The Ephesians Story (Part 1)

Now, brothers and sisters, to me, this simple story I’ve told you up to now just drips with the heart of the first-century believers; people willing to move. Oh my gosh, I didn’t realize how appropriate that was to warn them. So, I’ll say it again. People willing to move. I didn’t mean to do that. You’ll never believe me. Maybe it was subconscious. People willing to move. People are all willing to move. Give up their homes and their families…getting better by the minute…their jobs, the place they want to move to, or would like to move to, and go somewhere where none of them have any homes or roots for families.

They meet there with Priscilla and Aquila, and it must have been wonderful, but that’s not really the thing that…and this really does blow my mind; these are the things I discovered when I was 29 years old, when I rewrote the story of the first-century church. And it’s always been so sacred to me. I’ve got a mental block. Put it in the book. I really do. Not a real mental block to finish that book, as obviously.

I want you to look at the church in Rome; there were, say, four great churches in the first two centuries. Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus, and Rome. Rome really was a wonderful place. We think today of what it became, but can you imagine a church in which the cream of the crop of Paul’s ministry, we’re going to call them laymen, go to a city? And every one of them has a different experience to bring. Every one of them has different songs they sing. Every one of them has different testimonies. All of them: different languages, different backgrounds, different cultures, and they come to the melting pot of the world, making New York and America look like child’s play.

Every tongue, tribe, and nation on earth lived in Rome. In fact, by that time, the Italians themselves were a small minority in that city. The population of the town was probably a million, and well over half the people there, including the slaves, were born outside of Italy. There were people we’d call Turks today there. There were Jews who had come back in. Egyptians were there. The Phoenicians were there. They were from all over. The Germans were there. They were all there. Of course, the Germans and the Anglos were being auctioned off as slaves, but they were there. And this church, which is a polyglot, and I think it was a very rich place.

Now, the same is true of the young men who come with Paul to Ephesus. Each one comes from a different church. Two brothers from Thessalonica. And each can tell the others of their experiences and learn from them. And I was 29 years old when I saw all this, and I was becoming an ex-evangelist and recognizing the fact that this is not what we are today, and seeing very clearly the church. And now I am old and pious and holy and should be revered by now.  That was Miriam over there who laughed like that, folks, if you’re wondering who did that. And yet I think, well, maybe if God is good to me and lets me live to be 90, I might yet pull those eight men out of those churches. And I want you here in Warrington to know that I am fully capable of asking one or two of you to move to Rome. Boy, if you don’t know that, you don’t know who I am. And you don’t… you underestimate me. I’ll do it in the blink of an eye if I feel that you’re capable and ready and have a contribution.

Now, I don’t have any plans for Rome; honest to Pete, I don’t, and I don’t have any for New York, which is the Rome of our age. But there are other cities, and there are other places I would do it. But that means that you would have a heart to say yes before I would ask you. I just want you to know that that’s the kind of person I am and that’s the kind of person I expect you to be. And I expect you to be that, not because I’ve asked you to or threatened you with God, but because you just will become that kind of person. That’s just who you’ll be. That you’ll care for him and his house that much.

Now, I’m still working on the book of Ephesians. Let’s go back to that time now when Paul entered the city of Ephesus. And now I pose a question, and this question is important to me. Paul has raised up eight churches in a period of four years’ worth of travel. Eight churches. Now he’s going to spend four years raising one. So, I’m going to lay the church in Ephesus aside; that doesn’t count. I want to go back to those four churches and ask again. What in the name of heaven did that man declare to those people? Walk into a town; nobody there has ever heard the name Jesus Christ. Probably don’t know many Jews, and if they do, they just saw them on the street. Kind of funny-looking folk. Never heard of Abraham. Four months from the day he walks in, maybe five months. Let’s make it six. That’s not possible because he had to travel. That’d be two churches in a year, six months each. Say it was six months. What can a man do with some blood-drinking heathen in five or six months that he can walk out and leave them, stay gone two years, come back a week, and stay gone for four years? That’s seven months at best in six years. What was that gospel? I’ve wanted to know that my whole life.

Now, let me eliminate all the books that could possibly help us. 1st and 2nd Thessalonians don’t work because he’s actually in those two books talking about something he forgot to mention when he was in Thessalonica. So, actually, you can say there are two things he probably didn’t talk a whole lot about, and those were the second coming and the resurrection. He left that out. He had to write letters about it because he had left so much of it out. It’s not 1st and 2nd Corinthians that have what Paul said because he’s dealing with a church two or three years old that’s all hopped up on tongues, and it’s got immorality in the church, and they’re getting drunk at the Lord’s supper. These are not Paul’s five messages. It’s not Philippians because it’s written to a church that’s several years old, dealing with their particular situation.

It’s not the book to the four churches in Galatia, but there might be a little of it in there because he’s having to repeat some of the things he told them in the first place. But, per se, it’s not the book of Galatians that’s written to churches that are four years old. If we will ever know what he said to those people, the Christ he delivered to those people, we will find it in the book of Romans, the book of Colossians, and the book we call Ephesians. And that’s the only place we can possibly find it, if we are ever to know, because the book of Romans was written to a church he had never seen, and so were Colossians and so was Ephesians.

Now, here we go. We’ve come into Ephesus. Paul preaches. He’s got eight young men with him. He rents a house from Tyrannius, and he holds forth there. Later, he goes out into the community. Now, let me tell you a couple of things that happened. About 110 miles away is a little bitty town with about 5,000 people in it. It used to be well-to-do, but it’s kind of like the United States; it’s on the decline. It’s in its eclipse. However, there is a well-to-do man who lives there, and for some reason, we do not know, he comes to Ephesus during this time, and either Priscilla, Aquila, or Paul, or someone else, leads him to Christ.  Now remember, Tychicus and Trophimus are natives of the city of Ephesus. Try to keep that in mind, would you? Now, what’s this man’s name? What’s his name? His name is Philemon. And while in Ephesus, he bought a slave. And he said, “I paid $2,000 for you, that’s more than I paid for my car; you’d better turn a profit. I’m going to call you profitable.” And he takes him back home. Well, here is a Christian going back to his home in Colossae. Somewhere in the same process, there is someone named Epaphroditus who gets saved. He’s also from Colossae. I think he’s not in Colossae. He gets saved in Ephesus, and my best guess is that he probably stayed there in one of the churches.

The four years are up. Paul leaves. He keeps a very close touch with these eight young men, but we only find that out by accident. Titus takes him with him to Jerusalem. Aristarchus, we know, went to several places around, as did Timothy, and we’ll catch up with some of these men in a minute. Paul goes to Jerusalem, and the guy who’s the Christian who wrote the book of Galatians proves that he is a man who has no principles whatsoever. He shaves his head and goes to the temple to sacrifice, but it doesn’t do any good. The young Jew he went with happened to favor Titus, and they thought that he was Titus, and with your head shaved, that’s a good, reasonable mistake.  He almost gets himself killed. He ends up in prison for a couple of years in Caesarea Philippi. He knows that he’s about to get returned for a trial in Jerusalem, and he calls out the honors and privileges of being an American: I want to be tried in Rome. So, by his Roman citizenship, he gets to go to Rome. Luke goes with him and writes this long narrative about a boat trip, and I resent that boat trip. Why didn’t you spend that much time telling me about Galatia, Greece, Macedonia, and Ephesus? But anyway, we learn a whole lot about that boat trip. It gives us one idea of how hazardous it was for Paul to travel.

Paul comes to Rome as a prisoner, and he’s met on the Appian Way, at, is it three taverns or three lanterns? Three taverns. It’s three taverns. When he gets to Rome, Aristarchus has come to join him. Timothy has come to join him. Out of who knows where, Demas has come to join him. We don’t even know who this brother is. And Tychicus is there waiting for him. And if Tychicus is there, you can pretty well bet that Trophimus is there. So, at least five of those brothers are there. Ain’t that exciting? I mean that you don’t know what that does to me. Paul’s in jail. Rome is big. We’ve covered Asia Minor. Italy, here we come. We’re going to be with our brother. That’s beautiful.