Bible Text: Ephesians 1:1-2 | Preacher: Pastor Joe Ricchuiti | Series: Ephesians, The Queen of the Epistles

1.  “The gospel has been diluted to ineffectual pabulum and so garbled by cultural trappings that it bears little resemblance to the pages of the New Testament…. We need nothing less than a new reformation, and Ephesians is the document to bring it about….The understanding of the gospel in Ephesians challenges and redefines the superficial understanding of the gospel prevalent in our day.  This gospel requires people to act, this faith works.  Believers have a responsibility to make choices and to change the pattern of their lives.  An easy believism or passive faith cannot survive under the penetrating message of this letter.”  (Klyne Snodgrass)

2.  Ephesians is one of four prison epistles written by Paul (Ephesians 1:1; 3:1; 6:20) from Rome during his two year imprisonment there (Acts 28:30).  The others are Colossians, Philemon, and Philippians.  It was written in 60 – 61AD and carried, along with Colossians and Philemon by Tychicus (Ephesians 6:21-22).  Tychicus not only delivered Paul’s letters but accompanied Onesimus (the subject of the Book of Philemon) back to Colosse.  The Book of Ephesians was written primarily to Ephesus but was meant also to be a circular letter circulated among the other churches of the area, thus the lack of personal greetings as in his other letters.

3.  Paul’s ministry of the gospel in the three years he was in Ephesus had such an effect that believers were purified of their compromise with sin; and the idol manufacturing business was severely affected by the many who came to Christ and stopped buying idols of the false goddess, Diana, also called Artemis.  So many people had turned to Christ that there was a shrinking market for idols. When Christians purify themselves and turn from sin the culture around them is affected (Acts 19).