The Letter of Paul to the Ephesians 27OCT

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Scriptures for today on whiteboard

Eph 3:1-3

Eph 3:4-6

Eph 3:7-9

Eph 3:10-13

Acts 2:17

Acts 11:28

Acts 21:8-10

1 Cor 15:7-10

1 Tim 1:15

Rom 11:33

Heb 4:16

Heb 10:19

Rom 5:2

2 Cor 1:6

2 Cor 4:1

Last week - Thank you, Dustin!

Gentiles and Jews = one in Christ

…this week…

The Mystery of Redemption and its Revelation

Upcoming textual structure

The Mystery of Redemption and Its Revelation (3:1–13)

Opening to (delayed) prayer (3:1)

Redemptive revelation as a mystery (3:2–7)

The revelation of this mystery (3:8–12)

Conclusion to not grow disheartened (3:13)

PRAY (ask someone)

do we read this or not??

***4 x Readers: 1-3 // 4-6 // 7-9 // 10-13

Ephesians 3:1–13 ESV

For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

A) Opening to (delayed) prayer (3:1)

Ephesians 3:1 ESV

For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—

Textual comments…

“For this reason”

We’ve made it 2 words into today’s study…what’s the “this”?

Zoom out real quick to take a look at ch.2-4

“this” = 2:18-22 (Yogi read it)

Ever started saying something, and then abruptly stop because you realize you need to explain something else first before continuing, and then you just launch into the “something else” with little preamble? Welcome to Paul.

He’s brimming with thoughts and ideas, it really feels as if the words are just pouring out of him… Almost like they’re being “breathed out of his spirit” (2 Timothy 3:16 “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,” ___//\\ God-breathed : theopneustos)

v1 is a preamble to the prayer found in v14-21 (flip there, look at intro words in 14)

So, this phrase in v1 is connecting the content/conclusions of ch2, right into his prayer for Spiritual Power for the Ephesians in v14-21, which we’ll cover next week

“… I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles”

Remember we talked about Ephesians being one of the “prison” letters?

This letter, + Colossians, 2 Timothy, Philemon, Philippians, written. “prison letters” ~60-62AD, ~5-10yrs after living in Ephesus

“I, Paul,” : a very personal, solemn phrase, only used a few other times by him.

Who’s Paul a prisoner of? The Romans?

Yes and no

He was imprisoned many times throughout his ministry, most immediately by the Romans, however that’s NOT how Paul views his imprisonment (prisoner OF CHRIST)

So, what does it mean to be Christ’s prisoner?

“on behalf of you Gentiles”

Paul is PROUD of his imprisonment because IT’S ON BEHALF OF HIS GOD-GIVEN MISSION!

Acts 9:10–19 ESV

Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias. The Lord said to him in a vision, “Ananias.” And he said, “Here I am, Lord.” And the Lord said to him, “Rise and go to the street called Straight, and at the house of Judas look for a man of Tarsus named Saul, for behold, he is praying, and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him so that he might regain his sight.” But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.” But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.” So Ananias departed and entered the house. And laying his hands on him he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus who appeared to you on the road by which you came has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” And immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he rose and was baptized; and taking food, he was strengthened. For some days he was with the disciples at Damascus.

Back up a few slides to get back to the below text…

“But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name.”

Directly commissioned by the Lord unto a new branch of service - Gospel to the Gentiles.

Application comments…

Paul served under great threat to personal safety, attacked, beaten, imprisoned, the works.

Yet he’s PROUD of it, when, in this letter, we see him ponder the grafting together of Jew and Gentile into…

one body, one church, one temple, one building, IN CHRIST

Re. eternity: there is no distinction between “types” of humans

In God the Creator’s perspective, there is ONE HUMAN RACE that He made in His image.

Would we do well, in 2024 in America, to remember this truth and live this truth?? OH YEA.

And, in fact, to fully grasp this, the beauty of God’s plan, Paul interrupts himself to give a more detailed explanation (v2-13)

B) Redemptive revelation as a mystery (3:2-7)

Ephesians 3:2–7 ESV

assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power.

Textual comments…

“stewardship” What is does a steward do?

Someone given administrative authority and responsibility over a resource.

As an apostle, called by Jesus Himself (in quite an immediate manner on the road to Damascus (Acts 9))

As someone who fervently, diligently, aggressively persecuted the Church, even Paul was given grace

…therefore, Paul takes this commission of responsibility of grace VERY SERIOUSLY

v3 is connected to v2

By revelation Paul was given grace (Jesus revealing Himself to Saul on the road in Acts 9)

By revelation the gospel of grace was given to him

the “mystery” of the gospel unfolded to Paul by revelation Ephesians 6:19 “and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel,”

What does mystery mean again? We talked about it before…

mysterion : what was previously concealed, is now revealed.

v4, the point of the revelation

The mystery of the gospel wasn’t for Paul and Paul alone, it was meant to be given to others, and how?

v4: “…when you read you can understand [Paul’s] insight into the mystery of Christ”

Jesus is the gospel (mystery of Christ). The mystery of His salvific work is made plain to understand by apostolic revelation, and we access this revelation by…

burning incense and humming droning tunes and shaving our heads and making peace signs with our hands? NO!

Finding our own inner peace and our own inner strength? NO!

By saying 100 Hail Mary’s, doing confession once a week, doing the sacraments defined by the Church? NO!

THE REVELATION IS RECORDED in the apostles WORDS. So, READ THEM!

This is God’s plan for how the gospel is to be given to the Gentiles, and all : by the Holy Spirit giving the apostles the knowledge and authority to reveal who Jesus is and explaining with razor sharp clarity what He did!

This construct is the opposite of gnosticism and modern secularism and modern false religions. Christianity is NOT something that’s intended to be hidden, but shared by words from one person to another, so that Christ may be revealed to them.

You hold, in your hands, divine revelation who’s potential profit for the reader is eternal salvation! The very power of God that we studied in chapter 1 is in your hands!!

v5 shows development of revelation

In previous days, this thought of salvation coming to others besides the Jews was not revealed.

2:11-22 is truly ground-breaking: Christ died for all men, independent of ethnic background.

This was the core of Dustin’s lesson last week: all men are equal in the sight of Christ and their relationship with him. All on equal footing.

If any man doesn’t know Christ, he is already condemned, in John 3:18 Jesus says “…whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”

If any man DOES know Christ and has therefore been reborn in Christ, he is saved from condemnation (Romans 8:1 “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”)

“His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit”

“holy”: not “pure”, but here = set apart or consecrated (justified conclusion from v8, where he calls himself “least”)

We’ve already talked about the Spirit attending to the revelation of the mystery through the words of Scripture written with God-given apostolic authority.

But, “prophets”, who is Paul talking about?

In light of Ephesians 4:11 “And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers,” Paul is most directly referring to NT prophets

Reader for each of the 3 below…

Acts 2:17 ““ ‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;”

Acts 11:28 “And one of them named Agabus stood up and foretold by the Spirit that there would be a great famine over all the world (this took place in the days of Claudius).”

Acts 21:8–10 “On the next day we departed and came to Caesarea, and we entered the house of Philip the evangelist, who was one of the seven, and stayed with him. He had four unmarried daughters, who prophesied. While we were staying for many days, a prophet named Agabus came down from Judea.”

The apostles and the prophets are two distinct groups that can be distinguished, yet united in the function of disclosing Gentile inclusion in the new covenant blessings in Christ.

prophets : given Spirit empowerment to foretell truths of God, and give it to the Gentiles

apostles : to do the same, but also personally commissioned by Christ Himself and entrusted with the stewardship of the mystery of the gospel, charged with explaining it and making it plain to the Gentiles (and us!)

v6, is really just a summary of Dustin’s lesson!

Ephesians 2:12 “remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”

Now, Gentiles are…

Fellow heirs (inheritance of God’s riches of grace)

Fellow members of the body (included in God’s spiritual family)

Fellow recipients of the glorious gift of salvation in Christ Jesus

v7 puts a bow on this colon (remember that word from lesson 1? The group of verses representing one thought)

Paul, commissioned as a steward, a minister, a servant of the Gospel, and given this function in power by Jesus Himself.

C) The revelation of this mystery (3:8–12)

Ephesians 3:8–12 ESV

To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.

Textual comments…

v8 “…least of all the saints…”

“least”? Least important? Least effective? Least spiritual?

Reader

1 Corinthians 15:7–10 “Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me.”

It’s not just about Paul’s social credit score among the gang of apostles.

Yes, he views himself as the most sinful of them all (church persecution)

But “least of all the saints” also refers to all Christians:

Reader

1 Timothy 1:15 “The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”

“unfathomable” : used twice in the NT, here and…

Reader

Romans 11:33 “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”

definition - impossible to understand, unsearchable, inscrutable, incomprehensible

Flashlight, or light, penetrating the “fathoms” of the ocean

v9 - “grace was given”…”to” reveal God’s concealed plan of salvation to all.

“plan of the mystery” / “administration of the mystery” / “design of the mystery” :: It’s now the age when the hood gets popped open and the parts and pieces are revealed

“unfathomable riches” —> The revelation of the design, the details of the “how”, of the gospel —> “so that” v10

From Baugh, maybe read it, it answers the question of why Paul bring’s up “Creator”…

The best answer seems to be that when Paul reflected on the long ages when God had kept “the design of the mystery hidden,” he wished to accent that God is the Creator had never abandoned his compassion for the work of his hands, the multitude of nations who had wandered off into a pagan night, “who do not know their right hand from their left” (Jonah 4:11; Dan 4:34–35).

v10

<<continue from 2.b above>>

Grace was given to Paul, in the form of depthless riches, which are the very details of the gospel, SO THAT

“the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known”

interesting word, “manifold”, what does that mean?? And, no, I don’t think he’s talking about internal combustion intake and exhausts…

polypoikilos : only used a handful of times, but means most literally “many-colored” or “variegated”, but here best means “multi-sided” or “multi-faceted”

A nice, complimentary adjective to the unfathomable-ness of the riches of Christ

the nerd in me…definition of a sphere analogy

“through the church” is how God “made known” His wisdom. The CHURCH is the medium by which this happens! Yes, that’s US!

This speaks directly to us, and our daily walk with Christ. WE are, and ought to be, living-breathing-walking-talking testimonies of the riches of Christ and the very wisdom of God on this earth!

Ephesians Commentary

This activity implies the critical fact that the earthly gatherings of God’s people have a vital link with Christ in his high-heavenly exaltation, to where believers too have been raised and seated (2:6). Hence, the church is in essence both earthly and heavenly and is linked as a body to Christ its Head through the Holy Spirit

“rulers and authorities” in the heavenly places

Ephesians Commentary

God’s redemption of his people has ever been of interest to the holy angels (1 Pet 1:12) and to the whole host of heaven (including the elect who have gone before; e.g., Heb 12:22–23), who give even more praise to God when they behold it in wonder (Psa 148; Rev 7:9–12; 19:1–8).

v11: all of this activity we’ve discussed ultimately stems from God’s eternal purpose, His eternally good will, which goes right back to Ephesians 2:4 “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us,”

v12: gives us the result of God’s work in us —> boldness, confidence, access to Jesus on the throne of grace right now.

Readers for the following 3

Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

Hebrews 10:19 “Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,”

Romans 5:2 “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

D) Conclusion to not grow disheartened (3:13)

Ephesians 3:13 ESV

So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.

Textual comments…

Reader for the two below

2 Corinthians 1:6 “If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; and if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer.” 2 Corinthians 4:1 “Therefore, having this ministry by the mercy of God, we do not lose heart.”

Paul’s affliction is NOT a sign that the gospel is failing, it’s the exact opposite!

It’s our glory that Paul is in chains, imprisoned, in order that the power of God may be revealed in the apostle’s weakness.

DESPITE the chief apostle to the Gentiles being imprisoned, the gospel explodes! And it did.

If the Roman authority was greater than God’s authority, and they quenched the resounding message of the Gospel, we wouldn’t be sitting here right now discussing these things!

Christ specially honored the Gentiles by appointing an apostle who would willingly lay down his life for their sakes.

Remember, from Acts, how persistent Paul was to get to Jerusalem? He knew deep down that he MUST go to Rome. And he MUST go to suffer.

This behavior of Paul, who does this sound like?

JESUS!

God the Spirit convicted Paul to lay aside his own personal safety/comfort, in order to provide safety and comfort and confidence and security to US as Gentiles by being obedient to the Spirit, making the mystery revealed, the Gospel revealed.

In Paul, we see an obedient mimetai!

Closing

Ephesians Application and Devotional Implications

As Paul assures his audience from prison of Christ’s supreme rule, he reminds us that we too live our lives and serve the Lord in the light of the cross. God has ever preferred to use weak instruments to conquer his enemies. One has only to think of Gideon and how the Lord was not willing to use the whole army to defeat Midian but sifted them down to Gideon and a mere one hundred men (Judg 7). God has not changed. He uses us to glorify his name, even though we are much more “the very least of all saints” (3:8) than was Paul. By realizing this we too will not lose heart at the opposition to the gospel and to us as Christ’s people that we will face. “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you” (John 15:18–19).

There is NO suffering in this world, in your life, no matter the heigh/width/depth of it that can outweigh God’s power and grace. None.

Romans 5:3–5 “Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”

Romans 8:18 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.”

2 Corinthians 4:17 “For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,”

Enduring suffering and equating to glory is easier said than done, but remember…

John 12:27–28 ““Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.””

PRAY

See you next week!

Ephesians 3:14-21

Paul’s Resumed Prayer (3:14–21)

Posture of prayer before the Father (3:14–15)

Report of content of intercession for audience (3:16–19)

For divine indwelling and love (3:16–17)

For understanding (3:18–19)

Concluding blessing of God (3:20–21)