Sword in the Fire

Ephesians 2 - Chapter 1 introduced use to the big picture of God plan for the world through the Church. Chapter 2 begins to provide the details of what is happening. Chapter 1 was the why and chapter 2 is the how. This chapter could easily be divided into two parts. The first part describes salvation offered while an enemy with God. The second part describes salvation offered to man who was outside God’s covenant. Because of the ethnic makeup of the church in Ephesus, there was some tension between Jew and Greek. Each of these parts are somewhat directed to each group respectively, in order to show that all are in need of salvation regardless of ethnic or cultural background. I. Saved while enemies with God (1-10) This portion of the chapter seems more directed to Jews than the Gentiles. Not that it does not apply to Gentiles, but it is a reminder to the Jews that their ethnicity did not guarantee salvation. A. What you were (1-3) 1. Dead. 2. Walked with the Devil...

This chapter opens like many of Paul’s letters. First the opening, then a thanksgiving to God, and finally a pray for the church. I. Opening (1,2) -”the saints” Paul is writing to merchants, slaves, men, women, tradesmen, artisans, rich and poor; yet he calls them saints. Amazing! This is not a congregation of monks, but they are called saints because they are faithful. II. Thanksgiving (3-14) A. Vs.3 “We Bless God for He blessed us” Every service in the Orthodox church begins with the blessing of God, because our life is a life of praise and worship to God. Chrysostom makes much of the term “spiritual blessing” as opposed to thanking God for material blessings. Chrys. “You are made immortal, you are made free, you are made a son, you are made righteous, you are made a brother, you are made a fellow-heir, you reign with Christ, you are glorified with Christ; all things are freely given you.” Then he asks, “What more do you need?” B. God Chose the Church (4-6) - “in Him” Thi...

Two weeks ago I began our Ephesian study. Once again our base text for the class is Fr. Lawrence Farley's Prison Epistles . The introduction is history rich. We spent most of the day in the book of Acts going through chapters 18-20. This passage gives the origin of the church. Here are some highlights about Ephesus itself. It was one of the largest cities in the Roman Empire. In the first century there were approximately 400-500K people. It was a coastal city that provide a lot of trade for all of Asia Minor. It became a hub for the whole province and then a hub of Christian evangelism in the early centuries. Even though it was on the coast, its harbor had to be dredged regularly, and today is filed in with sediment. The town of Melitus often provided an easier access to the city. The big claim to fame was the Temple of Diana (Artemis) that was part of the city. The temple itself is considered one of the seven ancient wonders. It could hold up to 25,000 people in the cit...

It's been a little while since my last blog. In class, we just started the book of Ephesians. So this week, I will post our Introductory lesson as well as the lesson on Chapter 1. In the meantime I wanted to share a link to some excellent Orthodox sermons. The sermons are given by Fr. Jon Braun at St. Anthony's Orthodox Church in San Diego. Fr. Jon was part of the Campus Crusade group that came into the Orthodox church in the late eighties. He is a great communicator and excellent teacher. The link will give you several of his current sermons as well as an eight week series he did on the book of Leviticus. His series on Leviticus is particularly good. He goes through the various sacrifices and rituals of OT worship and shows how they are fulfilled in the person of Christ. He also calls it a Eucharistic primer, and shows how our the Divine Liturgy is a fulfillment of those sacrifices. Here's the link: Orthodox Sermons

Within Orthodoxy these three friends of Daniel have become an integral part of hymnology and theology. You may know them as Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego. Yet these were their Babylonian names. Their Hebrew names were Hananiah, Mishael, & Azariah. We first find them in the beginning of Daniel refusing the kings food for more simple vegetables. They did this out of obedience to God to avoid those things sacrificed to idols. Rather than making them weaker, their diet made them stronger than their Babylonian counterparts. This was a testimony to the power of God in their lives. Within Orthodoxy, this retelling is found in the hymnology leading up to Lent. We are about to give up meat for a period of time as we prepare our hearts for the Passion of Christ. The next story of the three youths is used constantly in the Church. This is the account of the fiery furnace. These young men refuse to bow down to Nebuchadnezzar’s idol and are then thrown into the fiery furnance. ...

This Sunday (Dec. 17, 2006) we had finished our journey through Philippians, so rather than starting Ephesians I took a side trip. Throughout the Nativity season multiple OT prophets are commemorated. This is no accident because they all point in some way to the coming Christ. This particular Sunday, Daniel and his three friends are commemorated. The discussion centered around how they pointed to Christ and what role they played in Orthodox theology. Rather than summarizing the story of Daniel here. I want to point out three major prophecies of Daniel that point to Christ in a dramatic way. Daniel 2:34-35: "Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were made of iron and clay and broke them into pieces…and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth" (Daniel 2:34-35). This prophecy comes straight from Nebuchadnezzar’s dream. In summary, it is a dream about a statue made of four m...

Phil 4:4-23 Rejoice! Redux. 4. Paul again returns to the theme of rejoice or to have joy in the Lord. He even repeats it twice. Then it seems that he begins a list of things that are intended to help support our ability to rejoice in the Lord. 5. “Let your reasonableness be known to all men” Reasonableness or forbearance- (always ready to yield, gentle, mild, reasonable, it is the opposite of returning evil for evil). It is the ability to bend and not break. This is greatly important for the Philippians because they were experiencing both persecution and betrayal in their midst. In order to secure joy in their lives, they had to lean on Christ and not necessarily take matters into their own hands. The second half of the verse states that the “Lord is near” not necessarily that the Lord is coming soon but that He is closely present with us. We can afford to be gracious to everyone because Christ is with us (Farley). 6. “Stop being anxious” but with prayer and entreaty with g...