Do Not Lose Heart as We Pursue God's Eternal Purpose
Notes
Transcript
BLANK SLIDE TO BEGIN RECORDING (Please don’t wait for Matt to be on podium.)
SLIDE: Series Graphic
Introduction
Introduction
Prayer
Prayer
Oh, Heavenly Father, I praise you for your wisdom and kindness in Christ that you would give us this stewardship of your grace.
Will you help us perceive the glorious truths of this gospel well, giving us deep insight into the mystery of how you are working in the world and this intersects with our own lives lives?
Would you help us to see the ministry of grace we participate in as the true treasure it is, captivating our imaginations with the unsearchable riches of Christ, so that we would gladly give our lives to live for your eternal purpose to magnify the greatness of your name among all people, and to celebrate your power and majesty to all the rulers and authorities?
You eternally reign over every living being, and we give our lives to declare your worth with every fiber of our being.
Amen.
Scripture Introduction
Scripture Introduction
This passage is largely a parenthesis running from verse 2 through verse 13. It’s a divinely-inspired digression flowing from Paul’s passion to help his readers—the churches in Ephesus and other surrounding areas—stay encouraged in their ministry as they are grieved about his suffering.
We see in verse 14 that Paul is praying for these Christians—that they be encouraged and strengthened in their faith in Christ Jesus. And as he begins, he reflects on what he’s just written (2:11-22, esp. 19-22) and sees his current circumstance in prison and begins overflowing with deep-seated desire to encourage them even more.
Scripture reading
Scripture reading
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1 For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— 2 assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3 how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. 4 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 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. 6 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.
7 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. 8 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, 9 and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, 10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. 13 So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.
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Proposition
Proposition
Through His grace, God has arranged every detail of your life to help you know Him more personally as you see Him more wonderfully through his working in the church, to help you proclaim his glorious salvation more fully.
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I. God sovereignly arranges every detail of your life to help you know Him more personally.
I. God sovereignly arranges every detail of your life to help you know Him more personally.
Through God’s grace, very detail of your life is intended by God to help you for you to glory in participating the salvation of others (yet to be revealed).
Paul knew Christ so well through his personal interaction with the Lord:
He persecuted Christ-followers - He persecuted the Lord (Ac 9). Listen to his own testimony:
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12 I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful, appointing me to his service, 13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, 14 and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 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.
As one who knows he is unworthy (7-8), Paul says that he is no mere prisoner. He is a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you/we Gentiles (1). In fact, he’s not even surprised by it because he expected it.
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22 And now, behold, I am going to Jerusalem, constrained by the Spirit, not knowing what will happen to me there, 23 except that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. 24 But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
11 And coming to us, he took Paul’s belt and bound his own feet and hands and said, “Thus says the Holy Spirit, ‘This is how the Jews at Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him into the hands of the Gentiles.’ ” 12 When we heard this, we and the people there urged him not to go up to Jerusalem. 13 Then Paul answered, “What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be imprisoned but even to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” 14 And since he would not be persuaded, we ceased and said, “Let the will of the Lord be done.”
Jesus made it clear that Paul was given a stewardship of grace for them (2)
Ac 9:25 the Lord to Ananias that Paul was “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.”
Notice the context for all of this. Knowing that God has arranged every detail of your life to help you know Him more personally, it is God’s intention that we:
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II. See Him more wonderfully through his working in the church
II. See Him more wonderfully through his working in the church
Paul’s ministry is primarily to the Gentiles, but in full view of both believing and unbelieving Jews. He’s arrested and imprisoned in Jerusalem and it’s the Jews who plot, and even lie to bring false charges against him. And believing Jews and Gentiles are working to help save Paul’s life.
When you see what God is doing in world through His church, you’ll see God more wonderfully.
I’m using the word “church” in its broadest sense, bringing together the Gk words:
ἐκκλησία” — called out and gathered
κυριακός — the Lord’s (from where we get the English word, “church.”
meaning "the Lord’s people, called out and set apart for him.”
God’s purpose for the church was revealed early but was veiled, or mysterious in how the Lord would carry it out until God saved Paul and set him aside for this very purpose.
In the OT, God made known to Abram his plans to bless those who believe through him in a broad sense.
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2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
And as this story unfolds incredibly throughout Genesis even we see God bringing about events through which God uses His people to bless other nations.
He confirmed it through the prophets:
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6 he says:
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob
and to bring back the preserved of Israel;
I will make you as a light for the nations,
that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”
and speaking again of nations as foreigners being enfolded into God’s people, Isaiah says...
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6 “And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord,
to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord,
and to be his servants,
everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it,
and holds fast my covenant—
7 these I will bring to my holy mountain,
and make them joyful in my house of prayer;
their burnt offerings and their sacrifices
will be accepted on my altar;
for my house shall be called a house of prayer
for all peoples.”
Now Paul connects the dots of this mystery: God’s progressive revelation for salvation (5-6), and “...that Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
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7 Know then that it is those of faith who are the sons of Abraham. 8 And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “In you shall all the nations be blessed.” 9 So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith.
Paul has the privilege of carrying this mystery of Christ, that there are now no geographical borders through which God blesses. God blesses through His people as His kingdom expands.
Through the church (10) God is displaying the manifold wisdom of God: that is something to be understood as wise, not foolish.
God gives wisdom. Paul prays Paul prays in 1:17 — that God would give us “....Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened (so this is wisdom of the mind and wisdom of the heart), that you may know (our mind/heart in faith) what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might that he worked when he raised Christ from the dead...”
This is God’s working in the church and when you see this, when you realize that you get to be a part of this because God has set you up to know him more personally as you see and engage with him more wonderfully through his working in the church, you want to give it all for the cause of Christ.
All of this is
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III. to help you proclaim his glorious salvation more fully.
III. to help you proclaim his glorious salvation more fully.
Paul is “made a minister”
according to the gift of God’s grace
He knows it is a gift b/c:
it was given to him — and it is given to you
God worked it (by the working of His power) in Paul. And, if you are in Christ, God worked it in you. You didn’t believe on your own. God opened the eyes of your heart
Someone prayed for you
Someone shared with you
And your belief was the work of God through the church
The Lord has given Paul, and has given you and me the privilege to carry out this ministry out in two broad categories:
To preach the unsearchable riches of Christ
εὐαγγελίσασθαι — the word from which we get “evangelize” but it’s so much more.
Sometimes people say, “I don’t want to preach at them, or be all preachy.”
I say, “Why not?” (I get that they usually mean preach at them…it’s more the attitude they speak of.)
When we preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, we herald like a town crier or we speak as a close friend
Both are passionate. Both are real and meaningful and urgent.
to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God
What is that plan?
God created all things for his glory
God has an eternal plan of redemption
Eternal purposes which are realized in Christ our Lord (or purposely brought about through the working of Christ our Lord)
To display his wisdom to the rulers and authorities
the spiritual forces in the heavenly realms: angels (good and evil), Satan,
rulers and authorities on earth — those who love God and those who hate him
everyone else on the planet — those who believe and those who are unbelieving
God is bringing this plan to light through Paul and through His children.
Paul realizes that you will proclaim his salvation more fully when you are confident in your relationship with Jesus. So he bolsters their confidence saying that God’s purposes are realized in Christ
in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.
Don’t lose heart
over what I am suffering for you
what I am suffering for you is your glory
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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. 7 Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort.
8 For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. 10 He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. 11 You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many.
Conclusion
Conclusion
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Proposition
Proposition
Through His grace, God has arranged every detail of your life to help you know Him more personally as you see Him more wonderfully through his working in the church, to help you proclaim his glorious salvation more fully.
Communion Preparation
Communion Preparation
Closing Prayer
Closing Prayer
Communion
Communion