Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] All right, everybody, welcome again to East Rock. I'm blessed to be able to speak in front of all of you this evening.
[00:00:08] And tonight we're going to be wrapping up a series that we've been going through for a little while. So for all of our guests here, we've been recently going through the book of Ephesians, the whole thing, but we're not. You don't have to listen to that tonight. We're just at the end. So as I started prepping for this sermon, it kind of hit a bit of a wall. Initially, in my study, I felt like there wasn't a whole lot of theological insight to be drawn from the text.
[00:00:35] So, you know, y' all regular folk know me and my fancy words and whatnot. So there's a couple of fancy words we're going to talk about tonight, the first of which is basically the idea. It's called exegesis. And what that means is that we want to convey what the text actually says, right? Like, the opposite of that approach is something called eisegesis. And that's where you kind of put your own spin on it and make it say whatever you want. And we don't want to do that when we're preaching.
[00:01:05] So the word isegesis, that literally means to lead into, and exegesis means to lead out of. So there's the vocabulary words for the day, but between these two approaches, there's one that we want to follow, and it's the first one, exegesis. We want to draw from the text what its intent was and not twist it to suit our own purposes, you know, And I'm talking about that because I want to be very careful with this passage like this that I study, where something doesn't jump out at me originally, like, and I didn't get garner a ton of insight as I first started my reading into this. So I was worried that I would end up putting my own spin on things.
[00:01:45] However, after I continued studying the passage, I spent some more time in prayer. I realized that there is actually quite a bit here that we can learn from, and was really excited to be able to share this passage with you all. In fact, when writing, you know, a letter or a paper or a topic, you know, because this is a letter that Paul was writing to the church in Ephesus, the ending is often what matters most. It's where they put your conclusion. It's where you reiterate what is important to. To you and to your audience.
[00:02:13] So these closing passages can reveal insight into the author's heart and what they find important.
[00:02:19] Paul specifically ends with a note about his beloved brother Tychicus. And then he goes into a benediction.
[00:02:25] Despite my initial concerns that Paul was just wrapping up this letter with his benediction, it shows us a good picture of what he believes is important in ministry, and it conveys his pastoral concerns for the church in Ephesus. And when I say ministry, one thing that I need everybody to understand is that I'm talking to everybody in the room. I'm not talking to just pastors or elders in the local church. We're all on mission to create Disciples of Christ. So we all have a ministry and they all look a little differently. I have a ministry in my home. I have the ministry here at East Rock Church. I have ministry at my work where I should be reaching out to my co workers.
[00:03:03] So Paul's closing words tonight call us to see that ministry is relational, prayerful. It's grounded in peace, and it's fixed on the work that Christ has done for us.
[00:03:16] So with that, let's go ahead and dive into the text. So this is Ephesians, chapter 6, verses 21 through 24, so that you also may know how I am and what I am doing.
[00:03:30] Tychicus, the beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will tell you everything.
[00:03:36] I have sent him to you for this very purpose that you may know how we are and that he may encourage your hearts.
[00:03:43] Peace be to the brothers and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace be to all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love incorruptible.
[00:03:57] All right, I'm going to try and be very aware of the time for everybody, too. So, you know, flag me down if I start talking too long or get on a really long tangent, as in, you want me to preach more or that's the right message. It flagged me down. And stop me.
[00:04:17] Yeah. All right, so now you might be thinking a little bit, right? You're that maybe I'm crazy. Then I just tell you not to read your own ideas into the text. And those verses weren't about ministry at all, right? It was just him being like, hey, Big T Tychicus, he's coming to say hey, and he's going to fill you in on what I've been doing. And then he's like. And then he offers a short little prayer for the church in Ephesus.
[00:04:41] And that was my first thought, too. I was like, okay, Paul, I see what you're doing. I guess so, you know, he goes on and he offers a short prayer or a benediction, which is another fancy word. So I'll define that one. We're more familiar with it. But a benediction, all that means is it's a prayer, right?
[00:05:04] At a conference once, I heard it described like this. There's two things that we usually talk about. Well, there's a lot of things we talk about in church, not just two things, but there's two types of prayers or blessings that usually we do and we have a benediction or you have a doxology, and they go in two different directions was the way that it was explained at this conference. And I really like the idea. Basically, you know, we all know what the doxology, right? Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. I will stop singing no more of that for you don't have to endure that, but praise God. A benediction, though, is a request for a blessing that comes down from God. So the doxology is us sending praises up to God, whereas the benediction is us calling down for blessings from God.
[00:05:51] So the doxology acknowledges his blessings with praise. And that picture always stuck with me as I was thinking about it. So Paul here is offering up a prayer at the end of this passage for blessing upon the church at Ephesus. And what he asks for tells us a lot about what's important to Paul in his ministry.
[00:06:14] So we'll go ahead and dive in. Our first point tonight, the first thing that we can see from this is that ministry is relational.
[00:06:21] And I love this idea. I can remember taking this training. It was three story Training is what it was called way back when my Life Matters was still youth for Christ. And how that training really resonated with me. It was the first type of evangelism training I ever took.
[00:06:37] And if you've never taken the training, it follows the story of this girl.
[00:06:41] And the videos are. Well, they're a little cheesy at times, but they're full of really good truth.
[00:06:47] And it follows this girl, I think. I think her name is Gabriella. Yeah, I remember anyways, but it goes through the story as an example of how she can share God's story, her story, and then tie that into her friend's story.
[00:07:03] So in the training, there's this boy, and I don't remember his name, but his whole thing is like, I'm going to force you to make a decision right now for Christ.
[00:07:12] And that's how he approaches every conversation.
[00:07:14] But Gabriel tells him to be like, calm down, man.
[00:07:18] That would just shut down the entire conversation. That I've been having with my friend about faith. So before we go any further, the Holy Spirit can use any type of approach to save someone. So. Amen. From relational ministry to street preaching. But relational ministry is also how I came to faith.
[00:07:37] And it's the tenet we use behind our teaching at Rock Solid, which is our student ministry here. And we want to build a relationship so we can speak into their story with God's story. And we get to see that tonight, too, with these baptisms, right? We get to see God taking place, God's story taking place in these individual stories.
[00:07:56] So back to the text. Where does it talk about relational ministry? Steve? Well, of all things, it's.
[00:08:04] It's before the benediction, with the introduction of Tychicus. We know from Acts that Paul was in Ephesus before. And so he likely knew the members of this church that he was writing this letter to.
[00:08:16] And so he starts wrapping up his letter and saying that, you know, they will know how I am doing and what I am doing. And he's working on strengthening that relationship between himself, his trusted companion, Big T, Tycheus, right, And the church at Ephesus. Not only do we see the work of Paul building relationship here with the Ephesian Church, but we also see that he is relational in his ministry and that he personally sends somebody to deliver this letter. Right. Like Tychicus isn't just some courier or some random guy that Paul's like, yeah, go deliver my letter, please.
[00:08:57] He's described as a faithful minister in the Lord.
[00:09:01] And this isn't the only place that Tychicus is mentioned either. In Acts 20, it tells us that he traveled with Paul, among others. He's also mentioned in the letter to the Colossians.
[00:09:12] In fact, it's very probable that at the same time Tychicus was carrying the letter to Ephesus, he was carrying the letter to the Colossian Church as well, to deliver to the town on Colossae on the same trip. He's also mentioned in Timothy and Titus. And that wasn't just.
[00:09:29] So he's all over the place. Again, it's not some random guy that Paul just picked out and said, hey, go deliver this letter. He was very intentional and he was very specific in choosing Tychicus as a faithful minister of the Lord to be able to go and share with the Ephesian Church and build relationship and help continue his ministry there, as well as to build up the church and to strengthen them.
[00:09:53] So there's a whole sub sermon here about raising up disciples that we make disciples, just like Paul did here with Tychicus.
[00:10:03] But. And how. Ministry is not a lone ranger effort. It takes multiple people. Right? So in lieu of the time, though, I would just challenge you and ask you all tonight, though, in your ministries, in your family, in your home, just in your personal lives, who are you encouraging in Christ?
[00:10:21] We're all called to the mission of making disciples, and we can do that as we come across people we know and we build relationships with them.
[00:10:30] I won't belabor that point, though. So let's move on to the second point for the evening.
[00:10:34] And I'm looking at the time, so we're making sure we're still good. I won't belabor the point, though. And the second point tonight, though, is that ministry is meant to be encouraging.
[00:10:43] This one comes pretty straightforward from the text. What is the purpose of sending Tychicus and building relationships? Well, it says that he may encourage your hearts. This is paralleled in the letter to Colossae as well in chapters two, verses one through three. So in the letter of Colossians, it tells us, for I want to know how great a struggle I have for you and for those at Laodicea and for all those who have seen me face to face, that their hearts, Goodness, I can't talk. May be encouraged being knit together in love to reach all the riches of full assurance, of understanding and. And the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasure of wisdom and knowledge.
[00:11:25] Now, remember where Paul is at this time, contextually, when he's writing the letter of Ephesians, he's where he's in prison at this time. He wasn't worried about himself, but more he was worried about encouraging the hearts of the Ephesian Church.
[00:11:41] The word he uses here is in the Greek, it's parakaleo. And this isn't just Paul wanting to offer flattery. So this encouragement that he's talking about, it's not just being like, casey, I like your shirt. That's a good shirt. You know, the word that he's talking about here, it's not flattery, but the word implies a strengthening and comfort. So Paul is exhorting them to be strengthened and encouraged in their work, the work that they're doing as the church by Tychicus, by the sending of him, and by what Paul is doing by being imprisoned for the gospel of Christ.
[00:12:19] Life can feel overwhelming, at least for me.
[00:12:25] I don't know if that's the case for anybody else, but I could use some encouragement every now and again, not encouragement in my own ability rather, but the encouragement that we should seek should be encouragement, that is in Christ. God. God's will will be done.
[00:12:41] Notice Paul doesn't say things here like encouraging by saying that it's going to get easier for you as the church. He in fact is again is giving them this update on the status as he's in prison for preaching the gospel. So the encouragement here isn't some fanciful thing about, you know, things are going to be prosperous for you and you're not going to suffer.
[00:13:04] But Paul says it doesn't say those things.
[00:13:08] It's not a you can do it, I believe in you type of encouragement. Rather, it's knowing that Christ is enough and encouraging each other in that knowing that Christ is enough.
[00:13:22] This isn't just here at the end of the letter. He's reiterating this from earlier in the letter of Ephesians where he prayed for their hearts already.
[00:13:29] So this encouraging, this strengthening, this comfort, this parakaleo right here is very deliberate. Before he begins the benediction, which is again just the prayer, right? This is a pretty short benediction, but it's packed full of insight. So in verses 23 and 24, he begins the benediction by saying, peace be to the brothers and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:13:55] Grace be with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with love.
[00:14:00] Incorruptible man. I really love the phrase love incorruptible, but that's lower in my notes, so I'm not going to talk about it right now. The third point though, for the evening, what we are going to talk about right now though, is that what he talks about first was he talks about peace, faith and love. So we can tell that ministry is rooted in these things. It's rooted in peace, faith and love. You know, what's the first thing he opens this benediction with?
[00:14:27] Peace be to the brothers here. Peace isn't being used as we typically think of it either. Again, remember the context. Paul's in prison.
[00:14:36] It's not the most peaceful place to be when you think of peace.
[00:14:40] So it's not talking about lack of conflict here. But if we look back earlier in the letter, in Ephesians, Paul specifically tells us what he means by peace. He says that peace is Christ, is Jesus Christ. In Ephesians 2, he tells us to remember that you are at times separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers for the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
[00:15:18] For He Himself is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility.
[00:15:28] He's specifically talking here about how all are saved through Christ, the Jews, the Gentiles, all peoples, right? It's not restricted just to the chosen Israelites anymore. But no, peace isn't just the absence of conflict. It's the reconciliation that we have with Christ.
[00:15:47] Christ has broken down that barrier between the Jew, between the Gentile. He's creating a new people, his church.
[00:15:55] This wish for peace, man, is such a blessing and something we should prayerfully consider for our own selves, for our own ministries. We must seek Christ.
[00:16:07] So after he begins the benediction with a call for peace, to be the brothers in the church, he follows us up with this with a kind of a strange phrase, because he doesn't say love and faith, right? He says love in faith.
[00:16:23] And I found that phrase odd as I was reading it.
[00:16:28] Why does he tie these two things together by saying it's love in faith?
[00:16:33] And what I would infer that he does because of. He does this because of our faith, of our trust in Christ, which is an outpouring of love, and it calls us to show that same love towards others. There's other places in Scripture, First Corinthians, which is, you know, that verse that's always quoted at weddings about love.
[00:16:52] You know, he talks about how having faith without love is being nothing.
[00:16:57] So Paul is reminding the Church in Ephesus again of sound doctrine in that love and peace are tied together in the church.
[00:17:09] A good way to think about love in this example is like a tree.
[00:17:14] For example, faith is the core, right? The main trunk of the tree, and love is the fruit that it bears. You know, it's similar to how James talks about works in his letter. He says, works don't save us, but faith without works is dead.
[00:17:32] He says our works don't save us, but we should see those faiths, or, I'm sorry, those works as an outpouring of our faith, just as we should see an outpouring of love as a sign of our faith.
[00:17:47] Skipping ahead a little bit here, Paul also ends this sentence by saying that these things come from God the Father and Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:17:57] So these gifts of peace, love, faith, again, he's reminding them these don't come from Paul, right? These don't come from Tychicus. These come from God, whom he equates with Jesus Christ. He puts them in the same category, in the same sentence. It's God the Father and Jesus Christ.
[00:18:15] So there's high chrysology there as well.
[00:18:19] He reiterates this idea in Romans 5 all over the place too. So Paul reminds us in the opening, just this opening sentence of his prayer, of his benediction that ministry isn't about programs, personalities, even productivity, right? It's about peace, faith and love flowing forth from God through Christ to his people.
[00:18:41] This idea is, is really neat too, because it bookends Ephesians, right? What I mean by that is that Paul opens us up in chapter one, where he wishes grace and peace to the church. And that's how he also ends the book, by wishing this peace upon the church.
[00:18:58] And it's because this idea that he talks of this incorruptible love next, that I really like it talks. He tells us that it's an eternal, undying kind of love.
[00:19:11] So that takes us to our fourth point tonight, which is that ministry. So our ministry is eternal in perspective.
[00:19:23] This is really cool rearing bookend as well, but I'm gonna skip over that in the lieu of time. But the love we experience in heaven and eternity, right? This love we will experience, we're also able to experience that love right now, right? This isn't a gift we have to wait for. We can rejoice in this incorruptible eternal love that's being lavished upon us now, you know, and this is hard to live in, right? Like I. Like I said earlier, I could use some encouragement. Every now and again I get discouraged, you know, And I honestly lose track of the idea that. Of how much Christ loves me, how much God loves me, not just when I will be in heaven, but right now, how much he loves me, right?
[00:20:07] How do you respond to something like that? We are to continue to grow in Christ likeness and we want to seek out that incorruptible love of Christ again. Are we to continue sinning? By no means.
[00:20:20] We are to continue to grow.
[00:20:23] How often do we settle for a love of something corruptible of this world, something simple, or for short breaths of some kind of pleasure or comfort in the world where we can rest in this eternal love that we have from God.
[00:20:41] Man. I really want to share more here about. About this, but I'm going to skip ahead because I see the time.
[00:20:48] So our final point tonight comes from the last two verses of the passage in this benediction. And it's how Paul ends his letter. He ends with a prayer and what we can learn from that is that we can learn our last point, that ministry is prayerful.
[00:21:03] Paul ends not just with an update about sending Tychicus, but he ends with a prayer.
[00:21:08] We've already talked about what we can learn from that prayer, but I would be remiss if I didn't point out the obvious, that the importance of the ending of the letter is a reminder for us that our ministry, that we are to be prayerful. And again, we all have ministry. This isn't just a call to pastors. This is a call to every one of us. As a member of Christ's church, we are all on mission to make disciples.
[00:21:33] So are we committed to the idea that we should be praying for not just our own needs, but for the good of the church as a whole?
[00:21:42] Just as Paul was prayerful for the church of Ephesus, here at the end of the letter, we should.
[00:21:50] We should be seeking to be prayerful like that for our guests and for everybody here. This is a shameless plug. Usually we have a prayer night that we have once a month where we pray for the congregation. You show up for that, it's great.
[00:22:05] I'm sure you know about it because Tim has harassed you via text at some point asking for prayer requests.
[00:22:12] But what I really love about those meetings is one, there's the fellowship, the time of coming together and praying together, but also the homework that we leave with everybody that submits their prayer request into Tim, into whoever's running the meeting. It gets printed out and handed out, and that way people can pray on it throughout the whole month.
[00:22:31] And it's just so encouraging to know that my church family is praying for me, that I can be praying for my church family in these very specific ways as well.
[00:22:41] So your personal ministry should be prayerful, and our local churches should also be prayerful.
[00:22:51] As we close, I do want to reiterate that Paul's final words were not throwaway lines. Right. They're a window into what he sees as important to emphasize to the church in Ephesus. They show the importance of relationships. By sending Tychicus, the ministry is meant to be. That ministry is meant to be an encouragement for the church, that peace, faith and love.
[00:23:15] Faith in love, I'm sorry, are important to not just the ministry, but the Christian life.
[00:23:21] And lastly, the ministry has an eternal perspective based on that incorruptible love from Christ.
[00:23:31] Contextually, it's just really cool to see Paul talk about this because, again, he's a prisoner at the time that he's writing this, and his heart yearns for these things. His heart yearns for the church in Ephesus and the Church as a whole. He doesn't end with warnings, but rather with a prayer of benediction.
[00:23:50] Paul's closing words should become a lasting prayer for us as a church, that we pray for peace to the brothers and sisters, love with faith from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, and grace to all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ.
[00:24:09] So the question I have for you is one we ask often, which is just, do you know him? Do you know Jesus? Do you know Christ? Do you know what he's done for you? That God the Father sent his son to become man, to die on a cross, to pay for our sins, to restore relationship?
[00:24:32] We all have messed up.
[00:24:38] Everybody sinned.
[00:24:41] I continue to mess up. I don't know about you guys, but as Tim was mentioning earlier, just because you become a Christian doesn't mean you become like this perfect paragon of morality as much as you would think, or that everything in your life is suddenly going to be better.
[00:24:56] And that's not simply the case.
[00:24:58] What we do have is we have this hope. We have this incorruptible love of Christ that we can hope in, and that hope is eternal. And that changes the way that we can respond to things.
[00:25:11] So while we may still suffer, while we may still struggle in our beliefs, we know that eternally our sins have been paid for. Our slate has been wiped clean by the work of the cross.
[00:25:24] So as we wrap up our time in Ephesians together, remember that we talked about a lot as we went through this. We talked about the greatness of God. We talked about how Christ was exalted, the empowerment of the Spirit and the Church united under Christ.
[00:25:46] The last few weeks, you know, we've been going over the series on walking worthy as husbands and wives, walking worthy as parents, walking worthy at our jobs, walking in the armor, the Spirit as we battle against spiritual forces.
[00:26:07] While these calls and messages have all been encouraging to me, I do just want to remind us that we can only walk worthy by God's grace.
[00:26:18] So to finish up, I just want to go ahead and end by reading a little bit more from Ephesians 2.
[00:26:25] And I think it just summarizes the Gospel so well. In Ephesians 2, starting in verse 8, it says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing.
[00:26:41] It is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.
[00:26:51] All right, let's pray.
[00:26:54] Lord, thank you for your word. Lord, thank you for each and every individual that's here this evening. God, we just pray that they come to know you. If they already know you, then we pray that you draw them nearer, Lord.
[00:27:09] Pray that they're encouraged by your word. Pray, Lord, too, that we become a prayerful people, God. And that we pray for the church. We pray for ourselves, we pray for others. Lord, let's not be ashamed to pray or to feel awkward, as I know I sometimes often do. Lord, I'm preaching this message to myself, too. But, Lord, just thank you for your gift of Christ on the cross.
[00:27:37] Thank you that I don't have to do the work that by grace, through faith, I've been saved. Jesus.
[00:27:46] Amen.
