Ephesians: It's The Mystrey For Me
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1 For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—
2 assuming you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that he gave me for you.
3 The mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have briefly written above.
4 By reading this you are able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ.
5 This was not made known to people in other generations as it is now revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit:
6 The Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and partners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
7 I was made a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the working of his power.
8 This grace was given to me—the least of all the saints—to proclaim to the Gentiles the incalculable riches of Christ,
9 and to shed light for all about the administration of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.
10 This is so that God’s multi-faceted wisdom may now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavens.
11 This is according to his eternal purpose accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Paul the Prisoner
1 For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—
Paul viewed all of his life through the lens of his God-given purpose. There was no separation of ministry and day to day life. Whether success or failure, Paul attributed it all to the call of God on his life. Even at the moment Paul in a prisoner in Rome he identifies himself as a “prisoner of Christ”.
This is a common theme for Paul
18 I, Paul, am writing this greeting with my own hand. Remember my chains. Grace be with you.
9 I appeal to you, instead, on the basis of love. I, Paul, as an elderly man and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus,
12 Now I want you to know, brothers and sisters, that what has happened to me has actually advanced the gospel,
13 so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard, and to everyone else, that my imprisonment is because I am in Christ.
14 Most of the brothers have gained confidence in the Lord from my imprisonment and dare even more to speak the word fearlessly.
God told Paul he was be a witness for Him in Rome (and he does.........in jail) (in this imprisonment he wrote Eph. Col. Phil. and Philemon)
11 The following night, the Lord stood by him and said, “Have courage! For as you have testified about me in Jerusalem, so it is necessary for you to testify in Rome.”
Application: This ought the be the position of the all believers. We ought to look at all of life through the lens of who God is and what He has done and what He has called for us to do.
Being a disciple of Jesus will cost us.
26 “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, and even his own life—he cannot be my disciple.
We try to hold on to a life that we need to let go of.......
34 Calling the crowd along with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.
35 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of me and the gospel will save it.
36 For what does it benefit someone to gain the whole world and yet lose his life?
Paul’s ministry
Ephesians 3:3–7 (CSB)
3 The mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have briefly written above.
4 By reading this you are able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ.
5 This was not made known to people in other generations as it is now revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit:
6 The Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and partners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
7 I was made a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the working of his power.
Paul’s ministry was to the Gentiles. Recap the Damascus Road experience.
mystery=hidden=strategy(plan) v. 3
Paul understands his role in God’s plan (to the Gentiles)
Jews believed that Gentiles could be saved by becoming ethic Jews by adopting their practices and culture. Paul said salvation is by Christ alone (Ephesian church was mainly Gentile)
Paul’s Motivation
8 This grace was given to me—the least of all the saints—to proclaim to the Gentiles the incalculable riches of Christ,
9 and to shed light for all about the administration of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.
10 This is so that God’s multi-faceted wisdom may now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavens.
“least of the saints”
The Gospel was his motivation. “we”
Ephesians 2:3–7 (CSB)
3 We too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath as the others were also.
4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of his great love that he had for us,
5 made us alive with Christ even though we were dead in trespasses. You are saved by grace!
6 He also raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens in Christ Jesus,
7 so that in the coming ages he might display the immeasurable riches of his grace through his kindness to us in Christ Jesus.
The Gospel ought to be our motivation
8 For you are saved by grace through faith, and this is not from yourselves; it is God’s gift—
9 not from works, so that no one can boast.
10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.