Day 02 - Ephesus

“From Paul to John”

Our second day journey took us to the ancient city of Ephesus. We continued our discussion about Paul and his involvement with the Ephesians and then finished the day learning about John talking about the church in Ephesus in the book of Revelation.

Marty, our primary teacher and guide, reminded us that half of the New Testament was written “from” or “to” Ephesus. Ephesus was the second largest biblical city that most scholars say had about 250,000 people. Marty, and later in the day our local Turkish tour guide, Ozan, would explain the history of this remarkable biblical city to help our group better understand Ephesians, Revelation, and the many of the writings and churches of the New Testament.

I love getting the big picture and having context. Like being on vacation in a new city and seeing a sign with a general map with the star saying, “You are here!” Marty helped our group by going over the major streets, key buildings, and major sections of town to give us insights on how the people lived and what was important during the time of Paul and John’s visits to Ephesus. Another key statistic was 20% of the Ephesian population were Jews. And most of those Jews were from the Herodian sect. Herodians were a blended culture as Marty would say, “they love their Bible, and love their iPhone.”

Marty went onto explain Paul’s missionary journeys and what a typical 2 weeks looked like. During Paul’s first week, he focused on who Jesus was. The Jews would enthusiastically ask Paul to stay a second week and would hear how the Gentiles were part of Gods kingdom, too. The Jews were confused and didn’t embrace this truth with open arms. Marty then shifted to the early church as revealed in the book of Acts. A key concept of disciple is lost in translation in our modern day church. In Hebrew, they are two specific words to describe disciple. One is more focused on a student and the other is a committed learner who not only learns, but literally lives with for a period of time until they learn everything they need to do the same for others (disciples making disciples).

After Marty’s overview of Ephesus, Ozan took us on a walking tour of the ancient city walking through the city streets, seeing how the people lived, how they went for entertainment in a 25,000 theater, watched events in a 40,000 seat stadium, and even used an advanced plumping system which included toilets for the wealthy.

After our walking tour, Marty shared some observations from the book of Revelation and how the author, John, was encouraging key churches including Ephesus. John was challenging and encouraging the church in Ephesus to remain committed and to live out their faith faithfully.

Our day learning about the history of Ephesus is going to help us understand the book of Ephesians and then and only then appropriately apply those same truths to our lives. As we headed back to another new hotel, Marty did not reveal our next day's visit, but maybe it will be about other cities John mentioned in Revelation. The journey continues!