And "richness" is the right word, because Ephesians is all about how rich we are in Christ Jesus. Let me show you some introductory verses:

In (Christ) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace… (1.7).

I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints (1:18).

But because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ… (2:4).

…in order that in the coming ages He might show the incomparable riches of his grace (2:7).

Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ (3:8).

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being (3:16).

We can say in general terms that the first three chapters of Ephesians deal with our riches in Christ. These blessings and riches are listed, catalogued, described, and impressed upon us. Then the last three chapters of Ephesians deal with how we should conduct ourselves in this world--our responsibilities and obligations. Rich people tend to act differently from normal folks. Since we are rich in Christ, we must act differently. Our behavior is effected. Our lifestyle and our moral choices and our conduct is different. Our attitudes are unique in the world, as we fulfill our various roles as husbands and wives and dads and moms and employers and employees and church members.

So there you have the broad themes and overall structure for this forty-ninth book of the Bible: The riches and the responsibilities of the Christian, our riches being listed in the first three chapters and our responsibilities being described in the last three.

The last half of the book of Acts is concerned primarily with three great church-planting trips the Apostle Paul made across portions of the Roman Empire. Here in chapter 18, we find him in Greece, in the city of Corinth which is located not far from Athens. The last time I was in Athens, I was with a tour and we drove over from Athens to Corinth to see the ruins of that ancient city. Well, if we had gotten on a boat in Athens and sailed directly across the Aegean Sea, we would have landed in Turkey, in the modern city of Izmir, which is very close to the ancient ruins of Ephesus.

In Acts 18, Paul was on his second missionary term of service, and he was in Corinth; but in verse 19 he sailed across the Aegean and docked there with a couple of friends. His initial visit to Ephesus was brief, but important. Look at Acts 18:18ff:

Who is they? Paul was traveling with a married couple named Pricilla and Aquila. This was one of the smartest and sweetest married couples in all the Bible. They had devoted their marriage to Christ, and they were great evangelists and Bible teachers. They were a missionary team, husband and wife. So these three, Paul, Pricilla, and her husband Aquila, sailed from Corinth and docked in Ephesus.

What sort of city was Ephesus? It was the Roman capital of this part of the world, and one of the five greatest cities on earth at that time. It was the gateway to Asia, and the capital of Asia Minor. It was not only a bustling seaport, but it was at the intersection of several major trade routes. It also boasted one of the seven wonders of the ancient world, the temple of the goddess Diana, otherwise known as Artemis. So it was a great political, commercial, and religious center. And it was absolutely pagan. To the best of our knowledge, there was not a single Christian anywhere in Ephesus.

Into this busy harbor, then, sailed Paul, Pricilla, and Aquila.

Now, Paul was tired and ready to finish his second missionary journey. He wanted to get back to his home church in Antioch and report on his progress. So he did just a bit of evangelizing in the Jewish synagogue, then he departed. But he left behind Pricilla and Aquila. Let's continue reading:

But he left behind this extraordinary couple who set to work building bridges, establishing contacts, and laying the groundwork for the planting of a church in this great city. Now, another interesting character suddenly showed up in Ephesus. Continue reading in Acts 18:24ff:

In other words, here was a gifted Old Testament scholar from Alexandria, Egypt, who was a powerful and persuasive Bible teacher. He loved the Old Testament, and he knew about the ministry of John the Baptist and about the beginnings of the ministry of Christ. But he had not yet heard about all that Jesus had done and said in the flesh. He didn't yet know about the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord. The Gospels had not yet been written. The news had not yet reached him.

By the time Apollos left Ephesus by ship, sailing across the Aegean to Athens and Corinth, he was himself a missionary and an ambassador for Christ. Shortly afterward, Paul the apostle, having started his third missionary journey, arrived back in the city. Look at chapter 19:

In other words, there were some Jews in the synagogue who now believed John the Baptist was a prophet and a forerunner for the Messiah. Pricilla and Aquila had been plodding along and laying the groundwork like an advance team for Paul. But they had not been able yet to actually lead many people to faith in Christ. Their work had been, as we might say, pre-evangelistic.

And that is the beginning of the church in Ephesus. How many were there? About a dozen. Look at verse 7: There were about twelve men in all.

Now, the remainder of Acts 19 describes one of the most fruitful periods of Paul's ministry. He stayed in this city for over two years, evangelizing and teaching and establishing the church. Converts and missionaries went out from Ephesus and evangelized all of Asia Minor. It was a time of great revival. Look at verse 18: Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed their evil deeds. A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas. In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

Clint Morgan is our missionary in the Ivory Coast who has worked with the Lobi tribe. He has told me that when a Lobi comes to Christ, very often he will have a ceremony in which he burns his idols and his fetishes, very much like the Ephesians did here with their occultish materials. In so doing, the Lobi man not only clears these things out of his life, but he gives public testimony that he is once and for all turning from these things.

I think that very often we need to do something similar. I had a young man several years ago who came to Christ, but he never seemed to grow in the Lord as I thought he should. In questioning him, I learned that he still had a stock-pile of pornography stashed under his bed. He said, "I haven't looked at it since I became a Christian, but I don't want to give it to someone else, because that wouldn't be right. But I paid a lot of money for it, and I don't want to just throw it away."

I told him to close his eyes, gather it up in his arms, stuff it in paper bags, carry it out to the back yard, and burn it as an act of repentance and worship. But he never did. Sometimes we just have to physically get rid of the things that can draw away our souls. And so the people of Ephesus burned their materials relating to sorcery, and the result is given in verse 20: In this way the word of the Lord spread widely and grew in power.

When we get serious about dealing with sin in our lives, the Lord gets serious about growing His church.

Now, as I said earlier, Ephesus was a great religious center, the home of the magnificent temple of Diana, otherwise known as Artemis. Many people made their living because of that. The silversmiths and shrine-makers sold idols of the goddess. And as remarkable as it sounds, so many people in this magnificent city began turning to Christ that the economy was impacted. Look at Acts 19:25:

About that time there arose a great disturbance about the Way (that is, about the Christian Way, about the presence of the growing numbers of Christians in the city). A silversmith named Demetrius, who made silver shrines of Artemis (or, Diana), brought in no little business for the craftsmen. He called them together, along with the workmen in related trades, and said: "Men, you know we receive a good income from this business. And you see and hear how this fellow Paul has convinced and led astray large numbers of people here in Ephesus and in practically the whole province of Asia. He says that man-made gods are no gods at all. There is danger not only that our trade will lose its good name, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be discredited…."

Demetrius managed to provoke a riot and to stir up such opposition to Paul that the apostle had to suddenly leave town. Chapter 20 begins: When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said good-by and set out for Macedonia.

A little bit later in chapter 20, Paul ventured into that area again, but he didn't actually enter Ephesus. Instead he sent word for the church leaders from Ephesus to meet him in a town about 30 miles away. The last part of Acts 20 is the wonderful message or the sermon that the Apostle Paul gave to those church leaders from Ephesus.

Paul then went on to Jerusalem where he was arrested. For two years he remained in a prison cell in Israel, in the city of Caesarea. Then at the end of the book of Acts, he was transferred to Rome where he lived under house arrest. Look at the way the book of Acts ends. Chapter 28:30-31 says: For two whole years Paul stayed there in his own rented house (in Rome) and welcomed all who came to see him. Boldly and without hindrance he preached the kingdom of God and taught about the Lord Jesus Christ.

It was during those two years in the early 60s of the first century that he wrote letters to some of the Christians he had met and to some of the churches he had established earlier in the book of Acts. It was during this time that Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesian Christians, to the church he had left back in the city of Ephesus. And that is the background of this book.

In some of our oldest manuscripts, the word Ephesus is missing. They are addressed to the saints in _______________. You may notice, additionally, there are no personal greetings in this letter. When you read Romans, for example, almost the entire last chapter is devoted to Paul sending personal greetings to his friends in Rome. When you read the book of Colossians, there are personal greetings at the end of the book. But not in Ephesians. Why is that? If Paul spent two to three years in Ephesus, we would expect him to have a lot of friends there, but why does he not refer to them?

And here's another thing. This is practically the only letter that we have from Paul that does not address a specific problem. Very often, he wrote to a church or to an individual to discuss some problem they were having, but there's nothing like that in the book of Ephesians.

So what does all this mean? The book of Ephesians appears to have been a circular letter, sent to the leading church of Asia Minor--Ephesus--but designed to be circulated among all the churches in the entire province. This was Paul's general letter to all the churches in which he wanted to talk to them at large about the riches and responsibilities of being a Christian.

Or, to put it differently, this is God's general, universal message to His church everywhere. It is positive in tone. It is the richest and deepest of all the biblical letters. It is His message to all of us, telling us in no uncertain terms how rich we are and the ensuing responsibilities that we have because of that wealth.

At any rate, I have quite a few commentaries on Ephesians. But one is my favorite, and it's very short. Sixty-four pages. It was written by a Chinese Christian, Watchman Nee, earlier this century. Actually it was taken down as notes from his lectures before he was imprisoned and eventually killed by the Chinese Communists. It is entitled Sit, Walk, and Stand. And with those three words, we have the outline of the book of Ephesians: Sit, Walk, and Stand.

I've already said that the book of Ephesians falls into two sections. The first three chapters deal with our riches as Christians, and the last three deal with our responsibilities. But that second section can be subdivided into a long section that covers chapters 4, 5, and the first part of chapter 6; and a second and much shorter section that runs from chapter 6, verse 10, to the end of the book.

So for the purposes of our sermon series, let's think of these three sections as composing the outline of Ephesians.

Watchman Nee uses the word "Sit" to describe Section 1 (Ephesians 1-3). Why? Look at Ephesians 1:20: He (God the Father) raised Christ from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.

And Ephesians 2:6: And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with Him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.

We'll discuss later the implications of this, but for now let me just say that the whole theme of Ephesians 1-3 is that we are seated with Christ on His throne in the heavenly realms. Watchman Nee says, "Most Christians make the mistake of trying to walk in order to be able to sit, but that is a reversal of the true order…. Christianity does not begin with a big DO, but with a big DONE…. We are invited at the very outset to sit down and enjoy what God has done for us; not to set out to try to attain it for ourselves…. Sitting is an attitude of rest…. To sit down is simply to rest our whole weight--our load, ourselves, our future, everything--upon the Lord."

When we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, we identify with Him, and He shares His life with us. There is a sense in which we are seated with Christ on His throne at this very moment. That is our position, and Paul is doing his best to help the Ephesians realize just how very rich that makes them to be. That is Ephesians, chapters one, two, and three.

Now when we turn to Ephesians 4, we begin a new section. Look at how it begins: As a prisoner of the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Paul wrote this in the Greek language, and the Greek word he used is peripateo, to walk around. The older translations render it more literally: Walk worthy of the calling you have received.

When we come to Christ, when we share His wealth, when we are seated with Him, as it were, in the heavenly places, we can't live anyway we want to. We just live differently, and chapters 4, 5, and the first part of chapter 6 tells us how that life should be lived, how we should walk. These chapters deal with the Christian's daily walk.

Now turn to chapter six and verse ten: Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes…. Stand your ground… stand…. Stand firm.

The last paragraphs of Ephesians tell us that we have a strong and devious enemy, the devil, and we must take a strong stand against him.

So, in summery, the first part of the book tells us about our position in Christ: We are seated with Him, secure in Him, enriched by the One who shares His throne with us. The second part of Ephesians tells us about our position in the world. We are to walk through this world in a manner worthy of Christ. And the last little section of Ephesians tells us about our attitude toward the enemy. We are to take our stand against the schemes of the devil.

And so it is that the entirety of the Christian life can be summed up in those three little one-syllable verbs that form the skeleton for the book of Ephesians and the backbone for our daily experience: Sit, Walk, and Stand.

Do those three verbs describe you? Are you seated with Christ in the heavenly places? Are you walking in a manner worthy of the calling you have received? Are you taking your stand against the wiles of the devil?

Those are the postures of the Christian, and that is what God wants you to learn from this most precious of biblical letters