Sermon Tone Analysis

I. For Whom: The Faithful Saints

Ephesus the city

Location of the city (Map)

Culture (Image of Temple of Diana)

Center of a great pagan temple to Diana (Artemis) - The Temple of Diana was one of the seven wonders of the world.

It took 220 years to build.

It was made of marble, and the building was a third larger than a football field, supported by 127 columns of marble 56 feet high and full of lavish treasure.

It was also a house of prostitution in the name of worship.

A craft of making little copies of Diana in silver had grown up.

The temple was destroyed in AD 262 by the Goths.

(New Manners and Customs, 530-31; Baker Encyclopedia of the Bible, 622)

Large Jewish community

Many practitioners of magic and sorcery

The book of Ephesians is oddly impersonal for a book written to Paul’s most established ministry.

A few manuscripts lack the name “Ephesus.”

This isn’t because the letter was written to any other church, but because it was designed from the beginning as a circular letter that the Ephesians could distribute to other places in Asia Minor.

So the letter is addressed not just to the Ephesians, but also to the saints and faithful in other places.

Also, the letter was carried by Tychicus, who was planning to tell them all the personal stuff directly (Eph 6:21-22)

The Ephesians are saints because God chose them Eph 1:4, despite once living a pagan lifestyle Eph 2:3.

An example of this in Ephesus Acts 19:17-20

Clear teaching of Scripture is that a Saint is any Christian.

Holiness means to be “Set apart for special use,” And God is the one who makes a saint due to their faith in Jesus Christ to forgive them of their sins.

Romanist idea of “Saints” is a corruption of an unrelated, formerly good idea

Paul himself exhorts us to respect those who risked their lives for the Lord Jesus Phil 2:29-30, but this is a long way from the Romanist practice.

The early church made a big point of giving every Christian a proper burial, especially the martyrs.

Once Christianity gained religious tolerance and then religious enforcement, she no longer needed to worry about persecution, therefore, people were free to build much more elaborate tombs.

But also at that time, when a world leader - like Roman Emperor Constantine, or the leaders of the Barbarian tribes - converted to Christianity, he would then declare that his whole people were now Christians.

Paganism was always tied to an entire people group as a whole.

You worshipped the ancestral gods of your people, just because you belonged to that people group.

So when the leader of that people converted, he assumed that Christianity worked the same way and so now the whole people must be Christian.

But the majority of the population were really just pagans.

They hadn’t changed their mind about Christ and repented of their sins, they just went along to get along.

Now they couldn’t have idols in their house or build idols, but they still wanted to pray to something physical.

So what do we have here?

A tomb to a martyr?

A holy man venerated for his piety?

perhaps if I go there and pray to God, some of their holiness will rub off on me?

And before you knew it, they were praying to the saints themselves, they were going on pilgrimages to the tombs of the saints and the martyrs.

But now that the worship of the saints was an accepted practice, the church felt the pressure to have some system to recognize these holy people, which is where the practice of canonization comes from.

It’s a system to recognize those Catholics that are OK to pray to.

The official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church, even today, is that the saint’s aren’t gods and aren’t worshipped.

Rather, they are appealed to because their holiness allows them an “in” with God that ordinary people don’t have.

But this has clearly become indistinguishable from idolatry.

What’s the difference between building a pagan temple to Diana for people to come and pray to her for deliverance and help and building a holy site for people to come and pray to some man or woman for the exact same kind of deliverance and help?

Paul also writes to the “faithful.”

This isn’t a different class of people, but an addition characteristic of the saints.

That is, Christians have been set apart by God - that’s their vertical orientation.

But they are also faithfully living the Christian life.

That’s their horizontal orientation.

You can’t earn salvation by your works, but your works will demonstrate if the faith you claim to have is real.

II.

For What: Spiritual Blessings

God’s blessing implies happiness, success, or prosperity Ps 5:12; 65:11; Hag 2:19; Deut 28:1-7

What are blessings Rom 15:29; Gal 3:14; Heb 6:7; 12:17; 1 Pet 3:9

What are Spiritual blessings?

There is no doubt that these blessings are imparted by the spirit

But they are also “in the heavenly places” Eph 1:20; 2:6; 3:10; 6:12

This means that Paul isn’t taking about material blessings, but immaterial ones.

III.

To Whom: God is worthy of praise

God can be praised for his care Ps 68:19, 35; 72:18; 144:1

God should be praise for his provision Ruth 4:14; 1 Kings 1:48; 5:7; 8:56

God should be praised for his response to prayer Gen 24:27; 1 Kings 8:15; Ps 28:6; 66:20

God should be praised for his deliverance

from enemies Gen 14:20; Exod 18:10; 2 Sam 18:28; Ps 41:13; 124:6

from evil 1 Sam 25:32, 39

God should be praised for who he is Ps 72:19; 89:52; 106:48; 135:21