This particular Psalm was written, we think, in the first century B.C., probably around the time of 63 B.C. Some scholars debate that, but others have suggested that this Psalm is written perhaps around 63 B.C., and this Psalm is a Psalm regarding the Messiah.

And in this Psalm, it offers an interpretation at some level of elements of Psalm 110 verse 1, which is a Messianic Psalm as well. And in the Psalm, this is how some scholars read it, this is how I'm reading it, this Psalm is perhaps offering a response to Pompey's invasion of Judea. Pompey was a Roman military leader, and in 64 B.C., roughly, 64-63 B.C., he entered into Jerusalem, entered into the temple, looked into the holy place, and symbolically represents by that action that Rome officially has reign over Judea.

Now, before that action, Rome was over Judea, but that action symbolized Rome is over Judea as its power, as its kingdom. And so this, which means the emperor is over Judea, the emperor is Judea's king. So this Psalm, Psalms 117, is, according to some scholars, a prayer offered from Jews in response to that behavior, asking the Lord to send the Messiah.

It's a fairly long Psalm, I'm going to read the whole thing, and then make some comments along the way. But in the Psalm, you also see that the psalmist says, the Lord, please, Lord, send the Messiah. And then the Psalm also identifies the Lord as the Messiah in a way similar to Psalm 10, verse 1, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemy a footstool under your feet.

So you have Psalm 110 language in Psalm 17, Psalms of Psalm 17. But in the Psalms of Psalm 17, it also does this, it links the Spirit with the Messiah. So as they're praying for the Lord to send the Lord, who is the Messiah, they're really praying for the Lord to bring about the Messianic age, which is the age of the Spirit.

So listen to what this Psalm says, and I'll give some comments along the way, a Psalm of Solomon with song to the King. Lord, you are our King. Now remember, in response to perhaps Rome's invasion, Lord, you're our King.

Lord, you are our King forevermore. For in you, O God, does our soul take pride. How long is the time of a person's life on the earth? As is his time, so is also his hope is in him.

But we hope in God, our Savior. For the strength of our God is forever with mercy, and the kingdom of God is forever over the nations in judgment. Lord, you chose David to be King over Israel and swore to him about his descendants, that his kingdom should not fail before you.

But because of our sins, sinners rose up against us. They set upon us and drove us out. Those to whom you did not make the promise, they took away from us by force, and they did not glorify your honorable name.

With pomp they set up a monarchy because of their arrogance. They despoiled the throne of David with arrogant shouting. But you, O God, overthrew them.

And uprooted their descendants from the earth. For there arose up against them a man alien to our race. You rewarded them, O God, according to their sins.

It happened to them according to their actions. According to their actions, God showed no mercy to them. He hunted down their descendants and did not let even one of them go.

The Lord is faithful in all his judgments which he makes in the world. The lawless one laid waste our land so that no one inhabited it. They massacred young and old and children at the same time.

He's basically giving a meditation upon the history of Israel here in terms of the different struggles they've had with various nations and kings bringing judgment upon them because of their sins. In his blamelessness, verse 12, wrath, he expelled them to the west and he did not spare even the officials of the country from ridicule. As the enemy was a stranger in his heart, alien to our God, he acted arrogantly.

So he did in Israel all the kings that Gentiles do for the gods in their cities. And the children of the covenant living among the Gentile rabble adopted these practices. No one among them in Jerusalem acted with mercy or truth.

Those who loved the assemblies of the devout fled from them. As sparrows fled from their nest, they became refugees in the wilderness to save their lives from evil. Now it's a little taste of the tone of the psalm, how there's this prayer asking God to bring deliverance from these Gentiles, this particular Gentile nation, namely Rome.

And as the psalmist is asking for this, he's reminding the Lord how the history has been. Gentiles have raised up against us, 722 BC, 586 BC, Maccabean Revolt, Antioch, 24th, now Roman. But all this reflection here throughout their life and he's asking the Lord to basically act.

So I'm going to jump down now to some of the more explicit messianic stuff. This is in verse 21, Psalms of Solomon 17. See, Lord, and raise up for them their king, the son of David, to rule over your servant Israel.

In the time known to you, O God, undergird him with the strength to destroy the unrighteous rulers, to purge Jerusalem from the Gentiles. Remember, Rome occupies Gentiles, or excuse me, Rome occupies Jerusalem. Jerusalem is not filled only with Jews in this time or in Jesus' time.

Rome has territory over it. That is not what God promised them, is the idea. In wisdom and in righteousness, drive out the sinners from the inheritance, smash the arrogance of sinners like a potter's jar, to shatter all their substance with an iron rod, to destroy the unlawful nation with the word of his mouth.

In other words, he's praying, send the Messiah to do this, to crush, to destroy. You get that? Send the Messiah to destroy the Gentiles who reign over us. Verse 20, he will gather a holy people whom he will lead in righteousness and he will judge the tribes of the people that have been made holy by the Lord, their God.

He will not tolerate unrighteousness even to Paul's among them. Any person who knows wickedness shall not live with them for he shall know them, that they are all children of their God. He will distribute them upon the land according to their tribes.

The alien and the foreigner will no longer live near them. He will judge peoples and nations in the wisdom of his righteousness and he will have Gentile nations serving under his yoke. He's still talking about what the Messiah is going to do when he comes.

Send the Messiah to do this and he will glorify the Lord in a place prominent above the whole earth and he will purge Jerusalem and make it holy as it was even from the beginning. So parenthetically, you do see how this messianic prayer is one of political power. You see that.

So there's obviously some discontinuity with what Paul is saying with the Messiah and even what the Old Testament is saying with the Messiah in this psalm. But my is that in a moment he's going to link the messianic age with the spirit. Verse 32, and he will be a righteous king over them taught by God.

There will be no unrighteousness among them in his days for he shall be holy and their king shall be the Lord Messiah. The Lord himself is our king. Verse 46, forever more.

Now listen to verse 37. I jumped to verse 46 at the end, but listen to verse 37. He will not weaken in his days relying upon his God for God made him powerful in the Holy Spirit and wise in the council of understanding with strength and righteousness.

So the Messiah has the spirit of God upon him in this prayer. They're drawing from prophetic tradition here. Now, they're appropriating the prophetic tradition to their own situation as they're suffering under the hands of the Roman Empire.

But remember this, what every Bible reader does is that we are appropriating the Bible to our own context, right? Every reading of a text is an interpretation of a text. And so they're asking what the Lord promises in the Old Testament, they're asking him to do that in their lifetime to liberate them from these nations. So they're trying to still figure out.

They don't really quite know how it's all going to work. They think it's only about Israel having freedom from the nations, but the prophets are anticipating something beyond that. But here's my point.

This text is in continuity with the prophetic tradition in that talk about a Messiah, talk about the spirit being upon him. And they're still living in the Old Testament era. I mean, we say Old Testament as Christians, but for Jews, it's not Old Testament.

It's just their life, their history. The second text I want us to think about where the Messiah is linked to the spirit. I want to talk with you for a moment about the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Now, the Dead Sea Scrolls, these are a different collection of text. So when I talk about these Jewish texts, don't think of them the way you would think of the Bible. Like there's unity in the Bible.

From Genesis to Revelation, there's unity and diversity, but there's one story being told, right? And there are a lot of bumps and bruises along the way. There's escalation along the way. But there is a unified story.

There's a canon from Genesis to Revelation. So when we look at something like the four gospels, we say the four gospels, yes, they had their own individual messages, but there's harmony there. You can do a biblical theology.

That's not how you need to think about these Second Temple Jewish texts. You can't do a Second Temple Jewish theology and expect there to be harmony like with the Bible. Because these texts are written too far apart, too many different contexts, and they represent different kinds of Judaism.

Whereas the New Testament is not representing different kinds of Christianity. It represents four gospels about Jesus. And you see different things happening in different letters.

But my point is that the Christian movement is a movement that has Gentiles and Jews in it in the first century, yes. But the breadth of literature in the New Testament text is a smaller body of literature than the Jewish text. And Christianity, when those texts were written, was very small.

It was a small set, right? And it had grown throughout by the time you get to the end of the first century. But my point is that you have just more Jewish text than you have New Testament text being written. That makes sense.

So there's a breadth of literature that you have with these Jewish texts that represent different genres, say the Apocrypha, typically narrative, although you have some wisdom. And most of the Apocryphal texts are in the BC era. The Pseudepigrapha, you have everything from apocalypses to letters.

And much of that literature is in the BC era. Some of it enters into the AD era. And with the Dead Sea Scrolls, a point to remember is that these scrolls represent a Jewish mindset or Jewish mindsets that the Jews who are in the desert, that's the new Israel.

The Jews back in Jerusalem, they have not been faithful to Yahweh. So you have these sectarian Jews breaking away into this sectarian community. And amongst the sectarian community, you have communities, you have different communities that are sectarian amongst the sectarians.

So you have Dead Sea Scrolls like the Damascus document, which has its own set of rules, and 1QS, its own set of rules for these different groups that represent these different scrolls. So understand that I'm not saying to you that here's the theology of the Messiah in the Dead Sea Scrolls. No, no, no, no, I'm not saying that.

Or in Judaism, I'm saying here's another example of how a different collection of Jewish texts link the Messiah and the Spirit and link the Spirit with the Messianic age. That's the point I'm making. So in this particular Dead Sea Scroll, the scroll is called the Mekissadech Scroll or 4Q521, that's the number ascribed to it.

Some of these, well, all the scrolls are also, remember this, they're fragmentary, which means sometimes they're so badly damaged and mutilated that it's hard for scholars to figure out what they're even saying. So they have to do their best guesswork to piece things together. So some of the things I will read from this particular selection, some things are questionable as to whether they were actually part of the original scroll, whereas other things are more likely to have been.

So here we go, 4Q521. For the heavens and the earth shall listen to his Messiah, and all which is in them shall not turn away from the commandments of the Holy Ones. Strengthen yourselves, O you who seek the Lord in his service.

Will you not find the Lord in this, all those who hope in their heart? For the Lord attends to the pious and calls the righteous by name. Over the humble his Spirit hovers, and he renews the faithful in his strength. For he will honor the pious upon the throne of his eternal kingdom.

This is talking about the Messiah. This is what the Messiah is going to do, this scroll says, verse 8. Set the prisoners free, open the eyes of the blind, raising up those who are bowed down. Sounds a little bit like Isaiah 61, verse 1. This particular scroll also puts in parentheses Psalm 146, 7, and 8. I think this is the editor putting this in, the editor, the scholar who edited the scroll, putting those verses in there.

And forever I shall hold fast to those who hope, and in his faithfulness shall. And that sounds weird because it's, again, it's fragmentary. The fruit of good deeds shall not be delayed for anyone, and the Lord shall do glorious things which have not been done, just as he said.

For he shall heal the critically wounded, he shall revive the dead, he shall send good news to the afflicted, Isaiah 61, verse 1. This is again talking about the Messiah. He shall satisfy the poor, he shall guide the uprooted, he shall make the hungry rich, and discerning ones, and all of them as the holy ones. Jump down a bit here, one final line, referring to the response of those who, who witness this.

Then we shall give thanks and relate to you the righteous acts of the Lord, those who destined, those who destined to die, those destined to die, and he shall open the graves, and open a valley of death. So my only point is, this scroll mentions the Messiah, and it has a line where it attaches the spirit to the Messianic age, when it talks about his spirit being upon the meek. So when the Messiah comes, the meek receive the spirit, is the idea.

Just to, for those of you watching the lecture, just to remind you, this, my, my move to read Second Temple Jewish texts is not for the purpose of equating these texts with the Bible. It is to show that there's a historical context, and there are many historical contexts in front of which to understand what Paul was saying in Ephesians about these, about these concepts, to help us see that Paul is in, in a particular interpretive tradition, namely the Jewish prophetic tradition. And he's revealing to us clearly, more clearly than what the prophets could reveal, because he's living in the Messianic age, when the Spirit's poured out.

And I'm also trying to show you how Paul's Jewish contemporaries, who were Jews but not Christians, they likewise would have had an understanding about the Messianic age and the Spirit linked with Isaiah, but also one that had developed before the New Testament era, after Isaiah wrote, that was trying to make sense of how to appropriate what Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and others said to their own social situation. So then when Paul is entering in with his Christian gospel, we have to remember, as one scholar has pointed out, at least one, more than one, but at least this particular one I'm thinking of has pointed out, that there are multiple things happening. There is what the Old Testament text says about these things.

There's what these Jews thought about the Old Testament text and said to put Judaism. And then there's what Paul is understanding about these Old Testament texts and how he understands these texts to be realized in, in Christ. And so I'm trying to help us think historically about what it is, and theologically about what Paul is saying and why what he is saying is not in discontinuity with the prophetic tradition, even if it may be in discontinuity at some level with contemporary Jewish reflections upon that prophetic tradition.

Questions? I was going to make a comment about when Jesus quoted Isaiah 61 and how that was the same kind of thing when people were trying to make sense out of the prophecies. Because when Jesus was in the synagogue and quoted Isaiah 61, it's interesting, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and he goes down, and the last thing that he says was to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. And then he sat down.

Well, because that was his ministry was to do those kinds of things, to bring the kingdom of God at that time. But it's interesting, the next phrase that he doesn't quote in Isaiah 61 is, and the day of vengeance of our God. So his ministry, even as he was starting, was that he wasn't there to proclaim the day of vengeance of our God, which comes later.

But his ministry is to proclaim the day of the Lord's favor. And so that's the kind of thing that I think you're saying is that as these people are trying to make sense of the prophecies that, you know, they have different ideas about how that's going to happen. Yeah, it's a lot of interesting thoughts there.

I think when Jesus, I'm thinking of all the gospels together now, not just the gospel of Luke over that passage from Isaiah 61, one occurs in Luke, that when Jesus shows up and preaches, he says, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand. And he does preach hard truths about judgment that are there for those who don't repent. But this is the time where salvation can be experienced right now.

In the messianic age, the salvation is here. The salvation is now. But when the Messiah comes back the second time, he's not coming to bring an opportunity for people to repent.

He's coming to bring judgment. And so this year of Jubilee is where he is saying the time of the messianic age is here now. Turn to me, turn to the Messiah.

And there's vengeance proclaimed. But in this life, that vengeance is is delayed until he turns to he returns. Now, of course, when when people die without Christ, they go to hell and they suffer.

But that's not the eternal state. There's going to be a future resurrection. And when Jesus returns a second time, the dead will be raised, the books will be open and everyone will be judged in accordance with his works.

And then that judgment is the final judgment where forever there's eternal wrath preserved for those who reject Christ and eternal life reserved for those in the kingdom of God who believe in Jesus and eternal life for all of those in the Old Testament era who trusted in Yahweh. But in Jesus' first coming and in right and even now, right up until the end, there's a warning of judgment, but there's the promise of salvation now to escape that judgment. And and the accent in this life.

In his ministry is, or you can be saved from that future judgment, so repent. But then the but then the vengeance that comes is poured out as a fulfillment of the promise of what happens to those who don't repent. And then the point you were making as well about the about the political kingdom.

In one sense, it's true, isn't it, that the kingdom of God is political in one sense because Christ is the king, the kingdom of heaven contrast with the kingdom of God, or excuse me, contrast with the kingdom of man. So if we're loyal to King Jesus, we will be at odds at some point with the kingdom of man. So when we say Jesus, when they said Jesus is Lord, they're they're minimizing the importance of the king, the emperor.

So that's a political statement. But not political in the sense that Jesus cares only about the independence of Israel from Gentile sovereignty. It's that Jesus cares about the deliverance of sinners from their sin.

And there is an actual physical liberation that's taking place within history where people are being healed and he's raising people from the dead and casting out demons to show you that the kingdom of God has come. But there are people who follow Jesus now who remain sick and they remain poor and they remain oppressed. Now, I think we as Christians have a responsibility to help the poor, to do everything that we can within God's parameters and within the the rule of law to be able to help people who suffer.

And we have a responsibility to do that. James talks about taking care of orphans and widows. Paul talks about supporting widows if the widow doesn't have any financial means by which to do so and children who can't do it.

So there's a responsibility that's placed upon the church to care about people in really physical, tangible ways. But people who love Jesus may still remain in poverty, but that poverty doesn't last forever. That's why he can say blessed are the poor, not blessed because they are poor, but blessed because theirs is the kingdom.

So when Jesus returns, poverty is over once and for all. No more sickness, no more sin, no more hospice care, no more funeral homes, no more funerals, no more praying with people by their bedsides who are dying, no more arthritis, no more back pain, no more surgeries, no more carpal tunnel, none of that because the kingdom of God is going to be the comprehensive rule over everything and sin will be destroyed, Satan destroyed, those who love Christ and those who love Yahweh in the Old Testament resurrected from the dead, glorified bodies reigning in a new world forever. That's where we're headed, but that has been inaugurated now, evidenced by the ushering in of the Spirit in the lives of Jews and Gentiles who trust in Jesus and in Jesus's ministry, evidenced by him healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons.

There are some actual some things I want to say about the Luke 4 passage in relation to this conversation just to show you how when Jesus came onto the scene, he is bringing to fulfillment what Isaiah promised and then bringing to fulfillment what these Second Temple Jews pointed. So you have the Jewish text, the Old Testament tradition, you have this Jewish text, and then you have the Gospel of Luke saying this age is here, this is Jesus a Jew who knows the prophetic tradition saying I'm the one who fulfills this. I want to say something about that in a moment and then we'll move in to our next lecture on Ephesians.