Our daughter, Kristin, is getting ready to host a trip with folks from her church next May. They are headed to Greece and, hopefully, Turkey. In anticipation of the pilgrimmage, she is presenting a “course” on the places they will be visiting, and she has asked me to teach it. It’s not a huge undertaking – one hour a month ahead of the trip next year. The purpose of these classes is to prepare the travelers for what they will see and experience – through the eyes of Paul.
The itinerary will include places where the apostle Paul started churches. Places such as Philippi, Corinth, Galatia and the church at Ephesus are certainly among the sites that are under consideration for the group to visit. While Paul’s letter to the Romans is considered the “head” or intellectual center of the Gospel message, the book of Ephesians is considered the “heart” of the Gospel. In fact, and most Christians don’t realize this, the apostle John was the pastor at Ephesus. And Mary, the mother of Jesus, is reported to have lived in a home near the church. As you may recall, Jesus charged John with the care of His mother during the crucifixion.
While the theology of the book of Ephesians is certainly important, it is also critical to realize that this was probably Paul’s most theologically advanced church. This is a church that Paul continued to mentor and teach throughout his ministry; even as he started other churches in the region. When studying the book of Ephesians it is important to try and understand the passion that Paul felt, not only for God and His Son, but for his congregation at this favorite church.
Janet and I have had the pleasure to visit the ruins of this magnificent church off the coast of Turkey and even to go through the home that was, according to history, occupied by Mary. It is an understatement to say that it was a tremendous experience and it is one of the places that we would undoubtedly like to visit again.
During my seminary experience, we were assigned passages in the original Greek to translate into English. In fact, one year for our final in Greek class, we were assigned a sentence in the Greek text of Ephesians as the subject of our exam. We had to work as a unit, four of us, and it was made clear that we had nine class sessions to complete the task; that included everything including the delivery of a sermon to the dean of the seminary. By the way, we would all get the same grade… no individual would get a better or worse grade than anyone else in the room. We were undeniably interdependent and had to define our roles as well as trust our classmates in their various areas of expertise.
I think it was the first time in my life that I had been assigned that type of final. Our professor, Dr. Smith, wasn’t even in the country during the three weeks that we worked so hard – he had been called to Greece and Israel to translate ancient writings found at historical sites. Of course, he trusted us to follow the assigned rules; and we did. Those three weeks were probably the most impactful of my entire seminary experience. By the way, during those three weeks, the four of us developed a bond that to this day would be difficult to break. And… we all received A- grades for our work. We would have really enjoyed a higher acknowledgment of our effort but, in all honesty, we missed a minor detail and the grade was what we deserved.
It turned out that the sentence we had to translate was twelve verses long in the original Greek. While the beginning of Ephesians is a series of sentences in the English, it is a run-on sentence in the Greek. It goes from Ephesians 1:3-14 before Paul completes his sentence. It’s the longest single sentence that Paul wrote – more than 202 words. Paul is so exuberant that he can’t contain himself, praising God and speaking non-stop through most of the introduction to the book.
Another insight into the emotion of Paul is near the end of the third chapter. Paul is on his game and discussing the power and majesty of God. He clearly gets overcome with emotion and breaks into praise and worship. In fact, it sounds like a benediction and the reader is expecting that this is the end of the book. Well, that isn’t the case. Ephesians continues for another three chapters. In other words, Paul actually breaks out in praise and worship half way through this important epistle.
That brings us to our verse for tonight. It’s the “benediction” of praise and worship that Paul writes at the end of Ephesians 3. Paul tells his church, and us, in Ephesians 3:20-21, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.”
My encouragement this evening is that Paul reminds us of how worthy God and His Son are of our praise and worship. We should not take that lightly. My prayer is that we will study – not only the Scripture but to learn why the writers of the books of the Bible were so zealous for the word of God – willing to die so that God would be known throughout the entire world. Have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…