We Bless The God Who Blesses Us (Ephesians 1:1-14) Series

An opening note for my readers of this series:

Roughly 8 years ago?, I wrote a series of sermons on Ephesians. I wrote them at a time of "almost." Academically/exegetically, I was "almost" comfortable with discourse analysis (Steve Runge style), but I had little idea how to use it effectively. Spiritually, I was aware that there was something about the Spirit-filled life that I didn't understand. I "almost" understood Ephesians 5:17ff., in particular. But I drew back from teaching on being filled with the Holy Spirit, because I knew there was something I was missing. I knew I wasn't filled, and didn't know how to be filled. Things have changed since then, and rewriting this series has become part of my bucket list. This year, 2025, I was offered the privilege of presenting a series of messages on Ephesians at a little Lutheran church, and I took that opportunity to more or less entirely rewrite the whole series. I don't consider myself a Lutheran, and there is much about "Lutheranism" I haven't studied, but it's this setting that explains my occasional focus on Lutherans throughout. Lutherans aren't being randomly being talked about; they were my hearers. The other thing I should mention is that the sermons are based on a translation I hand out to the church, that has more information than is presented on this website-- words that are focused/emphasized in the Greek, are underlined in my translation, subordinate clauses are indented, etc. Much of this doesn't carry over very well, and is lost in translation, so to speak. Anyone who wants that version can email me at garretttyson32@yahoo.com, and I'll send you that info. I'm stretched thin, and don't have time for long emails, but I can send you that. Last, I thought I'd be able to reuse more of the old series than I did, but that's how life seems to go. I'm sure I'll look back in 10 years on this series, and feel the same. But God is kind, and gracious, and He knows that every stage, I've done the best I could, and that we are all a work in progress.

On to the sermon!:

Today marks the new start of a series I'm planning on Ephesians. Whenever you start a study on a new book in the Bible, it's normal to give a few introductory remarks about the book to give you kind of a big picture to work with. So the big picture of Ephesians looks something like this, I think: God has this vision, this plan, to make a single, holy family, who will live in peace with himself, and with each other. He is bringing this vision to fruition through Jesus. Our responsibility, in response to this, has two parts. First, we say "yes" to God's invitation. We join God's family. Second, we walk worthily of our calling.

The Ephesians have said "yes" to God, but they aren't walking worthily. They are living in their old sins. They aren't living in peace. And so Paul writes this letter to them, to show them how and why they should start walking rightly with God. And, mostly importantly, to push them to start walking rightly. This is a letter that is designed to persuade the Ephesians to change how they think, and how they live.

The second bit of helpful intro I should give you, I think, is that the city of Ephesus was a total hotbed of different types of demonic activity. Ephesus was a city with a huge temple dedicated to Artemis, who was viewed as a super powerful god, who was both willing and able to share her power with her worshippers, and to help her worshippers be protected against other spirits. From archaeology, we know that this whole region was really interested in magic. We maybe tend to think of magic as something kind of harmless. Magic is the thing that makes life difficult for Disney princesses, and we wonder why a princess wouldn't be a little bit more careful, and aware of her surroundings. There are certain apples you shouldn't eat. And some strangers are super dangerous. But in the first century, everyone understood that magic was real, and that there are many spirits out there in the world. Some of the spirits leave you alone, and are perhaps good. Some of them mess with people hard, and make life difficult. And magic was viewed as a way to manage and control the spirit world, mostly simply for protection. If you wore a bracelet, which had names with power on it, you'd be protected. There were also power words you could say, that could protect you. When we read about Paul's missionary work in Ephesus in Acts 19, we find the story how this Jewish guy, with his seven sons, went around Ephesus casting unclean spirits out of people in Jesus' name. Demons are real, and nasty. So one of the concerns that Paul addresses in this letter, is this: "Does Jesus protect us from the dark, evil spirits that roam the earth? Is Jesus enough? Or do we need Jesus, plus magic?" [and in all of this, I'll be leaning heavily on two books by Clifton Arnold: his Ephesians commentary, and his revised PhD entitled Power and Magic.