Thank you guys for leading us again, Jake, good to have you back and to see you. Good morning to everyone. Good morning. I was reminded this morning what Pastor Krenz used to always say when everybody went to Florida; he said, only the cowards leave.

Well, we're studying Ephesians and we're in chapter 3, verses 1 to 13, continuing our study on Sunday mornings. We've been learning about the great truths of who we are in Christ and the salvation plan that God is manifesting through the church. Paul briefly began to teach us about the truth that in Christ, in the church, we are one body, that Jew and Gentile are one, no longer separated by the law and the old covenant, but one body in the church.

In our text today, Paul's going to expand on this truth, what he calls a mystery revealed, never taught about in the Old Testament time. He wants for us to understand this great mystery, this truth now revealed, so that we might know God's intention for unity in the body and that we might experience and manifest this unity in the church in Christ.

As we learned last time in our study, there was a division between Jew and Gentile up until this point, created primarily through the law covenant. In the times of the patriarchs, God made a promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the promise was partially of a great nation that would come through their lineage. We see this come to pass in the twelve sons of Jacob who became the twelve tribes of Israel.

God chose out a people for Himself in order to manifest His glory, to know Him, to see His power, to be witnesses to all the nations that men might come to Him in faith and be saved. God always intended salvation for the Gentiles, but this happened in the Old Testament when Gentiles became proselytes to Judaism. Israel was to be a city on a hill, a light to the world, a holy and separate people who showed the world who the one true God is through their life, words, and witness. 

This was God's plan in choosing Israel, and many, many times we see God glorified. We see that the men and nations of this world know that He is the Lord by the events that happened through the nation He chose. Think of the exodus out of Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, the destruction of Pharaoh and the armies of Egypt. Think of the battles that Joshua fought at Jericho and leading the people into the land, driving out the nations from before them, David, Solomon, and on and on.

It was through these great interventions of the power of God and His grace displayed through the nation of Israel that the Gentiles knew that Jehovah was the one true God. We see this all the way back in the time of Daniel with Nebuchadnezzar. 

I want you to turn to Daniel chapter 4 with me, Daniel 4.28. It says, "...all this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. At the end of the twelve months, he was walking about the royal palace of Babylon. The king spoke, saying, Is not this great Babylon that I have built for my royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty? While the word was still in the king's mouth, a voice fell from heaven. King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken, the kingdom has departed from you, and they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen, and seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever he chooses. 

That very hour the word was fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar. He was driven from men and ate grass like oxen. His body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hair had grown like eagle's feathers, and his nails like bird's claws. And at the end of the time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted my eyes to heaven, and my understanding returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored him who lives forever. For his dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom from generation to generation. All the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing. He does according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. No one can restrain his hand or say to him, What have you done? 

At that same time, my reason returned to me, and for the glory of my kingdom, my honor and splendor returned to me. My counselors and nobles resorted to me. I was restored to my kingdom, and excellent majesty was added to me. Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and his ways justice. And those who walk in pride he is able to put down." 

God was glorified by this Gentile pagan king, and many believe that he became a believer in Jehovah at this time, and this very much, think about this, through the testimony and witness of who? Daniel. 

In the promise given to Abraham, we also see a promise of Messiah, and this deliverer would also bring a blessing to all nations. So it was always God's intent to bring salvation to the Gentiles, and that was His original intent for Israel, to be a light to the world, to draw the nations to God. But Israel always went astray in their hearts, and they were a stiff-necked and rebellious people. When the promised Messiah came, they did not receive Him, they did not believe Him, they rejected Him, and crucified Him.

What we see now in the church age is that God has cut a new channel of blessing, a new means of glorifying Himself, showing that He is Lord of all, and bringing Gentiles and Jews to salvation through the witness and testimony of His people. The church is a mystery, never before revealed in the Old Testament to the prophets, and there are many mysteries included in the revealing of the church in the New Testament. But perhaps one of the greatest of these is the truth that the church is a body, one body in Christ, consisting of all kinds of men, Jew and Gentile, and everyone who believes. We are not part of Israel; we are not proselytes to Judaism. God has created in the church an entirely new thing and an entirely new man, Jew and Gentile, one man, a new creation in Christ. 

This is the mystery that we will explore today in our text and that Paul wants so much for us to know, understand, and believe. Let's look at our text, Ephesians 3.1. For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery, as I have briefly written already, by which when you read you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power. 

To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God, who created all things through Jesus Christ, to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him. Therefore I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.

I've given you five points on your outline: first, a prayer begun; second, the mystery revealed; third, one body in Christ Jesus; fourth, a preacher of the mystery; and fifth, an express intent. 

Well first we see in our text a prayer begun, and this is interesting. Look at verse 1 with me. Paul says, "...for this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for you Gentiles." For you Gentiles what? Where's Paul going here? As we mentioned before, Paul had briefly taught us about the mystery back in chapter 2 at verse 11. He taught us about how the middle wall of separation had been broken down, abolishing the enmity, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, and he created in himself one new man from the two, thus making peace. 

He's reconciling them both to God and to men. He says we're being built together, a house, a dwelling place for the Spirit. He just expounded on the great truths of Jew and Gentile in one body, one new man in Christ, the mystery revealed in the church, and having sprung this great and vital truth upon our consciousness, he is inspired to pray, to pray that we might grasp these things, take them for ourselves, and know, understand, and apply them for God's glory in the church, and that's exactly what he starts to do in verse 1 of chapter 3. 

"...for this reason," those things he just told us, "...I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles." He starts to pray, but his prayer is interrupted by his own thoughts, thoughts that he must expand on the teaching, make it more clear before he prays for our understanding. And that's what verses 2 to 13 are, a parenthesis whereby he more fully explains what he already began to teach us in chapter 2. Now look at verse 14 and we see the same expression. As Paul picks up where he left off in verse 1, "...for this reason," he's telling you, I'm going back to where I was in verse 1 now, "...for this reason what? I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." He's going to pray for us, for our understanding. 

And that amazing prayer follows that the believers may know and understand and believe the great truths of who we are and what we have in Christ in the church and our purpose to bring glory to God. So first we see a prayer begun, but we don't see the prayer until next time when we study verses 14 to 21 together. But for our text for today, Paul wants to be sure that we understand what God is doing in the church and for what purpose, the essence of the mystery revealed.

Look at verse 2 again. He says, "...if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which was given to me for you, how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery, as I have briefly written already," referring to chapter 2, "...by which when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets." 

Well, the word translated dispensation is oikounomia, oikou meaning house and nomos meaning law. It speaks of the administration of a household. Paul says that God, by His grace, has given to Paul an administration, to be the one who administers the gospel to the Gentiles. He says it was given to be by God for you, for the Gentiles. 

In Romans 11.13, Paul says, "...for I speak to you Gentiles, and as much as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry." First Timothy 2.7, "...for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle, I am speaking the truth in Christ and not lying, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth." Second Timothy 1.11, "...to which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher of the Gentiles." So Peter was sent as the apostle to the Jews; Paul was sent as the apostle to the Gentiles. He was given a dispensation. He was given an administration. He was called by God to be the apostle to the Gentiles to bring to the nations the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

He explains in verses 2-3 that it was by revelation that God gave him, called him, and gave to him the knowledge of the mystery of which he now speaks. Let's look at Galatians chapter 1. Paul expands on this a little bit there in Galatians 1. In verse 1 he writes, "...Paul, an apostle, not from men nor through man, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised Him from the dead." 

Now look down to verse 11. He says, "...but I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man, for I neither received it from man nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ. For you have heard of my former conduct in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God beyond measure and tried to destroy it, and I advanced in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nation, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers. But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me through his grace to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, nor did I go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me, but I went to Arabia and returned again to Damascus. Then after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and remained with him fifteen days." 

Paul says, "...to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles." Jesus gave this revelation to Paul personally and taught him in Arabia. So we see that Paul was chosen to bring the message of the gospel to the Gentiles, and in this, we find the mystery revealed. Ephesians 3, 4, "...by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit and His holy apostles and prophets." 

What is the mystery? That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel. We see in these verses a couple of crucial truths for our understanding. First, notice in verse 9 that Paul makes clear that this mystery has been hidden in ages past from the beginning of the ages. He says that up above as well. And this is important for us to note because it tells us that the church was never before revealed. 

You'll remember from our previous studies on covenant theology and reform doctrine that it's taught in those circles that the church existed in the Old Testament. That Israel is the church and that the church is Israel, one people of God throughout God's revelation under the covenant of grace. But what we see here so clearly is that the church is something different than the nation of Israel. That the church was never before revealed in the Old Testament. In fact, from the beginning of the ages, the church was unknown in God's revelation until He gave this knowledge to Paul and commissioned him to take this good news to the world and to explain these things to the believers fully.

We also see in these verses that the mystery is revealed. It's Jew and Gentile in one body in the church. As we said before, it's not a new revelation that salvation would come to the nations. Gentiles were saved in the Old Covenant time throughout the Old Testament revelation of God. In addition, the promise was made all the way back in Abraham that the promised Messiah would be a blessing, bringing salvation to all men, to every nation. 

The new revelation here that Paul is teaching, that was given to him, and this is key, is that the church is something entirely new. That Jew and Gentile would not only each experience salvation by grace through faith, but that Jew and Gentile would become one new man in Christ in the church. 

You see, the whole teaching here in the new revelation is that the church is something different than Israel, that the church is distinct and a new work of God. The church is not Israel, the church does not replace Israel, she does not assume the promises or the curses of the nation found in the Old Testament. The church is something new, never before revealed, and in this church age, God takes Jew and Gentile, slave or free, male or female, any and all who believe in Jesus, and makes one new man in Christ. 

This is what God is doing now in the church, and it's a wonderful work of God's grace, an amazing revelation. It does not mean that God is done with Israel; it does not mean that He will not fulfill those promises. But now in this time, God has turned primarily to the Gentiles and is saving every man who believes in Jesus and placing him into His body, the church, and this through the preaching of the gospel to all creatures.

Perhaps Romans 11 will bring some clarity here. Let's look at Romans 11. Speaking of Israel, Paul asks in Romans 11, 11, "I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall?" And his answer is, "Certainly not. But through their fall, in order to provoke them to jealousy, salvation has come to the Gentiles." 

"Now if their fall is riches for the world and their failure riches for the Gentiles, how much more their fullness. For I speak to you Gentiles, and as much as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry, if by any means I may provoke to jealousy those who are my flesh and save some of them. For if their being cast away is the reconciling of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? For if the first fruit is holy, the lump is also holy, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. 

And if some of the branches were broken off, and you being a wild olive tree were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree, do not boast against the branches. But if you do boast, remember that you do not support the root, but the root supports you." 

Let's stop here for a second, because this is a most amazing revelation for understanding. We've talked about this many times. You do not support the root, but the root supports you. Paul's talking about the progression of God's salvation plan here. He made promises to Abraham of a nation, of a land, of a blessing to all nations through his seed. Now the nation came through Isaac and Jacob, and the land promise is yet to be fully fulfilled, and the fulfillment of a blessing of all nations came through the seed, Jesus Christ, as explained in Galatians 3. 

We are seeing that fulfillment in the church. We are blessed out of the covenant made with Abraham and the new covenant as prophesied by Ezekiel and Jeremiah, quoted in Hebrews 8 and applied to the church. We are supported by the root. He speaks here of the promises to the patriarchs, the covenants made with them, the promises to Abraham, the new covenant prophesied in the Old Testament. God never made a covenant with Gentiles. 

But this in no way means that Israel has been cast away or has fallen to the point that God has done with the Jews. Israel, the natural branches on this tree, were cut off because of unbelief, and we were grafted into the fatness of the olive tree. That means the base, the root, through faith. 

I don't know if I told you that before, but I saw a meme the other day, and it was one of these people, these Christians who were wanting to go back to the old covenant and the Jewish thing. They showed the base of the tree, and it showed the stump of Israel, and then it showed a stump of the church, and this stump was driven and wedged down into the stump of Israel. There's no stump in the picture here. We're branches. The fatness and the root are the promises, and we are partakers of that covenant in blessing.

We're blessed out of the covenant made with Israel, according to Hebrews 8 and many other passages. We experience now, because of the unbelief of Israel when the Messiah came and now a turning to the Gentiles in order to provoke them to jealousy, we experience in the blessings what I call a pre-fillment of that full and final fulfillment that will happen in Israel when those promises made to Israel are fulfilled, but we now experience a pre-fillment. 

In other words, we are in the new covenant time now, because Jesus instituted the new covenant in His blood at the Last Supper. Those promises prophesied of a new heart and a new spirit and the Holy Spirit permanently indwelling us—all of those things are ours now in the church. 

What's he saying in verse 23 of Romans 11? "And they also, Israel, if they do not continue in unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut out of the olive tree, which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?" 

How much more full will it be when the people to whom the promises were given believe the Messiah and receive Him and experience those blessings? For I do not desire, verse 25, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. 

And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written, the Deliverer will come out of Zion; He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob, for this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins. Concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers." Look at verse 29, "for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable."

What a statement, what a promise. The gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. This is true for the unconditional promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and it's also true for the promises that God has made to us in Christ. We can know and trust that God will keep His promises. 

So we see in our text that the mystery that was always hidden, never revealed, is revealed to Paul who has made it known to us, and that this mystery is the church whereby God has made one new man in one body from Jew and Gentile, and this by taking away the law covenant and instituting the new covenant, out of which we are blessed by grace through faith. 

And that this one body, one new man in the church, is revealed by the preacher of the mystery, Paul the Apostle. God has called him by His grace for this very purpose. Now the last important truth that I want you to see in our text, and I want for you to understand about the church, is that God has done this great and amazing work of grace with an express intent, and that intent is for His glory. 

Ephesians 3.6, he says that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body, partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power. To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ. 

Look at verse 10, "to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him." 

It's so easy to read right over these things, but here we see why God is doing what He's doing in the church. And this truth brings an amazing fullness to our understanding and I think a life-changing perspective on our lives now. 

In 2 Corinthians 5.14, Paul said, "for the love of Christ compels us because we judge thus that if one died for all, then all died," like Mark was talking about in Romans 6 this morning. "All died, and He died for all, why? That those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again." 

As a believer in Jesus Christ, one saved and regenerated by the grace of God, by the sacrifice of Christ, experiencing these new covenant blessings, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, the power of the life of Christ in us, the hope and promise of eternal life now and forever, what is it that I should be living for? What should my life be about? 

It seems to me that there's a lot of confusion about this in the church today, and in the message that so many are preaching to the world and to believers. We hear so often in the modern evangelical church that salvation is all about me. It's not about God and His glory. Come to Jesus and He will fix the many problems of your life in this world. Your health, your marriage, your finances—Jesus will make your life better. 

This is not the gospel, my friends. It's not what Paul preached. It's not a promise we find in the Scriptures. It is true that when we come to faith in Jesus, we find hope, we find peace, we find abiding joy, but we most often do not find better circumstances of life. Jesus did not come to give us a better, more comfortable, trouble-free life. 

In fact, the promise of the Bible is that those who believe Jesus will suffer. Paul most certainly did. Who was more faithful than Paul? What did he suffer continually, always, wherever he went, ending in the removal of his head from his body for his witness? No, the message of the gospel is not first and foremost about me, and the promise for me in the gospel is one of deliverance from the wrath of God for my sins, not health and wealth and ease of life in this cursed world. 

And the purpose of our life now in this world is not to live for ourselves, not to gain all I can in material wealth or power or influence. Even Jesus said as our example that He did not come to be served, but to serve and to give His life a ransom for many. We are to follow His example of humble service, obedience to, and trust in the Father in all of our suffering, all of our circumstances. 

And we are to remember that He died for us and we died with Him for the express purpose that we might now live for Him. The amazing truth that we see in our text is that God intends in the creation of the church of Jew and Gentile in one body, to manifest His glory, to make His manifold wisdom known to the principalities and powers according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. 

God's plan is the church. We are His plan, but His plan is much bigger than us, much more important than our carnal wants and desires, our pleasant circumstances, our comfortable living. His plan is for His glory manifest in the church. 

Paul started our text by praying, or starting to pray. Let's look at his prayer in verse 14 and see what his prayer is for us who have now received this knowledge. 

"For this reason, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from 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 through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. 

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, look at verse 21, what's all this for? The power of the Holy Spirit, the life of Christ in us, the regenerated Spirit in our inner man, the power of God working through us, the very power that raised Jesus from the dead. Why? "To Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever, amen." 

God's intent in creating the church and saving you is to make you like Jesus, to save you from sin and death and hell, to release you from the bondage of the law of covenant and the bondage to fear of death, to regenerate you and give to you all things that pertain to life and godliness. Why? So that you might live a new life, that you might be conformed outwardly to the likeness of Christ, so that you, so that the church, might bring glory to God and make known His manifold wisdom to the principalities and powers. They're watching; they're observing what God is doing in our lives, in the body, in the church. 

His power, His grace, His wisdom are manifest in what He has done in and for us and the changed lives we live as a result. And Paul closes this section in this way, commenting on this really. Therefore, he says, "I ask that you do not lose heart at my tribulations for you, which is your glory." 

He wrote this letter from prison. Don't worry about my circumstances. Don't worry that I'm a prisoner because of my testimony for Jesus, the preaching of the gospel of Christ. He says these tribulations are for you. They are consistent with my calling, the administration God gave to me by His grace. This is your glory, your salvation, your new life, your transformation for His glory. This is what comes of my ministry for which I am in chains. 

Like he says to the Corinthians in 2 Corinthians 3, "You are our epistle." You're being read by all men. This is what his ministry was about. What Paul is saying is what he has said to the church in Rome: "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed." And these sufferings are for the church because of the ministry that Paul so faithfully exercised. He wanted to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He wanted to do nothing but declare the whole counsel of God to every believer in every church. 

These are profound truths we see in our text this morning. The mystery revealed: Jew and Gentile, one new creation in Christ in the church. We must understand that this is all—each of us individually in our lives—in a new creation and Jesus living in us and living in the world and the church as a whole. This is all for God's glory. We live for Him who died for us. 

Closing prayer. Father, we're so thankful that you just continue to teach us. You're so patient. You teach us a thousand different ways, but mostly you teach us through your Word. Help us to know your Word, to understand these things rightly, to put them all together. Help us to believe what you say. As Mark said this morning, that we're dead to sin—we may not feel like it, it may not be our experience. Help us to believe you, to trust you, and then to depend on you and your power to live a life worthy of our calling. To understand all of those indicative truths but then to apply them in the imperative commands to live a life in consistency with who we are for a witness in this world and most for your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.