Title: Learn & Live the Truth.
People say, “Experience is the best teacher.
If that’s true, then burning your tongue on hot pizza should’ve taught us all patience by now.
But some lessons apparently don’t stick - not as well as the searing hot grease of mozzarella cheese.
You know, people often say, “Live and learn.”
Usually, it gets thrown out when something goes wrong.
You lock your keys in the car, you burn the toast, you forget your anniversary— “Oh well, live and learn.”
It’s basically the world’s way of saying: “Congratulations, your mistake may have come with a consolation
prize!”
But there’s a Calvin & Hobbes comic where the two sled down an incredibly steep hill only to be bruised up
in a pile of snow.
Calvin last statement is “Oh well, live and learn.”
To this Hobbes replies, “Or in your case, live and live.”
In other words: Calvin isn’t worry about learning.
His friend Hobbes is pointing out that he keeps repeating the same mistakes seemingly forever.
Honestly, that hits a little too close to home sometimes!
We’re looking at our time in Ephesians as I time to Learn & Live the Truth.
Here’s the thing: the Bible actually flips the whole “Live and Learn” thing around.
The world says “live and learn” - It’s a trial and error.
But the structure of many of much of the Bible shows that God intends that we learn from Him, and be set
free to truly living.
God’s Word gives us truth, and when we know the truth, it sets us free to live the life God intended.
Like the blueprints for a house, God’s Word shows us how our lives are meant to fit into God’s plan.
In obedience to His Word, we allow Him to build our lives and relationships on His authoritative truth.
It’s not “live & learn,” not “live & live,” but learn & live.
That’s what we’ll see in the book of Ephesians.
Ephesians invites us to learn the truth of who God is and who we are in Christ—and then live it out.
Chapters 1-3: Learn the Truth
In chapter 1, we’ll learn of God’s eternal plan of salvation and how Christians fit into it by being in Christ.
In chapter 2, we’ll learn of how Christians were dead in sin, but God made us alive in Christ.
In chapter 3, we’ll learn of the mystery that was revealed in the New Testament:
Gentile Christians are included in God’s family.
Having LEARNED about God’s grace in allowing us to know and grow as His saved children, we’ll turn the
corner.
We’re going to let God’s Word challenge us to LIVE as God’s redeemed people in Christ.
Chapters 4-6: Live the Truth
In chapter 4, we’ll learn how to LIVE in unity, holiness, and love.
In chapter 5, we’ll learn how to LIVE in light of God’s truth in our marriages, families, and workplaces.
In chapter 6, we’ll learn how to Stand firm in spiritual warfare with the armor of God.
Learning leads to living. Truth shapes life. Theology drives practice.
This morning, we’re looking at Paul’s greeting to the Christians in the region around Ephesus.
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in
Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
I want to first use this message to help you to Get Ready to Learn & Live the Truth that
1. THOSE WHO TRUST CHRIST AS SAVIOR ARE SAINTS.
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in
Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
The name saints means “holy ones.”
And following it up with and are faithful is referring to the fact that they are trusting God.
This combination is highlighting that they became saints by trusting God for salvation through Christ.
The process of salvation as an act of total grace on God’s part is a significant theme of Ephesians 1-3.
We’ll see how His saving grace is defined by the fact that it was upon believers when we were completely
dead to His love and and we were resistant to the fact that he deserves all glory.
We’ll see how God’s saving grace dates back to before the universe was created.
And, even before the existence of the world God planned to make those He saves utterly holy before Him.
We’ll see these ideas next week in Ephesians 1:4 which states
he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him
Despite some false teachings, the category of the “saints” is not a higher rung in a hierarchy.
It’s not an elevated position that the common Christian could only hope to achieve.
Instead, all those who have trusted Christ as their Savior are saints/”holy ones” before God.
Soon, we’ll see that our elevation to the position of saint takes place with our saving faith and our position is
sealed by the Holy Spirit.
As we’ll see in the statements we’ll unpack in -
* Ephesians 1:13 13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and
believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit,
The principle is illustrated in the experiences that took place during Paul’s missionary journeys.
There was a clear indication that God was saving people during the time of the Acts of the Apostles.
They were sharing the gospel with people groups that were outside of their Jewish experience.
But God gave His first Christians the outward expressions of the presence of the Holy Spirit.
We see in the book of Acts that people would show outward expressions like speaking in tongues or
prophesying.
And God used these expressions to confirm for missionaries like Paul that people were indeed being saved.
What interesting is that Paul’s first experience in Ephesus on his third missionary journey is one of these
scenarios in which he’s ministering to one of these unique categories.
Let’s read about this in Acts 19.
* Acts 19:1b-10 1b Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some
disciples. 2 And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No,
we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?”
They said, “Into John’s baptism.” 4 And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the
people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.”
So, these people were worshiping God.
But they had only yielded themselves to the teachings of John the Baptist, which was that they should
repent of their sins in preparation for God’s Messiah.
But they needed to know that the Messiah had come and taken the penalty of our sins upon Himself.
We then see in v. 5 how they responded and thus how God responded to their saving faith.
5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid his hands on
them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying. 7 There were
about twelve men in all.
So, these men of Ephesus became evidence that people who are doing their best to live a repentant life still
need to trust in Jesus for their salvation.
And God showed the early church that these people can be saved just like anyone else - as evidenced by
the presence of the same Holy Spirit.
Those Ephesians who trusted Christ as Savior were immediately saints.
It’s still the case that Those Who Trust Christ as Savior are Saints.
As we’ll see in Ephesians, every Christian has full access to God as His child.
There’s nothing that we can do or have happen to us that puts us on some waiting list to see God.
There’s no “bronze, silver, gold, and platinum” level of Christianity in which we’re told that we must achieve
in order to unlock the throne room of God to find grace and help in time of need or to earn His better love.
We’re taking the opportunity to look at what else went on during Paul’s missionary work in Ephesus.
* Acts 19:8-10 8 And he entered the synagogue and for three months spoke boldly, reasoning and
persuading them about the kingdom of God. 9 But when some became stubborn and continued in unbelief,
speaking evil of the Way before the congregation, he withdrew from them and took the disciples with him,
reasoning daily in the hall of Tyrannus. 10 This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia
heard the word of the Lord, both Jews and Greeks.
This was Paul’s custom to begin sharing the gospel with the Jews of a city, reasoning with them from the
Old Testament that Jesus Christ is their Messiah.
The believers in Ephesus became a significant part of Paul’s ministry as we see he stayed with them for at
least two years.
We see that God was also working in a unique way in Ephesus through Paul’s ministry as well.
* Acts 19:11-20 11 And God was doing extraordinary miracles by the hands of Paul, 12 so that even
handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were carried away to the sick, and their diseases left
them and the evil spirits came out of them.
This is some pretty amazing showings of God’s power through Paul’s ministry.
Sadly, there’s some very ungodly people that try to sell some sort of blessed item to send you in the mail.
Don’t fall for that. OK?
This brings us to a really interesting event in Ephesus.
13 Then some of the itinerant Jewish exorcists undertook to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those
who had evil spirits, saying, “I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.” 14 Seven sons of a Jewish
high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15 But the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I
recognize, but who are you?”
How crazy is it that God was working so much through Paul’s ministry that these Jewish exorcists were
invoking His name along with Jesus.
How even crazier is it that the demons they were trying to exorcise recognized the powerful work God was
doing through a mere man as well.
Well, things did go well for the sons of Sceva, but they did go well for the spread of the gospel.
16 And the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them, mastered all of them and overpowered them, so
that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17 And this became known to all the residents of
Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.
This brings us to the second way I want to prepare you. - Get Ready to Learn & Live the Truth that
2. GOD’S SAINTS ARE IN CHRIST.
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in
Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
These believers are in and around Ephesus in terms of their location.
But, in terms of their new identity or deepest existence, they are in Christ.
As soon as next week, we’re going to start learning what it means to be “in Christ.”
It’s not just that the believers eternal destiny is established and set by their faith in Christ.
The believer draws their very life from their relationship with God in Christ.
Like a plant in the soil, a branch in a tree, or a fish in the sea, the believer is defined by being in Christ.
In the next 12 verses alone, we’ll clearly see that the believer is
blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing
chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world
It’s in Christ that we find our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses
In Christ we have obtained an inheritance in glory
And being in Christ means having heard the gospel of our salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with
the promised Holy Spirit
If we look back at Acts 19, we see believers of the city recognize their new existence as being in Christ.
These men and women who had come to Christ would’ve been proud to live in the religious center of Asia.
They were on the fence about whether they could follow Christ and continue their pagan practices.
They had invested much of their lives and fortunes into the magic arts.
But then revival hit.
And, even though they still lived in Ephesus, they showed that their existence was in Christ.
We read about this revival among God’s people in Ephesus in -
* Acts 19:18-20 18 Also many of those who were now believers came, confessing and divulging their
practices. 19 And a number of those who had practiced magic arts brought their books together and burned
them in the sight of all. And they counted the value of them and found it came to fifty thousand pieces of
silver. 20 So the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily.
This was a major step in these believer’s renouncing what they had been trusting for their wellbeing.
They risked the embarrassment as these new believers confessed and divulged their pagan practices.
They were choosing to rely on God alone, believing that Christ was all sufficient for them.
And they were cutting their off their own escape route in burning their books on magic.
These would’ve guided them in how they thought they needed to control their world to survive and thrive.
Getting rid of these books is declaring, “We will rely on the one true God who saved us and loves us!”
And the value of the books these people burned was easily in the millions of dollars.
We’ll see soon that these Christian’s repentance didn’t go unnoticed by those who relied on their pagan
beliefs for their livelihood.
The implication of what it means to be in Christ, which was illustrated by the Ephesian believers, is this.
It doesn’t matter what environment or culture you live in.
It doesn’t matter if everyone in your circle is pagan or materialistic.
It doesn’t matter if you’re living your life in freedom or in prison.
When you’re in Christ, you can find all your satisfaction, your inspiration, and affirmation from Him.
Yes, we can’t be in two places at one time.
You can’t be physically where Christ is and where you are at the same time
Yet we’re told that the Christian is seated in the heavenly places in Christ.
By the Christian being in Christ, the believer can bring the presence of Christ wherever they are because, in
a very real way, they are where He is, seated in the heavenly places in Christ and He is where they are.
Last preparation I want to make this morning to tell you to Get Ready to Learn & Live the Truth that
3. THOSE WHO ARE IN CHRIST HAVE GRACE AND PEACE FROM GOD.
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, To the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in
Christ Jesus: 2 Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
This was a common greeting from Paul to the churches he wrote to encourage.
And that tells me that God’s grace and peace a common experience for those who follow Christ.
The grace that Paul speaks of is God’s immovable love that isn’t earned. It’s completely undeserved.
The peace that Paul seeks for them to experience is the absence of conflict between us and God.
It’s the removal of our wanted poster from God’s court.
And us being welcomed into the God’s family because of the grace that Jesus purchased His crucifixion.
This process is why the grace and peace would come from God our Father and the Lord Jesus.
God the Father is the source.
And the Lord Jesus Christ is the avenue by which that grace and peace is made available to us.
And we’re going to do some deep diving into the grace of God in salvation.
One section we’ll study will explain the grace and peace of the gospel by describing just how lost any of us
is before God steps into our lives and saves us.
That passage is -
* Ephesians 2:1-5 1 And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following
the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the
sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires
of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
The readers of this letter could remember when they were outside of God’s grace and peace.
They had practiced forms of sorcery, leaned fully into the occult, and worshiping of a pantheon of Gods.
They were surrounded by constant examples of those who were enemies of God.
They’re countrymen were fully invested in Ephesus being the center of pagan worship in Asia Minor.
One of the reasons why their countrymen were fully invested is because Ephesus boasted of the temple of
the Greek goddess, Artemis.
This temple was known as one of the seven wonders of the world.
It was almost one and a half football fields long and 220 feet wide, with a 62 foot ceiling.
So, it was seven of our sanctuaries long and twice as high.
It was full of ornate artwork and statues of false gods and goddesses.
The main attraction was the statue of Artemis
It was thought to have fallen from the sky, maybe as a meteor.
As we’ll see in Acts 19, the pagan significance of this temple was the livelihood of many artisans who would
make statues and talismans and other trinkets for tourists who came to worship.
After Paul had ministered for over two years and the Holy Spirit had transformed people into the body of
Christ, we read in Acts 19 about how some of the pagan businessmen of Ephesus responded.
They were upset about “the Way” which is how the gospel-centered life was described.
And the gospel was called “the Way” was because the gospel changed their lives.
Their lives were so changed that the gospel became known as the Way as in “the way of following Christ.”
So looking at Acts 19, let’s see how the Christians in Ephesus were still surrounded by those who were dead
in their trespasses and sins and in need of God’s grace and peace.
23 About that time there arose no little disturbance concerning the Way. 24 For a man named Demetrius, a
silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen. 25 These he
gathered together, with the workmen in similar trades, and said, “Men, you know that from this business we
have our wealth. 26 And you see and hear that not only in Ephesus but in almost all of Asia this Paul has
persuaded and turned away a great many people, saying that gods made with hands are not gods.
27 And there is danger not only that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of
the great goddess Artemis may be counted as nothing, and that she may even be deposed from her
magnificence, she whom all Asia and the world worship.”
28 When they heard this they were enraged and were crying out, “Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!”…
32 Now some cried out one thing, some another, for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did
not know why they had come together… 35 And when the town clerk had quieted the crowd, he said, “Men of
Ephesus, who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great
Artemis, and of the sacred stone that fell from the sky?
This is the kind of atmosphere into which were born the churches in Ephesus and the surrounding region.
But their circumstances didn’t define them.
What DID define them was the fact that they had grace and peace from God in abundance.
They had experienced what we’ll see come after Ephesians 2’s description of the lost condition of man.
From Ephesians 2:4-5, we’ll see that all the difference is made when God steps in and saves
* Ephesians 2:4-5 4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even
when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—
And this is the most important issue for each of us to deal with.
Am I completely lost in my sin as an enemy of God.
Or do I stand in the shower of His grace with God having made peace between me and Him?
there’s something ironic about a question that’s asked during the riot in Ephesus.
In Acts 19 the town clerk asks the men of Ephesus a question that has a different answer today.
He asks, “who is there who does not know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great
Artemis”
Well, um, before I read Acts 19, I didn’t know JACK about your little god, Artemis.
I’d say that most people in the last 1500 years haven’t known who Artemis was as a god.
But I can also tell you who most of the people in our world do know something about - that’s Jesus.
Most likely, if anyone knows anything about Ephesus today, they’d probably ask,
“Isn’t there a book of the Bible with a similar name?”
The main reason why there’s a tourist industry in Ephesus is because of the church who was there and who
received letters from the Apostle Paul.
Even as this riot in the Ephesian outdoor theater that could hold 25,000 people may have seemed scary.
The riot died down.
And the whole reason why they were rioting died away.
But the Savior and the Way of Christ that they were rioting against has only become more impactful.
And He is calling us to speak to others of His love and grace in a way that’s bolder than we have before.
And when the angry responses die down, He will remain with an influence that’s only greater than before.
