The Vision (3.21.25): Ephesus: Yet Here God Has His Church

 

Image: The Library of Celsus, ruins of ancient Ephesus, Turkey.

Note: Devotion based on sermon on Ephesians 1:7-12.

The Puritan minister Paul Baynes (1573-1617) said this about the ancient city of Ephesus to which Paul addressed the epistle of Ephesians: “This was the mother city, famous for idolatry and conjuring, as the Acts of the Apostles testify… This people were so wicked, that heathens themselves did deem them from their mother worthy to be strangled; yet here God had his church.”

Indeed, no place in this sinful world deserves to have a church planted within its borders. Yet God would have his church in all such places, so that the gospel might be faithfully proclaimed.

The apostle Paul was used by God to plant this church (see Acts 19). He then wrote this letter to the church from prison to encourage them in the faith. He twice refers to himself as a prisoner (3:1; 4:1), and in 6:20 he calls himself “an ambassador in bonds.”

The genre of Ephesians is quite different from what we encountered in Genesis, the last book we were expositing.  Genesis Is a historical narrative. Ephesians, however, is propositional, didactic teaching. Our minds and our faith need both kinds of teaching. We need to learn holy history, and we need to learn holy truths.

The apostle continued to catechize the believers, and through the inspiration and preservation of this book, that mission persists. The apostle is teaching and catechizing all of us, and every believer who reads and listens to it.

There are at least four great truths placed before us in Ephesians 1:7-12:

·        In Christ “we have redemption through his blood” (v. 7).

·        In our salvation the Lord makes known to us “the mystery of God’s will” (v. 9).

·        God is working out “the dispensation of the fullness of times” to gather all things together in Christ (v. 10).

·        As believers “we have obtained an inheritance” (v. 11).

Finally, Paul says, “That we should be to the praise of his glory, who first trusted in Christ” (v. 12). We have a reason for living. To give praise and glory to God.

Yes, the gospel continues to go out and in every dark place, the Lord continues to have and establish his church.

Grace and peace, Pastor Jeff Riddle

Eusebius, EH.3.21-23: The Apostle John Restores a Wayward Youth

Image: Remains from the Basilica of St. John, ancient Ephesus, a church site that dates to the 4th century.

A new episode has been added to the series from Eusebius of Caesarea’s The Ecclesiastical History: book 3, chapters 21-23. Listen here.

Notes and Commentary:

Chapter 21: This brief chapter flows both imperial and ecclesiastical succession.

Among the emperors, Nerva was succeeded by Trajan.

In the church at Alexandria, the bishops, in order, were Annianus, Abilius, and Cerdo (in Trajan’s first year).

In Rome, after Peter and Paul: Linus, Anencletus, and Clement.

Chapter 22: The ecclesiastical order continues:

In Antioch, Evodius was followed by Ignatius.

In Jerusalem, “the bother or our Savior” [James] was followed by Simeon.

So, in chapters 21-22 we have the four great early Christian city centers: Alexandria, Rome, Antioch, and Jerusalem.

Chapter 23: This chapter presents traditions related to John, the “beloved disciple,” Apostle and Evangelist, who, after the death of Domitian and his release from banishment settled in Ephessus and became the administrator of the churches of Asia.

Two witnesses are cited for John’s life and ministry: Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria.

From Irenaeus: “Now the church at Ephesus was founded by Paul, but John stayed there until the time of Trajan, and it is a true witness of the tradition of the Apostles.”

From Clement’s work “Who is the rich man that is saved” Eusebius shares an extra-biblical Johannine account, which he calls a “true tradition.”

It involves John’s ministry in Ephesus and the surrounding region and John’s  entrusting a young convert to the care of a bishop (Lake says another tradition says this was in Smyrna). The young man, however, was neglected after his baptism and became a robber. John returned and asked the bishop about the man. The bishop reported he was spiritually dead, but John sought him out and restored him.

Eusebius says he shares this account “both for the sake of the narrative and the edification” of his readers.

JTR