How to Study the Bible III - Ephesians chapters 1 & 2: Cultural Patterns - Jewish

There are some really neat things I'd like to point out here. We took a look previously at Ephesians and looking particularly at... Hi! Looking particularly in Ephesians at, for example, there's 23 times when it's definite article and then Christ, so the Messiah is what's communicated there. And we're going to be looking at Ephesians chapters 1 and 2 this Sunday and next. And one of the reasons for looking at it here in such detail is Paul is doing some amazing things in Ephesians chapters 1 and 2, and if we just kind of read it, cursory reading, we don't necessarily notice those. But let me briefly summarize and then you'll understand a little bit better why I have so much detail here. Paul was writing To whom?

Gentiles or Jews or both? Largely Gentiles, but a significant percentage of Jews in the population in the area in and around Ephesus. The Greek governor encouraged Jews to move to the area around Ephesus He said, if you'll move, and this was two centuries before Hall was writing here, if you'll move to Ephesus, I'll give you 10 years tax-free. So about 2,000 families, Jewish families, moved from the area around Babylon over to the area around Ephesus.

So what it did is, and of course they established themselves over a couple centuries, and so you've got a number of generations and population growth there, And so what it did is it made a significant Jewish influence and Jewish population in the area in and around Ephesus. Wasn't it also a Roman outpost? It had a Roman governor and 3,000 Roman soldiers were stationed there. So it was a significant Roman outpost as well. So you had a significant number of Jews, you had a significant Roman influence. The common influence there was kind of the local Greek culture as the whitest influence. So what you had was a significant number of Jews and they had the majority Gentiles, right?

So what we're going to be looking at this week and next is the Apostle Paul is writing in such a way that he's communicating with the Gentiles and he's also using Jewish terminology, things that they would relate to. And at the very end of chapter 2 he has a Hebrew poetry pattern which the Jews would relate to. And why would he take such care to keep touching bases with the Gentiles and the Jews? Because at the end of chapter two, he's going to tell the Jews and the Gentiles, but especially the Jews, that the Messiah took the law out of the way in the church. What? The Messiah did this? What? So this is going to be really huge. So anyway, let's take a look at it.

What we do is we have direct significant quotes from the Old Testament are given in blue lettering, and that's fairly minor in this portion of Ephesians. Words, minor phrases, and concepts that are distinctly Old Testament in source or character or from the Jewish culture are in red lettering, but not in all capitals. And then the footnotes are given on many Old Testament Jewish sources with some Gentile references in green lettering. We'll go more into that next week when we look at the pattern of twos in chapters 1 and 2.

So, words, phrases, or concepts which could have been noted above but were not include being chosen, Ephesians 1.4 draws from the Greek word used 139 times in the Greek Old Testament.

Mostly in reference to God's choosing. So a key instance of that word in the Old Testament is the choosing of David. For instance, 1 Samuel 16, 1-3 and 1 Chronicles 28, 4 and 5. Note that this Old Testament choosing by God is in selection of the one chosen without despising the others not chosen. And one of the things that goes along with that, by the way, is God chose you and He doesn't You know, give some reason except to say that He loved you. Chose you because He loved you. Alright, next one.

Connections to praise and His glory in Ephesians chapter 1 can be made in the Greek Old Testament, particularly in the Psalms, that have not been color-coded or footnoted because they are numerous and repetitive. The Greek Old Testament has the same words for praise and His glory as in Ephesians chapter 1. References to redemption by His blood and forgiveness of sins have connections in the Greek Old Testament to God's deliverance of Israel from Egypt, but are not color-coded since these words were also used in the Greek culture as well.

So the concept that God's people and the Church are His inheritance, Ephesians 1.11 and 18, has multiple references in the Old Testament to Israel.

So imagine if you were a Jew reading through this for the first time, you would be seeing left and right, again and again and again, things that, hey, he's talking to me. They would say, I'm reading this letter here, Paul wrote it, but he's talking to me. He's talking to me. And these are Jewish words, and these are things I read regularly in the Greek Old Testament. And so they're looking at it, and hey, Paul's talking to me. As a matter of fact, Particularly, Paul's not excluding me. He's deliberately including me as a Jew.

Purpose in Ephesians 1 is used in the Greek Old Testament 11 times and in the same way of things that are set out before God. The word is used of purpose or plan in other Greek language Jewish literature as well. So the Greek word translated hope is not only used of church believers hoping for their Savior's coming, the rapture, but also of Jews hoping for the Messiah.

Both were a certain hope. When I say certain hope, I mean it's absolutely going to happen, right? A sure hope, right? A certain, a sure hope, absolutely going to happen. It isn't an I hope so hope, which is a hope of probabilities. We're going to go over Silo Park and I sure hope we don't have a horrific downpour and lightning and thunder that's very loud. But that's a hope of probabilities. This is a hope that is certain. Is there certainty that we will be taken to be with the Lord at the rapture? Yes, right? And the same thing that the Jews had, the hope of the Messiah is coming. So they would look to that. You want to make sure that you have a handout.

Next page, something being sealed has numerous Old Testament references, but was also used in the pagan culture for a great length of time and well outside of the Jewish culture. Sealing, however, was until the redemption, which was also the point given in Romans 8, 18-25, when the whole creation will be set free from slavery to corruption.

The Father of Glory is similar to the common Old Testament phrases God of Glory, Lord of Glory, and King of Glory, but because it is not directly as such in the New Testament, it is not listed as a distinctly Old Testament phrase. The words for strength and power and might in Ephesians 1 are found numerous times in the Greek Old Testament. but are not color-coded specifically. Other words, phrases, and concepts which are debated as to whether they refer to the Old Testament and or Jewish source are not included. Then finally, the chart below of invitation to the Septuagint shows different families of Greek Old Testament.

And what's interesting is that the Theodotion version that you see over in the lower corner is quoted most often in Ephesians. Hebrews and Revelation. Ephesians was written to who? The church at Ephesus, right? And Revelation, what's the first of the seven churches? Ephesus, right? And that's where Paul spent a lot of his last days, was Ephesus, and probably wrote the Gospel of John. And then right away from that is Patmos, where he wrote Revelation. near Ephesus.

Hebrews is a clue we have here. Hebrews has lots of shipping terms and has quotes out of this Theodosian version which is in use at Ephesus. So what that tells you is that the author of Hebrews is probably writing to Hebrews who live in and around Ephesus. So interesting things that kind of come together there. All right, so now let's take a look at Ephesians. This is on page 3. Ephesians 1. Yes? What's the chart? I don't understand. It is a chart of families of Greek Old Testament scriptures.

And when I say families, it'll be things like, oh, these guys always spell this word this way. We have in our culture, you know, standardized spelling. Even at that, we see some variations on things. Most of the variation we see tends to be like British versus U.S. practice, that kind of thing.

So there'll be differences like that, where they'll notice, okay, just a slight variation in spelling, and that kind of thing, from one family of Greek Old Testament scriptures to another. So minor variations from one to the next. So the Theodosian version is one that was used in and around Ephesus, and it shows up in the New Testament in the quotes in Ephesians, Hebrews, and Revelation. Does that answer your question?

So we have on page 3, we start there, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. So let's think about this. Christ, what's that word? Christ is the Greek for Christos, and it means the anointed one. So that's the equivalent of the Hebrew, as we anglicize it, Messiah. So Christ. And then Jesus, that's how we say it in the 1611 King James, Jesus.

But back in the old language, the Hebrew, what would that have been? Joshua? We would say Joshua, that's Anglicized. They would say Yeshua, right? And so these would both be things that though they're written in Greek, the Jews would look at it and still, hey, still talking to me, right?

So it's Christ the Anointed One, and then Jesus the Savior. Then he says, by the will of God, to the saints who are at Ephesus, who are faithful in, here's again, Christ Jesus. Grace to you. Now, grace, a couple of interesting things. Grace was the greeting that the Gentiles would have. So, the Gentiles would greet somebody, they'd say charis, grace. That was how you said hi. So you'd have that, the grace to you and peace. How would the Jews greet one another?

Shalom, right? So that would be the Greek equivalent of shalom. So what does he do? He doesn't pick one, he does charis, Greek greeting, and shalom, Jewish greeting, and includes both of them. So it includes both peoples. He doesn't just pick one. He includes both of them as he greets them. I'm sorry, I missed what you were saying. So, is Christ the Jewish and then Jesus is the more Greek? No, both of them have Jewish roots. Thank you.

And Christ is the anointed one or the Messiah, right? And Jesus means Savior. And it comes from the root Joshua, which means Savior. So if you were to put it in Hebrew, it would be Messiah Yeshua. Anointed doesn't always refer to Christ or Messiah. It can refer to other persons as well, right? It can. Just think about this.

The anointing was typically done among the Jews. among prophets, initiating them into service. Priests, there was an anointing of priests ceremony that they had to do before the priest could even start his duties. So prophets, priests and kings, those three were anointed. And the reason the anointed one would be of such significance is Christ has which of those three characteristics? All of them, right? So he is triple anointed. from the standpoint that he is prophet, priest, and king.

Yeah. So the Christ or the Messiah, is that more of a title or a role, or I don't know what you would say it, and then Jesus was more of a personal name? Jesus is a personal name. Christ would ultimately be looked upon as a title. Okay. Thank you. Title, a calling, a very specific role and person. Yes.

And notice Paul switches those around from time to time. Nancy? Well, I just think it's It's a very precious thing that by saying grace and peace, he shows the unity that we have in Christ, that the wall is broken down between the Jew and Gentile, number one. But also that these are both characteristics of our relationship in Christ with him and because of him. It's really precious to use both of those words. Yes. Yeah. Both of them are very special. Yeah.

The priests and prophets, the other people that were anointed, was that a ceremony or was that just, quote, we are anointed? No, it was a ceremony. Example, Nancy and I went to Hezekiah's tunnel and the spring that feeds the water is the Gihon Spring. That's where Solomon was anointed. And the Bible records that. So then here is David. When and where was he first anointed? By the... what was his name? Samuel? Samuel goes to Jesse, the father, and says, hey, I need to see your sons. And they got all of them except David. And Samuel says, the right one isn't here.

Let's go get the guy, okay? He's anointed. And so that, and even though it would be a time before he would actually take on the role as king, that ceremony there still was looked upon as continually effective. He didn't need to be re-anointed later. Right? Yes.

Didn't Paul refer to Jesus while he was alive as Jesus and after he died, Christ? I mean, isn't that the order that he normally used? I'm not, I'm not sure that I have to ponder that you're talking about the Apostle Paul. When he wrote about Jesus, he referred to him Christ after he died. I don't know. Well, because Paul would only write after Christ was dead and ascended. So maybe I don't get that.

Well, I've heard. So I've heard something along those lines. Not exactly. I've heard something like that along those lines. Not exactly that, but that. somehow before they speak of the resurrection, it's always Jesus, but then afterwards it's Christ. I don't know if that's true. That's something we can take a look at. I don't want to get too sidetracked, but yeah, it's worth taking a look at. Next one I'd like us to take a look at is in verse 3, blessed be the God.

This is the exact same words in verse 3, we've got footnote 5 there, where he produced the exact Greek Old Testament phrase in Genesis 14.20 and Daniel 3.28, similar to phrases in Daniel 2 as well. So Eulogatos Hatheos is from the Greek Old Testament, in very momentous points. So here is the Apostle Paul, he's writing, and the Jews who are familiar with the Greek Old Testament would see that, and wow, he's pulling straight out of these very high-profile scriptures. So he's drawing exactly from that language.

The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, again with that, who has blessed us. The Greek and Roman gods did not bless anyone ever. So one of the things, and we'll be pointing this out, The Jews would see, okay, God blessed at different points. Here's Noah, and they get off the ark, and what does God do? He makes a covenant with Noah, and he also blesses them. God blesses at different points. And so, you see, the God of the Bible blesses the Greek and Roman pagan gods never blessed anybody. And so here's the Apostle Paul to the Gentiles, the Jews would say, hey, this is great, I feel right at home. The Gentiles, on the other hand, would be stunned. What? A God that blesses me? What did I do to deserve that? Nothing. Right?

So they would be astounded at the words, the Jews would feel comforted and at home. So for the Greek or the Gentile, it would have been turned upside down and it would have been a hard concept to even absorb. Well, as we go through Ephesians, and we'll do that more this next week, but you look at it, these Gentiles who are reading this, they're liking it, but this is also stunning. I have a God that blesses me, I have a God that loves me, I have a God that loves me unconditionally. He does the sacrifice instead of me. And I have assurances from that God that are absolute, which I never get from these other guys.

So you look at it, these guys are being stunned. He writes very shortly in here, we have the adoption of sons. They go, wait a minute, stop reading. Let me soak that one in. We have the adoption of sons, that means all my debts and sins are forgiven, my record is completely expunged.

And I have the highest level approval, because the adoption of sons was used for five emperors in a row, starting with Augustus Caesar, right? And it meant your past record was completely wiped out, your association with your past family was gone, and your new family entirely replaced it. And that you could never be taken out of that position, where a natural son could be taken and removed, even killed. But the adopted son could not.

There was approval by the Roman Senate. There was not just the usual number of witnesses, but seven witnesses. This is a massive, huge thing. And imagine some person that has been a slave their whole life, working in the mines. And you read this, I have the adoption of sons. Wow! So Paul would have had to be, that's why we have Ephesians, he had to be exceptionally detailed because the Gentile mindset wouldn't even know where to begin that God would do this.

And what we're going to see this next week in the pattern, he goes from verse 3 to verse 9 spelling out the blessings we have in Christ. Verse 10 is about the Millennial Kingdom. He goes from verse 11 down to verse about 21, blessings in Christ. The last verse in the chapter, Millennial Kingdom.

So you've got this pattern here, and so these blessings in Christ just keep pouring and pouring and pouring on, and he doesn't have any punctuation in the middle of this thing. He's spelling out blessings, and it's just like he's going on, and he can barely get his pen to get it down fast enough. But I think the things he was spelling out were such that a lot of the people, especially the Gentiles, were like, whoa, wait a minute, let me soak this up. This is blowing my circuits.

I've never heard of a God that will bless you. I've never heard of a God that loves you. I've never heard of a God that shows kindness. I've never heard of a God that would bless me unconditionally. I mean, that's just unfathomable. So they're being stunned by every phrase that he puts out. The Jews, meanwhile, are getting these comfort and familiarity words coming to them.

That's our Messiah. So in a way, Paul was helping his Jewish brothers. explain it to the Gentiles, because if the Jewish brother was, or sister, was reading this or hearing this, they'd be like, ah, this makes sense, where their Gentile, you know, I mean, everybody would have been mind-blown. They would have been able to say, hang on, I can help you out here. I actually, here's what this, here's the God. This makes for Gentile-Jewish interaction and discussion.

Yeah. No, I'm just saying, yeah, yeah, yeah, because, because they're, you know, here are the Jews, they're looking at things and say, that's my Messiah, you know, I recognize that out of Genesis and Daniel, right? And there's my Messiah, and he's my Savior, and I recognize all that, they're looking at it, and they're saying, boy, this strikes home. Those are my words, right?

That's like, those just strum the chords of my heart. And so they're looking at it that way, the Gentiles are looking at it and they're recognizing it, but just compared to any other God they've ever heard of, they're just being mind-blown. And they're liking it, but man, it's hard to take in. It's just completely contrary to the concept of God.

In the Greek philosophical culture, Matter was eternal. The gods came and went. So one of the things that the Apostle Paul would make reference to fairly frequently in his letters and even in the book of Acts, you'll see it. He will lay out things from like Genesis 1 through 11, which says that there's a God that's eternal and the matter got created. As opposed to the Greek idea, matter is eternal and the gods come and go.

So this is radical upside down. The Gentiles are liking it, but they're really getting their heads turned upside down, as Paul's writing here. And so he's wanting to bring the Gentiles around in their thinking, and he's also wanting to keep the Jews on board. See that? Yeah.

So in a sense, he's contrasting the God of law and the God of grace. So here you have it, he wants to keep the Jews on board, because later on in chapter 2, he's going to say the Messiah took the law out of the way. And that's like, well, to the Jew that's just going to be mind-boggling to them. That the Messiah himself took the law out of the way, that's just, I mean, at first it does not compute, right? Wait a minute, I thought the Messiah was going to be all about the law.

Well, not for the church. So, what we have then, that he chose us in him, and we talked previously about the Jewish wedding customs, about how the father would choose the bride, right? And he's going to talk in chapter 5 about the church as the bride of Christ. But here he's going to start hinting at that. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world. So when were you chosen? Before the foundation. Before he said, let there be light. He chose you, in him. That we would be holy and blameless.

So verse 7 there, Ephesians 5.27 and Colossians 1.22 is where those terms holy and blameless come up. thing that the Jews would see is okay in the Jewish wedding customs it is the responsibility of the groom, the father of the bride, the bride's family and the bride's friends all to present the bride holy and blameless before the groom and for the groom himself to present her holy and blameless to him. Will you say that again?

It was the responsibility of everyone, family and friends, including the father of the bride and the groom himself, to present her holy and blameless at the wedding ceremony. Everybody had that duty. Everybody, even the groom, to present her to himself as holy and blameless. So everyone had that duty. in the Jewish wedding ceremony.

And so here it is, the Father chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless. So this is a reference to the Jewish wedding ceremony, and all the Jews would have read that verse 4, and guess what? They would have understood it all. Before Him in love He predestined... Now, did the gods ever do anything in love? No, they didn't love you. Matter of fact, pretty much they just love themselves. They love themselves.

They love Hebridesimus to adoption of sons, that being, that having some significance to the Jews, but the term itself was particularly Roman, under Roman law, and was first used, like say, to appoint emperor, five emperors in a row, starting with Caesar Augustus. on and on and on. And so this adoption of sons would have been one that the Jews would have understood it, but particularly the Gentiles would have been mind-blown to read that.

Wait a minute. Me? Adoption of sons? Imagine some of the people at the lower echelons and culture of Ephesus. This would have been stunning news. And then through Jesus Christ, we talked about Yeshua Hamashiach, the Savior and the Anointed One. to himself according to the kind intention of his will. Did any of the pagan gods have the kind intention of their will? No. Not happening. Not happening.

To the praise of the glory of his grace which he freely bestowed on us in the beloved. Which he stingingly gave us a tad bit of. Is that right? Freely bestowed on us. Wow. In Him we have redemption through His blood and forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. He lavished on us. Again, the Gentiles are being mind-blown. Even the Jews. Think about this.

You're blessed how? By law-keeping. Conditionally. And if you don't, what do you get? Here, you're blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, and he's going to wait until the end of chapter 4 to say, okay, let's talk about your lying and stealing problems.

Even the Jews, this is going to be kind of an eye-opener. It's not conditional blessing. Blessing we understand, but not even conditional. That's just sort of astounding. Okay, so we go a little farther down here. according to the riches of his grace. Now, why the plural? By the way, it doesn't begin in chapter 2. Why the plural? What does that mean?

Yeah. Yeah, in order to look at it, we could substitute the word wealths. And kind of the way to think of it, in the Jewish mindset, when you have the plurals of something like that, it's multiple magnitudes of grace. As a matter of fact, in chapter 2 he's going to say those multiple magnitudes are so huge and so massive that it's going to take forever, rolling ages to come, forever for him to show us those. So at best, all we can do is just scratch the surface of grace. But that's okay, because we've got forever. And forever is good. So now, we have, in all wisdom and insight, He made known to us the mystery.

Those are all words coming out of the book of Daniel, especially chapter 2. So the Jews are going to be looking at this and saying, hey, I recognize those words and where they show up. And also, as we mentioned previously, the word mystery is not something that remains mysterious, is it? Mystery in the Bible, and this is Old Testament to New, and I've found no inconsistencies or exceptions. Old Testament to New, mystery is always something that was previously unknown but is now revealed.

And God does the revealing. So that's something, if you look at it, the Gentiles have this idea of mystery, but it's something that remains mysterious and only a small group can get insight into it. This is something, here's a mystery, just tell everybody. And you reveal something, it's no longer a mystery, and it's not just for the small group, it's something you tell everybody about.

But that word goes back into the Old Testament. It's actually, the Jews would relate to it very well. And better, in fact, than the Greeks would in terms of its biblical definition. Back to Job, back to Daniel. Okay, page 4 here. And we'll talk about this more next week. This verse 10 talks about the administration, God's administering, God's managing, suitable to the fullness of the times.

That is the summing up of all things in THE Christ. And this is the first place THE Christ comes up, in verse 10, with the definite article. THE Messiah. He's going to sum up all things in THE Messiah, the fullness of the time. What's going to happen? at the last thousand years of this earth.

Christ is going to rule over everything. Everything will be summed up in Christ. Everything will be summed up in Christ. Everything. And God is managing history, including this election coming up, God is managing history to the end that everything will be summed up in Christ. And nothing will forward it. And even after the thousand years, there's going to be yet another judgment, and then really after that forever and ever, everything is going to be summed up. Everything will be summed up in Christ, who will forever be the Lamb.

So the years of the final election are a thousand, correct? What's that? The years of the final election are a thousand. Only God votes, right? Only God votes. So, that is the summing up of all things in the Christ, the Messiah, and then things in the heaven, things in the earth. What kind of phrase is that? It's Jewish. It's Jewish. The Jews are inclined, instead of doing the world, the cosmos, that's the Greek idea, They do everything, heavens and earth. God created the heavens and the earth, right? And so when he brings that up here, he's going to sum up all things, things in the heavens and things in the earth.

In him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to his purpose who works all things after the counsel of his will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in the Christ, the Messiah, would be the praise of His glory. In Him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance in view of the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory." For this reason, I too, having heard of the faith in the Lord Jesus, Savior, which exists among you and your love for all the saints, do not cease giving thanks for you while making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, Yeshua Hamashiach, and the Father of Glory may give you a spirit of wisdom, revelation, and knowledge of Him." And that comes out of Daniel 2 as well.

I just didn't put it on there. So, I pray that the eyes of your heart. So, that's something else that we pointed out as we go through is that between the various scriptures, and there's a number of places, Hebrews is especially full of it, all the five senses, classical senses of sight and touch and smell and all those, hearing, all the five classical senses have an analog in the spiritual realm. Here's the eyes of your heart. And those analogs don't start just in the New Testament, they start in the Old Testament. So the Jews, again, would have been very familiar with these terms, because that's where it begins.

Now, it says here, I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, but it's actually perfect tense, which means, I pray that the eyes of your heart, having been enlightened, having been enlightened. So the lights have been turned on, the senses have been put into operation. So what is he really praying there? Not that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, but so that you will know, the eyes of your heart having been enlightened, what is the hope of his calling, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. It would have been mind-blowing because the Jews would have known, la, la, la, la, la, and then here we come, I pray that the eyes of your heart, already having been enlightened, and then he goes on to the, this over, it's huge, the hope of his calling, the glory of the, like it's all, no law, just here's all of this that has already been done, this is what you need to know. I guess it's the eyes of your heart having been enlightened, but just because, for example, a baby comes out, are their eyes working?

Well, okay, they have to get adjusted a little bit, but do they know what they're looking at? No, they don't know what they're looking at. So that's a part of what he's saying is you've got eyes that work, but I hope that you'll see and understand what it is you're seeing.

Yeah. So doesn't that go back to Genesis, where when they ate of the fruit of the tree, their eyes were opened? Yes, yes. So in a sense they were enlightened. In that case it was to eat. But that enlightenment was not a good one. This is a good enlightenment that he's praying for. It's contrast with that particular prayer. So just one more.

I was going to say that this country would, I mean you can grow up in a very similar home as the Lord would. Well, I think it's in harmony with it. Right. So because a part of our growing, a part of our growing, just like with a child, we say, OK, well, he's learning to use his eyes and his ears and, you know, using those senses and putting those together with his growth.

Yeah, so these are in, I'm at the top of page 5, these are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might which He brought about in the Christ, and here's again the Messiah, right? And raised Him from the dead, and seated Him at His right hand, and in the heavenly places. Now let's ask this question, the right hand. Is the right hand significant in the Bible? Yes, right? The right hand is mentioned ten times more than the left, and I say that as a lefty. So here is the hand of power. Seated him at his right hand, the hand of power, in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion in every name that is named, not only at this age, but in the one to come.

Remember we pointed out previously That age, this age, this present evil age are terms that Jesus uses and the Apostle Paul uses in reference to the time from Adam's fall or any time from then until the Messiah's age. And then the Messiah's age is called that age or the age to come or the one to come. So you have those sets of words and everybody would understand that. Jesus and Paul used those family of phrases and what not very consistently. And so this one is not only this age, this one here from the time of Adam until the time of Messiah, but the one to come, Messiah's age.

So you have both of them. And he will put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him the head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. 1 and now we're going on to chapter 2 and we don't have anywhere near enough time. So I'll leave it to you to follow, but let's go as far as we can. And you are dead in your trespasses and sins.

Now, what does in mean, spiritually speaking? Identified with. Yeah, in other words, you're identified with, you are completely in. Unity. What's that? Ah, yeah, you're in them, you're identified with them, you have a unity with them, and so it's a good thing when we're in Christ, but this is not a good thing here, is it? You're dead in your trespasses and sins. The trespasses would have been a violation of the law, stepping over the line, and the sins is particularly a Greek term. At least this particular word that he chooses is missing the mark. Missing the mark.

And which you formerly walked. Now walked, there's a Jewish term again. The Greeks would understand it, but to the Jews it was part of their history and culture because Enoch did what with God? Enoch walked with God. walked with God. And so you'd have various people in the Old Testament who said they walked with God. This particular thing here is a walking.

So walking is a step-by-step ordering of one's life according to a spiritual principle. That's the definition from the Old Testament on into the New. So a step-by-step ordering of one's life according to a spiritual principle, and in this case, according to the course of this world, this cosmos, it's not heaven and earth, is it?

But this cosmos, so that would relate to the Gentiles, according to the prince of the power of the air. The concept was that there was a bunch of spirits floating around in the air. And that was the Greek mindset. And so the prince of the power of all those spirits floating in the air.

And they're not good. And so of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among them all we too formerly lived, now that word for lived, That was a Greek idea, because walk was Jewish, right? That's how I individually order my life according to spiritual principle. That word for live is how I live interactively. So this is a Greek concept. So he's used walked to relate to the Jews and he's used this word lived to talk about how the unbelievers interact. They sin interactively under the influence of the prince of the power of the air filled with evil spirits. So that's the description including both Jewish and Gentile terminology here.

Among them we all too formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest." Something to note here, you've got sons of disobedience, children of wrath. To be, biblically speaking, to be a son of or a child of, unless it's a physical descendant. To be a son of or a child of means to be like in character and close in relationship. So everywhere in the Bible you see that. It isn't a physical descendancy. It's like in character and close in relationship. We're sons of God. We're a child of God. Same idea. Like in character and close in relationship.

So you can take that to the bank. So verse 4, but God being rich in, turning on to page 6 here, rich in mercy, wealthy, because of his great love with which he loved us. Again, think of the Gentiles when they're reading this. Rich in mercy, great love, wow! See, the Gentiles reading this, they're like, wow, that is some god. I've never heard of a god like that.

Even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with the Messiah. Definite article. Made us alive together with the Messiah. Imagine the Jews. I've been made alive together with the Messiah. They're mind-blown. Whoa! I've been made alive together with the Messiah. By grace you have been saved. Perfect tense. So are you going to slip out of being saved? Nope. By grace you have been saved.

Raise this up with Him, the Messiah, and see this with Him, the Messiah, in the heavenly places. There where He is at the right hand of God. In grace, in kindness. So if you're a Gentile, Leslie, you're celebrating, right? In kindness towards us, in Christ Jesus. Here's the Jew, that's my Messiah, that's my Savior.

So by grace you have been saved through faith, that again in perfect tense, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. What's the gift of God? The entirety of what he just spoke of. The entirety, it doesn't, it's not just, here's a gift of faith or something of that sort, right? So the entirety of what he just said, it is a gift of God, not as a result of work, so that no one may boast, for we are His workmanship. So who's doing the work? Christ. Right? Let's take a look. We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus, so who's the His? The Fathers, right? Creating Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we would walk in them.

Again, who is he talking to a walk? He is talking to the Jewish mind, and it is the individual ordering of one's life, according to the spiritual principle of God. Fellow Jewish brother, no longer walk according to law, you walk according to... You're not walking according to the law anymore, you're walking according to everything that he's prepared before him.

Therefore, remember that formerly you, and as we'll take a look at next week, in chapter 2, verses 1-3, formerly is twice. In chapter 2, verses 11-13, formerly is twice. formerly is always, in Paul's writings and the writings of his associates, always describing the believer before they believed. No exceptions. Therefore, remember, formerly you Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision which is performed in the flesh by human hands, remember that you are at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers in the covenants of promise, having no hope and atheos, without God, atheistic in the world.

But now, in Christ Jesus, in the Anointed One, the Savior, you who formerly were far off, have been brought near by the blood of Christ. excuse me, the blood of the Christ, the blood of the Messiah. For he himself is our peace, he himself is our shalom. He himself is our shalom who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of dividing law by abolishing in his flesh the enmity which is the law of commandments contained in 613 ordinances.

What did he do with the law? So did he just get rid of the punishments of the law? Did he just get rid of the ceremonial law? He abolished the whole thing and wiped it out. Took it out of the way, completely out of the way. And who did it? The Messiah did it.

Here we come into a question we don't have time for, but essentially this goes back to, can you remember in Matthew 5, he talks about the law, not one jot or tittle, right? So on the one hand, he'll make that promise, he's talking to the Jews in a Jewish context. Here, with regards to the church, he's taken the law completely out of the way. What will be the law's place in the Millennial Kingdom? It will be on the tribulation of Jewish saints, the nation. So it will be for the Jews a matter of knowing the law by heart and being empowered to live it out. So what happens is for the church, And we have a common need with the Jews. We can't pull off righteousness on our own, right? That's the problem.

So God answered the need to live out righteousness in one way, completely apart from the law in the church, and completely under the law in the Millennial Kingdom for the Jews. Isn't that a great contrast? So God answered the common need, which was to be empowered to live out righteousness in a radically different way in the church than he will in the monumental kingdom. Does it look the same?

It is still spelled out as righteousness, but the righteousness we have is completely apart from the law, lived out by the life of Christ himself, whereas they will be empowered to know and live out the law. by the universal and continuing indwelling of the Holy Spirit, something which they didn't have under the Old Covenant.

So really quick, it says by abolishing in his flesh, the enmity and culturally speaking, Jews and Gentiles did not, I mean we think we have racial issues in our country, They don't even touch the tension and the stress and the violent hatred between the two groups. So I think it's useful to keep that in mind of what Paul is speaking to particularly here, which is you are all now of the church. So all that enmity, everything is gone. It's abolished. I'm going to jump ahead here to the last few verses.

But he talks about, so then you are no longer strangers, talking to the Gentiles, strangers and aliens, but are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, and that word here, apostles and prophets, is three times in Ephesians, and this is the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole building being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit." And what you see at the bottom there in red is structured as a Hebrew poetry pattern. So even in his last words in that chapter, just after telling the Jews that the Messiah took the law out of the way, chock-chock, right? So just after telling him that, he then puts in a Hebrew poetry pattern that God's building you together on the foundation of the Messiah and the apostles and prophets that the Messiah appointed.

And guess what? This was written about 61 AD roughly. And was the temple still under construction at that point? Yes. It wasn't finished until 63. So here is the Jews in Jerusalem have a temple whose construction is ongoing still. And there was still a lot done. There was 18,000 men they laid off in 63. So a lot of work was still being done. And here he says, and work is still being done on this temple and God's doing it.

See that? Isn't that cool? So he's got this message in parallel with the Jews and the Gentiles, and talking to both of them, and getting the Jews to understand, look, it was the Messiah that took the law out of the way, not some crazy Gentile. The Messiah himself took the law out of the way, and it's God himself who is building the two of you together into a holy temple of the Lord.

And let's ask this question, is he done? No. He will not be done with that temple until the father tells the son, go get your bride. Then he'll be done. But not until then. So this is still ongoing, right now. Still happening. Can you give me a quick definition of enmity? Mutual despising. mutual despising.

Next week what we'll do is we're going to be taking another look at the same two chapters and look at the structure It's a double structure for chapter 1 and chapter 2, a very definite pattern, very clear, and again, I think it has this purpose that he's talking about here, and I think it's really cool, so we'll take a look at that next week. Lord, we thank you for your word, just what you've revealed here in this very special passage, Ephesians 1 and 2, and you'll continue to reveal as we look at it again next Sunday. And so we give you thanks for your word that you gave it to us because you love us, because you care for us, and in kindness you revealed it to us. And we just give you thanks in Jesus' name. Amen.