Ephesians - Lesson 31

I'm going to look with you now at Luke chapter 4, verse 18 and following, as we're thinking about the messianic age and the age of the Spirit. Again, I'm wanting to take a moment here to pause, to think more theologically and historically with you about what it is that Paul is saying about this Jew-Gentile inclusion and the indwelling presence and power of the Spirit, and this Jew-Gentile one new man experience, how that is, how his remarks about these things are anchored in the Hebrew scriptural tradition. And I'm wanting to think carefully about how these Jews have, both in the Old Testament and then in the Second Typical Period, they anticipated it and were waiting for it and wanting it even still in the Second Typical Period.

And how Jesus now in the Gospel of Luke, he cites this text from Isaiah in order to show us that that prophetic age to which Isaiah pointed and promised, in which the Messiah and the Spirit would come, that prophetic and messianic age that would bring in this moment of Jew and Gentile inclusion, that Jesus says that moment is here now. So the very thing Paul says in Ephesians about these redemptive promises being realized by the Spirit in the Messiah for Jews and Gentiles, he is saying those things are fulfilled in Jesus because Jesus himself said that. So the Gospel of Luke I think is a helpful place for us to look for a moment because Luke's Gospel not only cites Isaiah 61 verse 1, but Luke's Gospel is also the Gospel written by a Gentile father of Christ to a Gentile, namely Theophilus.

And one point Luke wants to make throughout the Gospel is that Jesus is of course the Savior of Jews, but he's also the Savior of the world. So that you get in Luke, for example, parables that are spoken about Gentiles in a positive way, Gentiles are spoken about in a positive way. You have prophetic statements made in chapters 1 and 2 that include Gentile salvation.

Jesus is described, for example, in chapters 1 and 2 in the prayers of different people that are offered, he's described as the one who brings about salvation for Abraham's people, for Israel, and also he's a light of revelation for the Gentiles. So you have this prophetic word given about the Gentiles, but then you also have Jesus showing us, in addition to the Gentile inclusion piece, he's also the Savior of the sick who follow him, the poor who follow him. You have these themes also in the Gospels, the other Gospels, but here in Luke this is a particular emphasis.

You also have this issue of Jesus includes women in his community. Of course you see that in the other Gospels, but in Luke that's a particular emphasis where every parable in which he tells, a parable that he tells in which women occur, the parables are always positive. You have an emphasis on women who were involved in his ministry, who helped out in his ministry in Luke's Gospel.

Of course, in all the Gospels, the women are there at the resurrection and giving the report about the resurrection. You have Jesus demonstrating to us that in the Gospel of Luke that the kingdom of God, when it breaks in, it disrupts the normal way of moving and living and thinking about the current structural orders. The husband-wife relationship is transformed.

The slave-master relationship is transformed. The rich-poor relationship is transformed. It doesn't mean those distinctions are eradicated, but they're transformed in how they relate to each other in terms of being part of the kingdom.

There still are real distinctions. There were still real distinctions in the social order in the ancient world. There were still masters who owned slaves who came to faith in Christ, but the point is that how they related to each other would change.

We get glimpses of that in the Gospel of Luke. Luke 4 is helpful because here Jesus is in a synagogue. He has a reputation, I think, of being a teacher.

He's in a synagogue. He has a scroll. He reads the scroll and this is what the scroll says in verse 18.

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind is set at liberty those who are oppressed to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor. I want to highlight to you once again this the Spirit of the Lord is upon me and the me is the one who's anointed.

The me is the Messiah, the anointed one. That's the one upon whom the Spirit is. This Messiah is anointed by the Spirit and the Spirit is ushered in in this messianic age.

Here's the important point for Jesus. He says basically this verse is fulfilled today in me. Verse 20, he wrote up the scroll, he gave it back to the attendant and he sat down and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him and he began to say to them, today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.

In other words, he's saying the messianic age has begun. I'm here. I'm the anointed one.

I'm the Messiah who has the Spirit. And all spoke well of him, verse 22, and marveled at the gracious words that were coming from his mouth. And they said, is not this Joseph's son? And he said to them, doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, physician, heal yourself.

What we have heard you what we have heard you did at Capernaum do here in your hometown as well. And he said, truly I say to you, no profit is acceptable in his hometown, but in truth, I tell you there were many widows, here we go, in Israel in the days of Elijah. When the heavens were shut up three years and six months and a great famine came over all the land and Elijah was sent to the, to none of them, but only to Zarephath.

So Zarephath in the land of Sidon to a woman who was a widow. And there was, uh oh, there were many lepers. Ooh, why is he highlighting these stories about a widow from Zarephath and now lepers? Because the messianic age has come.

He's highlighting these texts to show you that he's coming to bring captive or set captive or set free the captive. He's coming to bring peace to those who are oppressed. Lepers in Israel, the time of the prophet Elisha and none of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.

Ooh, when they heard these things, all in the synagogue were filled with wrath and they rose up and drove him out of the town and brought him to the brow of the hill in which their town was built so that they could throw him down the cliff, but passing through their midst, he went away. And guess what he does after this. He goes about verse 31, Capernaum, a city in Galilee, teaching on the Sabbath.

People are astonished by his teaching. Why? His word has authority. How do you know that? Because his word came with miracles.

Look at verse 33. In the synagogue, there was a man who had the spirit of an unclean demon and he cried out with the loud voice. Ha, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the holy one of God.

But Jesus said, shut up, be silent, come out of him. And the demon listened. And then verse 38, he arose and left the synagogue, entered Simon's house.

Now Simon's mother-in-law was ill with a high fever and they appealed to him on her behalf. And he stood over her and rebuked the fever and it left her. And immediately she rose and began to serve them.

And then keep on going. He's performing more miracles. Look at verse 40 and following.

All of those who had any who were sick with various diseases, they brought them to Jesus and he laid his hands on every one of them and he healed them. And demons also came out of many crying, you are the son of God. But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak because they knew that he was the Christ.

So here's the point. When he reads that Isaiah scroll, Isaiah 61 verse 1, Luke shows us that the Messianic age has dawned. In other words, when Jesus says the Messianic age is here, Luke shows us that it's here.

Why? He goes out, Jesus goes out and does what the Isaiah scroll promises. Setting the captive free, casting out demons, healing people of diseases, healing people who are sick. Now he's coming fundamentally not to heal people.

He's coming to preach the gospel of the kingdom, which is what he says here in verse 43. He said, I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well. For I was sent for this purpose to announce that the kingdom has come.

How do you know the kingdom has come? Messiah is here. How do you know the Messiah is here? The Spirit's been poured upon him. How do you know the Spirit's poured upon him? Because look at what he's doing.

As the Dead Sea Scroll says, when the Messiah comes, creation will listen to him, will listen to him. So that now brings us back to Ephesians, which brings us to this wives, husbands, slaves, parents, relationships. In Paul's day, you would have an understanding of the wife-husband relationship that is not the one outlined by Paul in Ephesians 5. This selfless, sacrificial love that the husband has for his wife, giving himself up for her, for her good and death, loving her as Christ loves the church.

You have certain Greco-Roman texts where you do have authors talking about the importance of chastity in marriage and these sorts of things, virtuous marriages. But you also have texts where you have the husband is described as one who is not a loving, selfless, sacrificial person, but more as one who controls his wife. You have an author like Plutarch who's writing after Ephesians, but an author like Plutarch, who is not a Christian, but part of this Greco-Roman world, who gives instructions to the bride and to a groom.

And while he does say things that are helpful and good about marriage, he also says things that suggest the wife's soul identity is so connected to her husband that she can't have friends unless they're friends of her husband. She can't have, she can't worship gods unless they're the gods of her husband. And so if you have a Gentile woman saved out of that mindset, and a Gentile man saved out of that mindset, and they're married, they have to now rethink about what it means to be married in light of the Messianic age and the transformational power of the Spirit.

So now you move from the mindset of thinking that I must control my wife to the point where she can't have any friends unless they're mine, or she can't have any gods unless they're mine, her whole identity is mine. Now you move from that mindset to selfless sacrifice. Laying your life down for her.

You see, Paul's not giving these commands in a vacuum. He's not simply giving us an abstract theological lecture about marriage. It's a very contextual description about marriage that transcends that context and applies to us.

But he's talking to people who don't have, quote-unquote, a biblical perspective of marriage and sexuality, and he's trying to give them one. And he's modeling the male-female relationship after Christ and the church. So then wives submitting to their husbands, he's assuming in that context that these husbands are loving them as Christ loves the church.

Wives submitting to their husbands reflects what the church does to Christ, the church being the bride, Christ being the groom. And husbands loving their wives as Christ loves the church reflects what Christ did for the church, selfless, sacrificial love. So what is that? So if this is worked out in the context of marriage, this is a beautiful picture of the church.

As I've said earlier, wives submitting to their husbands and everything, Paul is not saying this submission is to be done in every circumstance when those circumstances are leading the wife away from honoring Christ. Just as the slave has a responsibility not to submit to his master if his master has expectations of him or her that violate their allegiance to Jesus. That's why the exhortation to slaves is, hey, treat your masters the right way because you both serve a master in heaven.

And guess what? What Jesus says is more important than what the master says on earth. So I think Paul in this point is assuming that husbands are providing the kind of godly leadership and authority and headship when he tells wives to submit. He's talking to Christians, in other words, I think here.

Now it's more complicated when you look at 1 Peter. Where the 1 Peter passage seems to be talking to Christian wives who have non-Christian husbands. But notice in 1 Peter it's not described in the context of the relationship between Christ and the church in 1 Peter.

That can only happen when you have two believers married, in my view. How can husbands who are not Christians love their wives as Christ loved the church? They can't. Why would non-Christian masters care about what Jesus thinks they won't? So just know first of all, I mean, this is a robust biblical exposition of how Christian husbands and Christian wives should relate to each other.

Now there are more things to say about this conversation than what Paul says in this text. But I'm trying to be exegetically applicable here. What God thinks about marriage is true for Christians and non-Christians.

I want you to hear that. Genesis 1 and 2 is just not applicable to Christians, right? I mean, Genesis 1 and 2 is what God has designed for marriage, one man and one woman. And there are expectations within a marriage.

God has given a role to a husband to be a leader, and he should be a God-honoring leader. And wives submit to their husband in a God-honoring way. That's the expectation for marriage, whether a person is a Christian or not.

But what I'm trying to say is, in the context of Ephesians, he's talking to believers. And the only ones who can work out Genesis 1 and 2 in a way that looks like Christ and the church are those who are believers. Why? Because those are the ones who have the Spirit.

And what Paul is saying is, he's saying that what's outlined for you in Genesis 1 and 2, I think, is something that is realized by means of the transformational power of the Spirit. So this is what God's original design was. There was no controversy about marriage prior to the fall.

When sin entered creation, then that's when the creation order became chaotic. Then God's redemptive plan has to work to restore that. So then when Paul is explaining to these wives and these husbands how to relate to each other, this is what he's saying.

This is what God intended from the beginning. But in the Messianic age, that's been restored. So everyone who's in Christ Jesus, husbands, love your wives as Christ loved the church.

Wives, submit to your husbands as the church submits to Christ. And that displays in a beautiful, mysterious way, the glory that God has revealed and displayed through Christ, through his church, and in the family. God cares about the family.

And he has a design for what it should look like. But here's Paul's point. God's redeeming the family in Christ.

What God intended in the garden is his intention and his plan for marriage. And sin broke that, but Christ restores it. So again, husbands and wives, we should gladly, in Christ Jesus, by the Spirit, gladly lean into what Paul is commanding us to do.

Embracing the roles that God has given us in the context of marriage with joy and working together in the power of the Spirit to submit well and to self-sacrifice well. Husbands self-sacrificing as Christ and wives submitting as the church. Also applies submitting to wives submitting to husbands as the church submits to Christ.

It also applies to children. Children in the ancient world were not always perceived as they're perceived today. In certain contexts in the Greco-Roman world, there wasn't this understanding that children cognitively developed.

Like we understand if we have children, we know that as Paul says, when I was a child, I thought as a child, I spoke as a child, I acted as a child. There are not a lot of five-year-olds, if I don't think there are any five-year-olds who are out doing heart surgery today, right? They're too young. They don't have the mental capacity to go graduate from high school at the age of five.

There's a cognitive development. Brains are developing up until their early adult years. In the ancient world, there was not always the understanding of that with respect to children.

You also have the reality that there were some heavy expectations placed on children in the ancient world because of the lack of understanding that children had to develop cognitively before entering into certain experiences of adulthood. And then you also have examples in the ancient world where children were, I mean, they were abused. They were slaves.

When you have statements in the Bible that talk about the pedagogue, Galatians chapter 4, Paul talks about in Christ Jesus, we are no longer under a pedagogue. And he talks about the age of the pedagogue coming to an end when Christ comes. He's using the analogy of how Christ coming into this world brings the temporary guardianship of the law to its end because now the time has changed and the attention needs to be placed on Messiah, not on the Mosaic covenant because the time goes forward, not backward.

Well, in the ancient world, the Greco-Roman world, there was a diversity of ways in which the pedagogue would function. A pedagogue was responsible for the children. The pedagogue would at times discipline the child in public.

The pedagogue might beat the child if the child got out of hand. The pedagogue would tutor the child. What they all had in common was the pedagogue was temporary, temporary until a particular age appointed by the father.

And then once that child reached that age of maturity, that pedagogue was no longer needed. And so when Paul talks about children honoring your parents, and when he talks about parents, fathers particularly, who would have been the head of the house, not provoking your children anger. Again, this is why I said he's exhorting the fathers to live in a transformed way with respect to their children.

Don't abuse their authority. Don't use their authority to harm their children. A father should protect his child, love his child, care for his child, and instruct his children in the ways of the Lord.

So the way in which children and fathers relate, husbands and wives relate, transform. The child is still under the authority of the father. That doesn't change.

The wife submits to the husband. That doesn't change, but that relationship is transformed. You'd have a concept of submission in the Greco-Roman world, but Paul's conception is anchored in this thing about the bride of Christ and the church with respect to submission and the parental relationship, the father and child relationship, that one is transformed as well where the father cares about his child's well-being holistically, training him up or her up in the ways of the Lord.

You know, also in the ancient world there were certain views of female children that were ungodly, male children that were ungodly. So in Christ Jesus, fathers are exhorted to not have those views of their children. It's powerful.

The Messianic age changes everything for those who are in Christ and have the Spirit. Likewise, again, the slave-master relationship transformed, not eradicated. One could, I think, make an argument, and people have made an argument against slavery based on the Bible, but what we do know, I think, from Paul's writings in Ephesians and what we do know from Colossians and then Philemon, that the relationship in Christ changed.

Insofar as that relationship, insofar as the system continued to operate, Paul expected the slave-master relationship to be different for those who are Christian slaves and Christian masters. Now, again, I think in Ephesians it's Christian slaves and Christian masters. In 1 Peter, it's a bit more tricky because there he's talking about Christian slaves who submit to Christian masters or to crooked masters.

It's a bit more hard, but my talk is not on 1 Peter, it's on Ephesians. So then, as we think about practical application, holistically, once again, I want to apply this more specifically. There are conversations regarding those applications as it relates to the Kingdom being broken in right now by the Spirit.

It's already not yet aspect of the Kingdom. There are good questions that are being asked about, you know, what is the mission of the Church? Is it about the salvation of sinners only, or is it about the salvation of sinners, as well as the transformation of social structures and things in society? It's a good conversation. We should always ask these hard questions.

But I want to reframe the question, actually. And I don't want to ask the question, what's the mission of the Church? I have an opinion about what the mission of the Church is, Matthew 28, 16 to 20, make disciples of all the nations, teach the gospel to all the nations, so on and so forth. But I want to think about what is the responsibility of the Christian, to whom God has given spiritual gifts to build up the body, but what is the responsibility of Christians to whom God has given vocational gifts for the service of the Church, yes, but also for the loving of neighbor well as oneself.

So my question is not, should a church have a tutoring program to reach a community? I think it's good if a church can do that. My church has all sorts of things that we do, given our social context, to help an underserviced community. One way you can help children in an underserviced community is certainly you preach the gospel to them, but you also help them do math so that they can have skills that will enable them to get jobs and not go to jail.

So because of where we're socially located as a congregation, we have opportunities in our church for people who can actually do math to help tutor kids in their math skills or reading skills. So those are good things to do, but I'm thinking more specifically, what can we do individually as believers to impact the kingdom with our vocational gifts? Yes, as a means by which to speak gospel truth in those spaces, but also as a means by which to give a glimpse in the here and now that God's kingdom has broken in by the power of the spirit, evidenced by the fact that we are living in a godly way, seeking to love people well with the hope that they would come to faith in Jesus through opportunities to share the gospel, but also to help them develop basic skills that give insight that God's kingdom has has come because believers are investing in a way that's helping bring flourishing in a community where there's a lack thereof. So here's what I mean.

Christians who, for example, who have the vocational gift of business, they're good at business. What are some things that Christians can do, given whatever their context is, to help reach young people who need Jesus, number one, but also need to develop skills in business to learn how to be adults so that they can stay off the streets, focus better in school, and be more likely to get a job where they could take care of themselves and not become incarcerated? What can Christians do who have natural vocational gifts to look for ways in which to invest in living redemptively like that, as a means by which to appoint those young people to Christ, but also as a means by which of showing that God's kingdom is broken in? Here's an evidence of that. You're trying to provide help to someone because you've been given life and you're loving your neighbor as yourself.

You're trying to provide skills to help that person be able to avoid darkness at a vocational level. Now, if they're lost and they learn how to do business, they're going to hell. I understand that.

But my point is, living redemptively doesn't mean necessarily they convert. It means we are using our vocational gifts to show light. Or think of it this way.

Again, depending on where your context is, what can we as individual Christians do, if anything, to use our vocational gifts to help us get the gospel to people who have been incarcerated, but have been released, and they're trying to acclimate themselves back into society? You want them to get saved. That's the number one priority. But if they get saved and don't know how to acclimate to society, the likelihood of them remaining in society is not very high.

So if anything, what can Christians do? I'm asking us to ask questions, you see, to live redemptively like that, because the kingdom is broken in and has transformed the present evil age, has transformed those who are in Christ. The Jesus is bringing life. What can we as Christians do then to use our vocational gifts to help those who are in the darkness spiritually, and then to help them develop some skills to go back into the workforce? What should you do as a congregation, if anything? Or what should you do as a Christian? If there's an opportunity for you to speak once a week to kids, young adults who have just been released from juvenile detention, and they're required by the criminal justice system to get in some kind of a program, or else they've got to go back to jail.

And your pastor hears about this, and tell some people in the church, and there's an opportunity for you perhaps to meet, of course, in a safe space where there's supervision with other people, with these folks who have been in the juvenile center who are required to go through some kind of mentoring session. And you can think very wisely about how to mentor them through gospel conversation, and help be a means by which you bring light into darkness. That's living redemptively.

That is pushing the darkness back. Of course, preaching the gospel, but also what if you are also a means by which that person is saved, but also a means by which that person does not commit another crime in your community, because you've invested into that person or those people's lives. What can you do with your own vocational gifts and calling to use your ability to read, or to speak, or to teach people how to cook, or have Bible studies with unbelievers? Maybe there are some people in your communities, in your cities, that have questions about God.

They are not Christians, but they are curious. What can you do to live redemptively, to show that the kingdom of God is broken in, to say, hey, you know what? I'll try to invest by meeting once a month with a bunch of atheists at a coffee shop, or whatever your context is, and just have some non-threatening conversations as a means by which to form meaningful relationships that you can share the gospel with them? So the Messianic Age ushers in the age of the Spirit, which moves us, the Messianic Age should move us to be uncomfortable with spiritual lethargy. What can we do to live redemptively and reveal that the Messianic Age has come to help bless local schools? The school debate is a massive debate in this country, and I have strong opinions about it.

But even if our children aren't in public schools or private schools, we still live in a community where those schools exist. And how can we pray for those schools? Yes. And then secondly, how can we, or can we, be a means by which to show the Messianic Age has dawned? And how can we live redemptively to bring light into those dark schools? I don't think that means that you send your kids to horrible schools.

That's not my argument. My argument is horrible schools exist in our cities and neighborhoods all throughout the world. And whether we like it or not, those schools are going to impact our communities and our society as those kids, as kids go through those schools.

So what can we do to be light in the places in which we find ourselves socially situated for the sake of the gospel and the kingdom, but by utilizing our natural vocational gifts? That might mean if you teach in one of these schools, practically speaking, think about what you can do realistically to bring gospel light in those spaces in a way that, yes, is wise and that won't get you fired, but in a way that allows people to know that you love Jesus and that's why you care about the kids or the young students whom you teach, and then ways that you could actually use your vocational gifts to help bring about evidence that the kingdom is broken in by helping develop skills that will liberate these kids from a path of destruction, both spiritually as well as individually in the world. Now, hear me very carefully here. I want to make this point very plain.

We are justified by faith alone and Christ alone that the mission of the church is to make disciples of all the nations, teaching and preaching, evangelism. The church is not a group of social workers. The church is those who are chosen in Christ, redeemed in Christ, baptized in Christ, filled with the Spirit, sitting under the authority of elders, served by deacons, and a place where the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper are celebrated, where the gospel is preached, taught, people love one another, care about evangelism and missions and outreach and discipleship.

But what I'm talking about is an aspect of discipleship. So that as believers, excuse me, as believers, what can we do practically to press into the darkness? Well, Paul is doing that. He's talking about the slave-master relationship.

He's talking about the husband-wife relationship. He's talking about the parent-child relationship. And these are real, everyday relationships.

And the challenge before us is to think carefully about, yes, how does what Paul says impact the parent relationship and the child relationship and the husband-wife relationship? But what are some other ways in which the messianic age of the kingdom and the age of the Spirit can manifest itself through our preaching? Yes. Our teaching? Yes. But through our vocational gifts, where we live, work, worship and play, because wherever we go in life, the gospel and the Spirit will go with us.

If you are a carpenter, how can you use that skill for the sake of building the kingdom? So here's the thing I want you to feel. You don't need to go to seminary and be a preacher to think about how to use your gifts to impact the kingdom. Wherever you live, work, worship or play, God is giving us all spiritual gifts and some vocational gifts.

We all have skills, some more than others, that we could utilize for the sake of kingdom work. One thing I'm communicating here when I think about how to apply this truth that in Christ Jesus, the messianic age has dawned and the Spirit has been poured out, is that for those of us who are believers, we want to think about evangelism in terms of relationships, where we live, move and have our being, where we work, worship and play. How can we use our vocational gifts, what we normally do, where we go grocery shopping, where we go celebrate entertainment? How can we live redemptively in those spaces and think of ways in which to use vocational gifts as well to impact the kingdom? Quite often when we think about evangelism or impacting people for the kingdom, we think of those things in terms of creating a program at a church and the church having this evangelistic outreach program or this program or that thing or this thing.

I'm not against programs. I think it's great for churches to use their space, their location to provide things to reach out to the community. It's great to have block parties.

It's great to utilize programs that can be effective. But my point is that we ought to think about the way in which we apply these texts, not in terms of what program can we start, but how can we do this as believers in the context of the church through our particular vocational gifts and where we live, work, worship and play. It seems to me as I read the New Testament, a lot of the ways in which kingdom work took place was through these very real, normal interactions with people over the course of conversations and in the course of the marketplace.

And we need to think, I think, more carefully about that as believers as we think about impacting the darkness by showing that the kingdom of God has been ushered in in Christ by the Spirit.