Who Are You...Who, Who, Who, Who?

Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus (Eph 1:1).

"Can I see some ID?"  You've probably been asked that question at some point in your life.  At the airport.  At the grocery store.  At a restaurant.  You have to prove to someone else that you are who you say you are.  But there's another identity question.  Who do YOU think you are?  What sort of identity do you have in your own eyes?  Well, in many ways, that's exactly the point the Apostle Paul is trying to get across in this letter to his friends in Ephesus.  He wants them to understand just who they are as followers of Jesus.  And like the Ephesians, we all need to a clear understanding of our spiritual ID.

Who are you...who, who, who, who?

The sender and recipients are pretty clear.  "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus" (v1).  From Paul.  To the Ephesian saints.  But there's a truckload of stuff here in this verse than simply the outside of an envelope.  

Paul shows us his ID in the opening phrase.  He's an apostle.  Back in the first century, this wasn't so much a religious office.  This describes someone who is a handpicked representative of his boss who has been given the full authority of his boss.  When you spoke with an apostle, it was as if you were speaking with the person who sent them.  They were much more than a messenger.  Paul says he's "an apostle of Christ Jesus" (v1).  For those who knew Paul back when his name was Saul, that's almost impossible to imagine.  Back in the day, Saul of Tarsus was a rising superstar among the Pharisees, the major league of Judaism (Phil 3:5).  He studied at the feet of one of the most brilliant rabbis of the day, Gamaliel (Acts 22:3).  From the outside looking in, he had it all going on.  Just try and find one fault, one tiny sin in Saul's life.  The dude was pitching a perfect game when it came to rule following (Phil 3:6).  When Jewish leaders crucified that radical Rabbi/Carpenter from Nazareth, Saul was just coming into his prime.  The young man from Tarsus worked the coat check the day the Sanhedrin shut Stephen up once and for all (Acts 7:58).  He soon took the lead of the black ops team that arrested, tortured and murdered followers of Jesus (Acts 8:3; 22:3; 26:9-11).  With apologies to Mike Tyson, Saul was truly the baddest man on the planet.

That all changed during one mission to Damascus.  His team was headed down the highway from Jerusalem when they were ambushed (Acts 9:1-19).  A bright light knocked Saul off his horse.  A voice demanded to know, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"  When Saul asked his attacker for some ID, He replied, "I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting."  This Jesus is ALIVE!!  And the Risen One isn't just preventing Saul from continuing the assault on His church, He's handpicking his enemy to be His number one apostle!!!  Specifically, Jesus sends Saul to tell non-Jews about the Good News of salvation found only through faith in Christ.

After changing his name to Paul (Acts 13:9), Jesus eventually leads His apostle to the city of Ephesus.  This is a major port city on the western coast of modern day Turkey.  It's an critical center of shipping and commerce in the Roman empire.  You'll want to check out Acts 19 for all the details.  Over the next three years, God did some absolutely ridiculous stuff through Paul and turned the city upside down.  Through his teaching, lots of Jews came to believe Jesus is the long awaited Jewish Messiah.  Unbelieving Jews kicked him out of the synagogue and he moved into Tyrannus Hall where he was able to teach both Jews and non-Jews.  As people came to trust in Jesus, they ditched their pagan beliefs.  Ephesus was loaded with some dark stuff.  The occult.  Black magic.  Mystics.  Psychics.  Before you knew it, Christ turned the lives of many of these people upside down.  It blew folks away when these former magicians and psychics burned all of their occult literature in a massive bonfire.  This eventually led to a huge riot that turned on Paul and the followers of Jesus.  Local believers smuggled the apostle out of town to Greece.

These are the folks on the receiving end of his letter.  These are the "saints who are in Ephesus" (v1).  So why is Paul writing?  Well, there's some nasty stuff running through some of the churches in that part of Asia.  Some spiritual hucksters have done a lot of damage down the road among believers in Colossae, Laodicea and Hierapolis (Col 4:13).  They've duped people into thinking that Jesus might have been good, but He's not God.  A local pastor and church planter named Epaphras has come looking for Paul to help put an end to this (Col 1:7-8).  From his Roman prison cell, the apostle writes a letter of correction and encouragement to Colossae as well as one to his buddy Philemon who's a member of that church (Phm 1).  He writes one more letter.  This one to his dear friends in Ephesus.  If the letter to Colossae is treating the disease, think of Ephesians as an inoculation.  

Paul writes to his buddies in Ephesus and calls them "faithful in Christ Jesus" (v1).  Don't blow past this.  It's a HUGE part of what we'll read all throughout the letter.  They are faithful in who Jesus is and what He's done.  When we place our trust in Him, we're counting on His righteousness, His perfection, His holiness.  Not our own.  He lived the perfect life that we failed to live.  He died the brutal death that we should have died.  He rose to new life that we don't deserve.  This is NOT about the strength of our faith.  It's about the strength of Whom we've placed our faith.  By trusting in Jesus, He takes our sin and we get His perfection (2Cor 5:17).  That's what it means to be "in Christ Jesus."

Who are you...who, who, who, who?