Tony Merida - Exalting Jesus In Ephesians

Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary: Exalting Jesus in Ephesians

Copyright 2014 by Tony Merida

B&H Publishing Group

Nashville, Tennessee

All rights reserved.

ISBN 978-0-8054-9672-7

Dewey Decimal Classification: 220.7

Subject Heading: BIBLE. N.T. EPHESIANSCOMMENTARIES \
JESUS CHRIST

Unless otherwise stated all Scripture citations are from the Holman Christian Standard Bible Copyright 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked Phillips are reprinted with permission of Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.from J. B. Phillips: The New Testament in Modern English, Revised Edition. J. B. Phillips 1958, 1960, 1972.

Scripture quotations marked NASB are from the New American Standard Bible . 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version , copyright 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc. Used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers.

Scripture quotations marked NLT are taken from the Holy Bible , New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

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Series Dedication

Dedicated to Adrian Rogers and John Piper. They have taught us to love the gospel of Jesus Christ, to preach the Bible as the inerrant Word of God, to pastor the church for which our Savior died, and to have a passion to see all nations gladly worship the Lamb.

David Platt, Tony Merida, and Danny Akin

March 2013

acknowledgments

I wish to express thanks to the congregations of First Baptist Kenner, Temple Baptist Church, and Imago Dei Church (IDC). Ive had the privilege of preaching through the book of Ephesians in each of these contexts. In each case the Lord graciously worked in the lives of His people through His Word. I stand amazed by the fact that I get to expound the Scriptures in the context of the local church; its an honor beyond words.

In my present context at IDC, a few of our interns helped me edit this manuscriptManny, Joseph, and Samueland Im supergrateful for their labor. They are wonderful examples of godly young men and will, by Gods grace, become faithful pastors in the future. Thank you, brothers.

To the elders at IDCMatt, Donnie, and Natethank you for weekly help in sermon preparation and for your constant evaluation and encouragement. What a joy to labor with you.

Im also incredibly grateful for Dr. Daniel Akin, who affords me the opportunity to teach at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary. SEBTS is a happy place, filled with hungry students and humble professors. Im honored to be on the team at this Great Commission institution.

To my bride Kimberly, I give God praise for the opportunity we have in living out Ephesians 5:18-33 together. May the Lord grant us many more days to live in happy union and in ministry partnership. And may the Lords grace be sufficient as we raise five children.

Finally, to the Lord Jesus Christ: the book of Ephesians sparkles with Your glory and dazzles us with Your redeeming grace. May You be glorified by this little commentary. May the readers be equipped and built up, and may those who proclaim Your unsearchable riches be helped and encouraged for the good of Your church and for the glory of Your great name.

Tony Merida

Series Introduction

A ugustine said, Where Scripture speaks, God speaks. The editors of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series believe that where God speaks, the pastor must speak. God speaks through His written Word. We must speak from that Word. We believe the Bible is God breathed, authoritative, inerrant, sufficient, understandable, necessary, and timeless. We also affirm that the Bible is a Christ-centered book; that is, it contains a unified story of redemptive history of which Jesus is the hero. Because of this Christ-centered trajectory that runs from Genesis 1 through Revelation 22, we believe the Bible has a corresponding global-missions thrust. From beginning to end, we see Gods mission as one of making worshipers of Christ from every tribe and tongue worked out through this redemptive drama in Scripture. To that end we must preach the Word.

In addition to these distinct convictions, the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series has some distinguishing characteristics. First, this series seeks to display exegetical accuracy. What the Bible says is what we want to say. While not every volume in the series will be a verse-by-verse commentary, we nevertheless desire to handle the text carefully and explain it rightly. Those who teach and preach bear the heavy responsibility of saying what God has said in His Word and declaring what God has done in Christ. We desire to handle Gods Word faithfully, knowing that we must give an account for how we have fulfilled this holy calling (Jas 3:1).

Second, the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series has pastors in view. While we hope others will read this series, such as parents, teachers, small-group leaders, and student ministers, we desire to provide a commentary busy pastors will use for weekly preparation of biblically faithful and gospel-saturated sermons. This series is not academic in nature. Our aim is to present a readable and pastoral style of commentaries. We believe this aim will serve the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Third, we want the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series to be known for the inclusion of helpful illustrations and theologically driven applications. Many commentaries offer no help in illustrations, and few offer any kind of help in application. Often those that do offer illustrative material and application unfortunately give little serious attention to the text. While giving ourselves primarily to explanation, we also hope to serve readers by providing inspiring and illuminating illustrations coupled with timely and timeless application.

Finally, as the name suggests, the editors seek to exalt Jesus from every book of the Bible. In saying this, we are not commending wild allegory or fanciful typology. We certainly believe we must be constrained to the meaning intended by the divine Author Himself, the Holy Spirit of God. However, we also believe the Bible has a messianic focus, and our hope is that the individual authors will exalt Christ from particular texts. Luke 24:25-27,44-47 and John 5:39,46 inform both our hermeneutics and our homiletics. Not every author will do this the same way or have the same degree of Christ-centered emphasis. That is fine with us. We believe faithful exposition that is Christ centered is not monolithic. We do believe, however, that we must read the whole Bible as Christian Scripture. Therefore, our aim is both to honor the historical particularity of each biblical passage and to highlight its intrinsic connection to the Redeemer.

The editors are indebted to the contributors of each volume. The reader will detect a unique style from each writer, and we celebrate these unique gifts and traits. While distinctive in their approaches, the authors share a common characteristic in that they are pastoral theologians. They love the church, and they regularly preach and teach Gods Word to Gods people. Further, many of these contributors are younger voices. We think these new, fresh voices can serve the church well, especially among a rising generation that has the task of proclaiming the Word of Christ and the Christ of the Word to the lost world.