The mystery of Christ is revealed through the grace of God, uniting Jews and Gentiles into one body and fellow heirs through the gospel. Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, emphasizes this stewardship and the revelation God has given him, which was not known in past ages. This mystery, centered on Christ, allows for boldness and access to God through faith, and Paul prays for believers to be strengthened in love and comprehend Christ's immeasurable love. The sermon highlights that this revelation is now made known through apostles and prophets by the Spirit, enabling believers to understand God's manifold wisdom and be filled with the fullness of God.
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Way round the hands of Jesus, in the gardens where he'd wade, Sing this new sweet, sweet, sweet. They swear upon the sing, so pure and great can sing. They went through the mighty sea to lay. He could have followed and followed an angel to destroy the land and set it free. He could have fought and found a nation, But he died alone for you and me.
For all these precious dead, they fled the crowd and swore, They laughed and said, Behold, the king, They struck him as they burst in, And mocked him slowly they, For the Lord will be suffered every day. He could have fought and found an angel to destroy the world and set it free. He could have fallen, then found an angel, For he died alone, for you and me.
During the howling of the evening, He did such a mercy cry. The cross of David turned for home. And when he cried his teeth, he gave himself to die. Salvation's wondrous plan was done. He could have all kept on the day in town. To destroy the world and set it free.
He could have called and founded angels, but he died alone for you and me. Amazing, isn't it, to think of a great God giving Himself for the creature that He created and dying, suffering on a cruel, rugged cross. A wonderful, though there does have a result, that death was not in vain and it did accomplish something.
It accomplished having a people for His glory through all eternity. And it's blessed that you and I are going to be part of that. As I said the other day, it's an amazing thing that the angels are going to look down upon His being and imagine them to the praise of His glory. We learned yesterday that it was all of His grace And our salvation, our faith was a gift of God. How blessed. Today we're going to look at a chapter that brings us to the Christian experience in growing in knowledge and strength.
I'd like to read the chapter and then we'll sort of give you a brief outline so you've got a little something to hang on to. For this cause, I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you were, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in a few words, whereby when ye read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.
Whereof I was made a minister according to the grace of God, given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God.
according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by faith of him. Wherefore, I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his spirit in the inner man. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that ye being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height.
And to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge that he might be filled with all the fullness of God, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly, exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us. Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. Now the key verse in this chapter would be verse thirteen, wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is for your glory.
He's bringing us to the central thing of why it's all brought to pass. And that's sort of the middle and the key of the chapter. Now we could look at verse one and verse two of Paul's ordinations. verses three through six of Paul's revelation and verse seven through twelve of Paul's ministration and his message. Then verse thirteen is affliction and fourteen through the end of the chapter is intercession. He brings us to the point in the first part of the chapter in verses one and two for this cause.
And he begins the chapter with this, and so we'd have to look at what cause. It's what he leaves to him together. Throw us onto a holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are builded together for a habitation of God through the Spirit, for this cause. Paul is beginning to write now in relation to the subject he's already approached, the two being brought into one in one body. Of the two making one new man. And of the two making a building. So far in our book we've seen that the church is likened to the body.
In chapter two the church is likened to a building. And we talked a little bit about that last night in the sense of the illustration of a field stone house. And the mortar that binds each stone. And then looking at it as living stones, which we are according to Peter two, we see that there is a mortar that binds us together in the love of God. And now he is saying, for this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. I suppose if we took a surface view of it, we could say, well, Paul was in prison and he was a prisoner of Jesus Christ. I suppose if we did that, though, we then have to say he's a prisoner for Jesus Christ.
This has a stronger meaning than that to it. He is a prisoner of Jesus Christ. For you Gentiles. Paul often called himself a slave. He used the symbolist term, Duloc, a bond slave, one that's born and bound to his master. Here he gives us the idea of being a prisoner. one again that's bound to his keeper. And as Paul is saying, for this cause, because God has brought both you and Gentiles, you Jews and the Gentiles, in one body. He has put himself at the head. Now for this cause, I am a prisoner to you Gentiles.
Because that's who the book is addressed to. It's addressed to the Ephesians, which were Gentiles. And so he says, for this cause, I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you, Gentile. He was bound to Christ. That's a blessed thing, I think, that if we could consider ourselves so bound to Christ, that we would there serve Him at His command. We would stay within the realm of confinement, and in that realm we have a liberty. See, our difficulties many times is that we want to leave that realm of confinement because we think his lines are setting us in too narrow a place.
Paul never considered that. Even while he was bound by the walls of a building, Paul was able to reach out beyond that wall. And as he was bound there in Rome, God used him to reach out to the Gentiles of Rome, where he reached out even to Caesar's household. And so you're bound in a couple senses, but in this sense we have the strongest sense that he's bound to Christ. And he's a prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles. If, and I suppose that's a fulfilled if, you've heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which has given me you words. The word dispensation here is a stewardship.
And so he's saying to them, I'm a prisoner of Jesus Christ. And I have been given a stewardship toward you Gentile, something I have to fulfill. Now Paul wrote before to the Corinthians, it's required in stewards that a man be found faithful. And in Paul's ministration, we can see the faithfulness of his stewardship. You know, after all, the Lord is committed to all of us in this sense, a gospel of reconciliation, isn't it? He has told us to do the work of an evangelist. And that certainly would be to bear the good news of the gospel. What if I was to meddle a little bit tonight and say, how have you been doing that in the past few weeks?
Can you look back and see where you were faithful to the stewardship that God has given to you and that you have carried the gospel to some who do not know it? See, Paul was a man that was bound and that he knew that he had a commission. His commission was to the Gentiles and he was going to bear that message. and it was given to him a message of grace in a stewardship that he might bring the grace of God which is given me you were. Have you manifest the grace of God in life and word toward those that we live with? I think this is a practical book even though Paul is using himself in the authority of the message that he received.
He was a man that could say his desire. was that all would be even as He is apart from these chains. You know, that's His desire. And I think when it comes to every one of us, that would be God's desire that we would be faithful in the stewardship that's given to us. The stewardship of the grace of God. Now He has a revelation that's given to Him in verses three through verse six. And this revelation He made known unto me the mystery. as I wrote a four in a few words. Mystery is one of the key words of the book.
You find it over and over again, and remember back here in chapter one, he spoke of the mystery that was given to him. Having verse nine, having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he had purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ. both which are in heaven, which are on earth, even in Him. Now here He is reminding us that this mystery was given unto Him. First of all, we have the mystery and the sense of the two groups being brought into one body. Jew and Gentile being brought together.
The wall of partition taken down. The Gentile who is afar off made not. Christ doing it through the blood of His cross. And so the revelation of the grace of God was given to Paul. And so now he says, how that revelation he made known unto me, the mystery that I have given you in just a few words. But this mystery is something that goes beyond. We're going to get to another verse and see that in a moment. Here is relating to us principally what he said before, of the Jew and Gentile being brought together. And he said, whereby ye read ye to me, understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. Ah.
His desire was for the Ephesians that they would have a knowledge, an understanding of the mystery, the revelation that was given to him. Well, when did Paul get a revelation? What kind of revelations did he get? Was it only one? Well, if we were to go to Second Corinthians, the second letter to Corinthians, and in Chapter Twelve, we read of one particular place where he had a multiplicity of revelations. It wasn't just one revelation, but it was many revelations. And in the first verses, he describes how he's been caught up to heaven. He said whether in the body or out of the body, he didn't know. He wasn't sure how he stood.
But now when we get to verse seven, he says, Unless I should be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. Paul received revelation directly from God many times. I'm sure one of the times was when he was caught up to the third heaven or caught up to paradise. That's a good thing to remember these verses. Many people argue whether heaven and paradise are the same. Paul equates them right here in these few verses.
I was caught up to heaven or the third heaven, and he said in verse four how that he was caught up to paradise and in heard unspeakable words. The totality of revelation that he got wasn't only on the mystery of the church. There were some revelations that he said were words unlawful to utter. There is some things that Paul had that he wasn't allowed to utter. We have in the fullness of all the things that he had seen or the things he had heard. But there was the mystery of the church and the mystery of the grace of God that was revealed to Paul in Revelation. Now, we have Revelation as well, not as Paul received it from a direct revelation from the Lord.
I said the other night, that's what the apostles and the prophets received from the Lord. And in our verses here in the book of Ephesians, you'll notice several times or the last chapter that we looked at, he mentions the foundation of the church, the apostles and the prophets. Again here he speaks of the revelation in verse five that was revealed to his holy apostles and the prophets by the Spirit. I want to suggest something to you. That's a good thing to remember the way He has put the apostles and the prophets. You'll notice that the prophets were not put first.
If He had put the prophets first, that would be taking us to an Old Testament condition. We would be looking at Old Testament prophets. But because He put the apostles first, and the apostles were there named by the Lord Jesus as he was here. Now the prophets we're looking at in this scripture has a relation to the New Testament, the New Covenant, and under the period of grace. That's what they relate to. The Lord Jesus himself, speaking of Old Testament prophets, could say the law and the prophets were tell who? John. And so under the Old Testament condition, They ended.
Paul has a new revelation. He's got the revelation of the foundation of the church. The two bodies being brought together in one. And that revelation, apparently from what he says here, grows in the sense that it was given to apostles, plural, and prophets, plural. When it comes to the mystery of the church, that was given to him, first of all. But it grew out from that point. And so there is revelation that was given directly, but there's also revelation that's given to us through the Word of God. And I trust that's why you're here tonight. Asking God to reveal something to your heart to strengthen you.
See, a revelation does strengthen. It strengthens. And that is why in the center of this book, Paul's desire is that they would be strengthened. And before he that he goes about to build a foundation I have received revelation he said and I'm giving it to you I am a prisoner of Jesus Christ because of you I have been given a commission to be an apostle to the Gentile that's what he's saying basically and he's saying now in the revelation that I have received from God I'm going to give it to you that mystery as I wrote afore in a few words whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ.
He wanted the church to understand the knowledge that he had learned. Now, back in chapter one, we were there on Lord's Day, weren't we? And when his prayer for the saints, if you look at this book as we keep on going through it, you're going to find that he reemphasizes things to drive them home. In his prayer, he prayed this in chapter one. that the eyes, pardon me, verse seventeen, that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation. In the knowledge of him, that the eyes of your understanding be enlightened, that they may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.
And now the revelation was given to him, he passes it on, he's going to fulfill the prayer he made. Hmm. It's a good thing when we pray, and then when we see a door open that we can go ahead and do some of the things we prayed for. He prayed that they might have knowledge, that they might have revelation from God. Then he takes up the revelation God gave him, and he gave it to somebody else. That's a pretty simple thing to do. But I wonder so many times, what do we do with that? You know, we need to take our young as they grow. We need to give them knowledge. We need to teach them what the word of God has to say.
And as they grow in that, then wisdom comes the practical application of knowledge. But we show knowledge in a couple of ways. Paul displayed the knowledge of God by the revelation that he gave in word. But a life lived out. He said, I would that you were imitators of me. Even as I am of Christ. I think of myself sometimes when I stand up in front of people. Wouldn't it be great if I could be the Apostle Paul and say, Be an imitator of me? That's pretty strong words, wasn't it? That man was a man who walked with God. That man was an apostle in his total life as a sent one. Totally holy given to God.
Be followers of me. even as I also am of Christ. A dual message. But you know, as we examine the manner of the man that he wants as an elder in the assembly, what manner of man is that? Oh, boy, you go to First Timothy chapter three and you begin to read the qualifications of the elder. And when you read them, you say, oh, boy, that's the perfect man. He's in heaven. Well, he's saying the measure of the man, this is what we ought to have. And you know, when our kids are little, that's what our children ought to be looking for to see in us. That's what we ought to have a desire to display to them, the measure of that man.
And when we fail the measure of that man, that we're quick to admit it to our children and to say, I am sorry, I was wrong. Those are good words to say in a family. I remember some kid asked my daughter one time, she said, well, is your dad always right? He's a preacher. It must be pretty hard to live in that house. My daughter said, no, dad makes mistakes. And when he does, he says, I'm sorry. I was wrong. I never knew my daughter thought that. It was kind of nice to hear it. I didn't think I was that good at that job. But at any rate, you know, this, when we view the measure of the man, I often looked at Paul.
And I've often thought, what a man to say, Be ye imitators of me, even as I also am of Christ. And so as he prayed for their knowledge, he did something about giving it to him. You pray for your kids, you pray for this assembly, you pray for the Sunday school, you pray for the young people. What do you do about giving him the knowledge of the word and a practical life lived out? You know, you can present knowledge just like Peter did with his sword. You can take the word of God and you can use it as an axe or a sword to wield. And, you know, that isn't beneficial. That's harmful. But when you see it, you show it lived out in a life of love toward your wife, towards the kid at home, toward the assembly as you grow from there.
My, what a difference it makes then. That's the experiential realm that they can see and they can understand and say, hey, that's truth. I see it then, Dad. Paul prayed for them and then he did what he could to take the knowledge that he had that was given to him to them. And he said that in other ages they were not made known to the sons of men. And that word ages can actually be generations. That he's looking at the generations of men. And in generations of men past that wasn't revealed. But now it is, wasn't made known to the sons of man. It's now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel."
Now that must have been bit to some of the Jews. That must have been a bite because the Jews pretty stiff-necked. You know, he was a person that thought, well, All of it was his. You know, he had the law of Moses. He had the promises of Abraham. And wow, as far as him and God was concerned, he was okay. And that must have been something for him to hear. Well, here's these Gentile dogs. Now they're made one with us. I imagine that was pretty hard for some of those stiff-necked Jews to get acquainted with that fact. It's very evident from the book that he actually was. But Paul is reminding them that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs. How you like that?
Gentile stranger alien to the Commonwealth and the covenants and promises brought into the same body. Now sons in the same family. And now heirs co-heirs in the same family. Now I don't know if some Jews that have turned to Christ really express a Christian love. I had a young man in my living room one day. There were a couple of young fellows there, Palmer students, who were trying to point to the Savior. And one of them said he had already been saved.
He was in Australia. His name was David. In fact, both the boys' names were David. And so he told me he was saved. And I said, how do you get saved? How do you know you're saved? And I asked him, who is Jesus Christ? He was kind of slow in answer. And it's little Jew who made no profession at all. He just suddenly burst out and he said, Why, Jesus Christ is the Lord. And when he heard what came out of his mouth, he said, Hold it. He said, I want you to hold me to that, Ray. He realized what he said just like that.
He realized he confessed Jesus Christ is Lord. And so I said, why not, David? He said, I got to see my rabbi first. He said, I came to you tonight saying, prove to me that Jesus Christ is the Lord. He said, I'm going to my rabbi, not like I came to you. I'm going to say, prove that Jesus Christ is not the Lord. Well, he never went to his rabbi. The students told me two days later he was preaching down the hall of the Palmer Chiropractic College. And he had trusted the Lord. When I met him again, you know what he did? There was no Stesnak Jew in him. He just reached out and he threw his arms around. Oh, there was a lot. Now, you see, they're in a body now.