In the first part of this letter Paul was very theoretical, it was all about the power of God and how God had used that power to join Jews and non-Jews together into one group, his new forever family, called the church. He wanted to make sure that the gentile believers in Jesus knew that they were an equal part. The Jewish people had had an advantage since God had been using them to reveal parts of his plan to fix the sin problem (see “A Tale of Two Trees”) since the days of Moses 1500 years earlier. Unfortunately the Jewish people had not lived up to the job God had given them and rest of the world really hadn’t seen the message God wanted them to get. God, of course, knew it would go that way and so his plan moved forward anyway. The promised messiah (chosen one) came into the world just as planned, lived a totally God honoring life, and at the right time died in the place of all human beings (1 John 2:2) to pay the penalty we each owe for our rebellion, disobedience, and disrespect for God (sin). Here in Ephesians Paul is reassuring the Gentile believers that their relationship with God is fixed, that they are equal parts of God family with Jewish believers, and he has encouraged them that no power on earth or in the Heavens can change that. He told the readers that he was praying that all of them, Jewish and non-Jewish believers, that Jesus, through the power of the Holy Spirit, would really start to “live” in them and that they would really understand the love God had shown to them and become all that God had created each one of them to be.

In chapter 4 he begged them to live according to the new place they all had together as a family of God, being united together as each one did his individual part. The needed to be humble, gentle, patient, tolerant all with the help of the Holy Spirit. He then reminded them that they were all part of the same “body”, talking about God’s forever family the church, there was only one Holy Spirit directing each of them, they all had the same hope, eternity with God, they all had one master, Jesus, they all had trusted what Jesus had come and done for them, it was the same faith, they had all identified (through baptism) with what Jesus had done for them, died and come back to life, and ultimately that there was one God, their Heavenly father who was in ultimate control. Being united should be no problem for people who had joined themselves together to all of this. So Paul has started this next section of the letter by reminding them there’s one coach and one game plan for this new team and he is begging them to act (walk) accordingly.

In today’s reading Paul is going to explain a little bit about God’s game plan. It is interesting that in verse 7 Paul changes from second person (talking to the Ephesian believers) to first person (including himself as part of who he is talking about). Paul wasn’t acting like some big shot handing out orders he was identifying that the game plan applied to him too. Notice that Paul starts out the verse with the word “but”. This links what he is about to say back to the idea of “unity” he has just talked about but also tells us there is some sort of a contrast. In verse 7 Paul uses three particular Greek words together they are translated by our English words “grace, give, and gift. The word translated “grace” refers to a totally undeserved gift that someone receives. It is often used for what Jesus did for us when he died on the cross. He last used theses three words together in Ephesus 3:2 where he was talking about the job Jesus gave him of telling gentiles about Jesus. Here in verse 7 Paul is using the word grace in a similar way he isn’t talking about the gift of salvation but about the special part each one of us plays in God’s family. This will become clear as we read on. So we are part of one team with one game plan but each person has been given a “gift” and we each have a unique job to do as part of the team. We also see that these “gifts” were “measured” out. The idea here is that they were given out thoughtfully by Jesus. He actually uses the title “Christ” rather than the personal name Jesus. This is probably because he want his readers (and actually all believers, remember that “first person” thing) to think about Jesus, the promised one, the fulfiller of God’s plan of salvation, as the one giving each one of us very specific things to do in his forever family. This isn’t just some random guy giving us a place in the kingdom of God it’s they guy who died for us and rose again from the dead. This is one powerful dude who cares about each of us.

That idea must have been on Paul’s mind when he used “Christ” instead of “Jesus” because in verses 8-10 he takes a little side trip that’s really all about Jesus’ power. In verse 8 Paul quotes what some experts think is Psalm 68:18. Some of the wording is similar to that verse but much of it is quite different. The “changes” in the wording are closer to words found in a Jewish writing about Psalm 68:18 but that book is from hundreds of years after Paul wrote. If you have read “Paul: Sent One to the Gentiles” you know that Paul started out a very committed Jew. He was educated by the leading teacher of his day, Gamaliel (Acts 22:3). Paul was very familiar, not only with the Old Testament but with the Jewish teachings about the Old Testament. He is probably quoting a paraphrase of one of these teachings (which would have also been the influence on that writing hundreds of years later) in verse 8. The fact that the quote looks a lot like Psalm 68:18 but is different doesn’t mean that Paul didn’t respect the Old Testament as God’s words though. Remember that the Old Testament was written mostly in Hebrew and the New Testament was written mostly in Greek. Over the years Christians (and Jews before us) have translated these writings into languages more familiar to themselves. Language experts tell us that often writers in the New Testament are quoting from a Greek translation of the Old Testament rather that from a Hebrew copy of it. When translators translate they don’t usually do it word for word, translation doesn’t really work that way. They work hard at translating both the words and the ideas. Sometimes they stick closer to the words and other times they stick closer to the ideas. When New Testament writers use they Old Testament they often stick closer to the ideas. If you read all of Psalm 18 you will see that the ideas in this quote are consistent with the ideas in that Psalm. Some Bible experts think that all Paul is dong here is getting across that big idea. I’m not to sure how familiar Paul’s gentile readers would have been with Jewish teachings that Paul learned back home. In Ephesians 2:12, remember that Paul told them that before they became believers that they were “strangers to the promises” God had made in the Old Testament and without eternal hope because of that. They may have been a little familiar with the Old Testament, and since becoming believers become even more familiar with the “big picture” ideas in certain parts of it, so we need to be careful as we look at what Paul is saying here.

First lets try to look at what he is saying here specifically. In verse 8 Paul tells us that when Jesus went up high (referring to Heaven) (see Acts 1:9-11, Acts 7:55-58. By the way that guy, Saul, in verse 58 is the same guy Paul who is writing this letter (Acts 13:9)). Then Paul says that when Jesus went up to Heaven that he “led captivity captive”. Those two words are a noun form and a verb form of the same Greek word. The idea of the word of course is “to capture” it’s related to the Greek word for “spear”, which of course would be one weapon you would use to capture people and keep control over them. In Psalm 68 the Hebrew words used mean to capture or take away. Although the readers of the letter may or may not have know those ideas they are helpful to us, and the Greek words may have had the same feel for the original readers. I think the idea here is that Jesus took some people with him to Heaven that had formerly been prisoners some where.   Also in their culture the path to Hades is always down into the earth (see Luke 10:15).

In those verses from Acts we see Jesus rise up to Heaven and sitting in Heaven. Acts 1:8 happened about 40 days after Jesus’ resurrection (Acts 1:3) It was less than 50 days after the resurrection because the power and indwelling of the Holy Spirit that Jesus told his followers was coming came on them on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:1-4). Pentecost was a festival that was held on the fiftieth day after the Passover (the day Jesus was executed). And Jesus was resurrected on the third day from his execution. That day in Acts 1:8 was not the first time Jesus had been in Heaven after his crucifixion. In Luke 23:43 Jesus told one of the other men executed along with him that that man would be with him that day in Paradise. What Jesus meant by Paradise there was Heaven, the place God lives (see “A Tale of Two Trees”). The word “today” means “this day”, not “some day” or “a day” but “this day”.

Back in Ephesians Paul continues and says basically if Jesus went up to Heaven he must have also have gone down somewhere first. Some experts thing that this is talking about Jesus coming down to earth from Heaven, the incarnation, you know the whole Christmas thing (see Philippians 2:6-7, where Jesus as God then comes and takes on a human body). The problem with this explanation is that Paul specifically says that Jesus descended into the lower parts of the earth, not to the earth, but into the lower parts of the earth.   To any Gentile of the day that phrase would have made them think of Hades. In Greek thinking Hades was the place where the souls of dead people went. This is not to be confused with Hell. In the Bible Hell is a place of “unquenchable fire” (Mark 9:43) and the place where the rebellious angels (demons) were sentenced to spend eternity (2 Peter 2:4). Matthew tells us that this eternal fire was originally prepared for the Devil and his angels (demons) (Matthew 25:41). In the book of Revelation this eternal fire to which the Devil and his angels have been condemned is called “the Lake of Fire” (Revelation 19:20, 20:10). In Revelation 20:14-15 we find out that the Lake of Fire is also the final destination of the people who did not want to be a part of God’s forever family (people who’s names were not written in the Book of Life, also called the Lamb’s Book of Life, referring to Jesus (Revelation 13:8, 21:27, John 1:29)). So the Lake of Fire is Hell and it is the final destination of all who have rejected a relationship with God, both humans and angels. In Revelation 20:14 John tells us that Hades (John uses the name of the place to refer to the people in Hades) is thrown into the Lake of Fire, so clearly Hades, as a place, is not the same as Hell.

Luke 16:19-31 helps us understand. It is a story of two men who dies. Their souls both wind up in Hades. The story specifically tells us that the rich man was in Hades. In the story we are told that the poor man died and was “carried off to Abraham’s bosom”. Abraham was commended in the Old Testament for his faith, he loved and honored God (Hebrews 11:8-10). The idea of “bosom” is that the poor man was near to Abraham being comforted by him, we might say he was in Abraham’s arms. In the story the rich man is thirsty and suffering (he says he is in flames). Far away he sees Abraham holding the poor man. Clearly they are all in the same place, Hades. The rich man asks Abraham to send the poor man to him with some water. Abraham and the poor man seem to be pretty comfortable. Abraham informs the rich man that he cannot because there is an impassable chasm (gulf, valley) between them and the rich man. So within Hades there was a place of torment and a place that seems to be ok. Next the rich man asks Abraham to sent Lazarus back from the dead to warn his five brothers so they don’t wind up in the place of torment too. Abraham’s answer gives us a clue about the two parts of Hades, he tells the rich man that his brothers have “Moses and the prophets” to warn them. “Moses and the Prophets” is a way of referring to the Old Testament. As we have seen the Old Testament helps the world understand our broken relationship with God and contains some of the basics about his solution see “The Old Testament Connection”). So Abraham’s answer helps us understand what the two divisions in Hades are all about; on one side you have Abraham and others who have responded to God, had faith he would one day fix the “sin problem” and on the other side you have those that lived their lives focused on themselves, doing it “their way” and ignoring the facts about how to spend eternity with God.

So if Abraham loved God why did he go to Hades instead of Heaven when he died? That’s really a legal question. If you have read “A Tale of Two Trees” you know that doing things that are disobedient toward or disrespectful of God have a consequence. Those things are called “sin” (missing the bullseye) and the consequence of sin, the penalty, is death. That word means separation and ultimately it’s about our existence being separated from God. You don’t love God, you don’t want to live with him forever, fine you don’t have to. But everything that is good is from God it flows from his presence. Apart form God there is nothing good. Everyone has to pay if they sin, and we all do. The problem is the penalty is infinite; the separation is forever. Because of his love God does not impose the penalty on us immediately there, he has provided another who actually paid the penalty for us, and he allows time for us to take him up on the offer (1 Peter 3:9). That other is Jesus, but that penalty wasn’t paid until Jesus actually died on the cross and until it was paid no one could live in the presence of God. The fine had to be paid before anyone could be let out of jail and go home. Once the fine was paid all those who were willing to accept the help and wanted to go be with God could. So as far as his gentile readers were concerned Paul is saying in verse 8 that Jesus went to heaven but only after he went down to Hades (verse 9) and took the prisoners with him. We want to be clear though that it was those “prisoners” who allowed him to “bail them out”. That leaves people like the rich man in Hades even now. Those are the people who Jesus throws into the lake of fire in Revelation 20:12-13. Notice that in those verses we see a court proceeding, a trial, the people on trial did not have their name in the Book of Life (they had rejected God’s offer in Jesus) and so they were judged according to their own works and were ten thrown out of God’s presence and his kingdom.

One last little thing about “Moses and the Prophets”. It is interesting that Abraham would use those words, would point to the Old Testament as the warning that the rich man’s family should listen too. In his life Abraham didn’t know Moses, the Old Testament prophets hadn’t lived yet, and the Old Testament hadn’t been written yet. But Abraham was where he was because of his faith in God and his promise to fix the world. Promises that started way back with Adam and Eve. In Hebrews 11 there is a whole list of people who had faith in God to fix the sin problem and give them an eternal home with God. They people were looking forward to what Jesus would do for them one day. Moses and the Old Testament prophets are some of the people listed in that chapter, people of faith, people waiting for the fix. Those people were probably all there with Abraham, telling each other their stories.

In Ephesians 4:8 in his quote, of whatever he was quoting, Paul also tells his readers that Jesus gave gifts to men. The gifts Paul is talking about here are most likely the gifts he has been talking about. Since it is plural it’s not the gift of salvation or the gift of Jesus, it is the special part each one of us plays in God’s family and the abilities he gives us to do that part, Just like he mentioned in verse 7. He is going to get into that more pretty soon.

Finally notice that in verse 10 Paul comes back to the fact that Jesus ascended into Heaven (actually far above the heavens) and then he mentions a purpose behind all of what Jesus had done, so he could fill everything up. Which also echoes back to the fact that he “measured out” the gifts in verse 7. There the gifts were thoughtfully given out and here we see that there is a plan for things to be ‘full”. The idea here is that the universe would be all that it was intended to be again and everything in it. This whole section points out Jesus victory in overcoming the destruction and decay that sin brought into the universe and our shared part in the restoration. Interestingly Psalm 68 has that same tone though it is wrapped in the smaller example of God victory and restoration of the nation of Israel it has hint of the larger victory too.

In verse 11-12 Paul gets very specific about the gifts and the plan to make things full. First Paul tells us that God gave some as apostles (the Greek word means “sent ones”), some as prophets (the idea is to make something known above or before), some as evangelists (the Greek word means a messenger of good) and some as pastors and teachers (in this last one there are two words but because of the grammar many experts believe it describes one person). The word translated “pastor” is shepherd or herdsman a person who cares for and leads a herd. Teacher is pretty clear. That person is a person who has ongoing care of a group and in this case it involves teaching. In reality all of these groups or people who are given as gifts by Christ (v. 7) have the function of teaching. Apostles came and spent time telling people about Jesus and getting them organized as a group. We see form Paul’s actions that they continue to care about the people even after they have moved on. Some experts think of Apostles as being just the original few who had direct contact with Jesus and that we don’t have apostles living today. Others see this group as very similar to modern missionaries. Prophets also teach but in general the teaching of prophets seems to be more corrective, bringing jus the right part of God’s word into a situation at just the right time. Evangelists seem to teach mostly the basic facts about the death and resurrection of Jesus and how it applies to our sin problem. They get people started down the road with God. Pastor-teachers are long term members of a community of believers who teach and lead and care for that community. There seems to be some overlap between all of these and remember they are all teachers, or at least speakers for Jesus.

In verse 12 we see that these people have these particular gifts to equip believers for the work of service.   The word for has the idea for the right tools for the job. In this case it is the believers, called saints (saints aren’t a super special group of believers, all believers are saints), who are being equipped. We are told the job (service) they have is building up the body of Christ. As we have seen earlier in this letter the body of Christ is the believers as a group, the church. Although the word church can mean a local group of believers in a town it also can be applied to all of the believers in Jesus both living and dead. In this case it is probably referring to just a local group or to local groups and we will see why in verse 13.

In verse 13 each believer is being equipped by these teachers so that we will be able to help each member of the group be a unified group. God wants all of us part to help each other become a well oiled machine. That unity revolves around the trust we have placed in Jesus, a trust that is based on our understanding of who Jesus is and what he has and is doing. Eventually that body will become mature and measure up to all Jesus is. Our goal as a church and individually member o fit is to help the world see Jesus, and we do that be each doing the individual part that God has given to us. A part that is sharpened or focused by the teaching of the four groups of teachers.

Without the help of those teachers we are like infants (little children) in the waves (v. 14). The things that are tossing the Ephesian believers around are all sorts of different teachings about Jesus and living for him. These false teachings have been brought to them by men who are “tricking” them, the idea behind the word “trickery” is the idea of cheating, the word actually means “throwing dice” but these dice are loaded so the believers would lose. These men are twisting the truth, they are cunning or crafty, and are serving a system of error (a scheme or method of error or deceit). That reminds me of the serpent in the Garden of Eden who was called more crafty than any of the other beasts. He twisted what God said about leaving the tree of knowledge alone to serve his own evil plan.

In verse 15 we see the importance of the good teachers, we (each one of us not just the teachers) are to “speak the truth in love. As we each help others we will grow up to be like Jesus who is our head. Verse 16 makes it even more clear that each one of us has a part. Jesus, as the head, the directror, of the believers’ lives is fitting us together as a “body” but each of us supplies just what we were designed to bring to the body. In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul uses the same idea of a body with each member of that local church being an important part and emphasizes that the body needs all sorts of parts each doing their part and that no part is really indispensable. He end this first part by mentioning again the importance of each part of the bode I going to grow up, be mature. He finishes with a reminder of the motivation of love. We are all part of this new thing, the church, because God loved us, we responded and love God, and we ought to love each other just like God loves each one of us.

I like all these gifts going around.   I especially like it that the gifts are from God. Sometimes it’s hard to give meaningful gifts because it can cost a lot especially at Christmas. Also it can be difficult to know just what someone would like, especially on a tight budget. But God has all the knowledge and resources he needs and so I know that I will receive just what I need to do just what God knows I should be doing. I also like it that the gift is coming from someone who knows me (as I said above), no junk gifts from God. I also like I that I have a part in God’s plan none of us are to be spectators and our activities add to what God is doing in the world. Finally I like it that the end result is complete, mature, full after all who wants to live in a house with no roof or a body with missing parts. God is good and awesome, he loves us and allows up not just to be a part of his family but to be an active part. Cool.

God thank you for gifting each one of us.   Thank you that our gifts have purpose. Thank you for you plan. Thank you that our work will ultimately make a mature complete family of believers. Thank you for Jesus.