Ephesians Part 7

Paul concludes the doctrinal portion of his letter not with further argument, but with prayer and worship. Having unfolded God's eternal purpose to unite Jews and Gentiles in Messiah, he now prays that this truth would move beyond intellectual understanding and become the lived reality of the believing community. Give a listen!

Transcript

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Welcome to the Messiah in Life podcast, hosted by Bishop Justin D. Elwell of Restoration Fellowship International and Messiah Congregation, recorded at our congregational home in Washington Mills, New York. In this study through Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, we invite you to rediscover the beauty of God's covenant purposes revealed in Messiah Jesus. Together, we will explore the theological and covenantal foundations of Paul's letter. It's called to unity, holiness, redemption, and covenant identity for both Jew and Gentile in Messiah. This is more than a theological study. It is an invitation to see the story of Scripture as one unified testimony of the Lord's faithfulness from Israel to the nations, all brought together in Messiah. Thank you for joining us as we seek to live Messiah in everyday life. And now to Bishop Justin.

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Okay, we are in Ephesians chapter 3. We're going to conclude the chapter today, beginning in verse 14. It's a beautiful conclusion, so let's jump right into it. The Apostle Paul writes, For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory, he might grant you to be strengthened with power through his spirit in your inner being. I'm sorry about that. So that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded, I wouldn't circle those, in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and the length and the height and the depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly, or exceedingly abundantly, which I kind of like that construction, then all that we may ask or think, I would underline that verse, that that particular clause, according to the power at work within us. To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. This is God's word. Yeah, we definitely need the rain here. Sorry, I'm just responding to something on the opportunity. So the Apostle Paul, just to bring back into what we we studied a little bit of the first half of the chapter of Ephesians 3, Paul is, of course, prisoner, but if you recall, Rome might be Rome might hold the chains, but Messiah is governing the situation. He has Paul exactly where he needs him to be. Paul never gave up hope. He never distanced himself from his calling, his vocation as an apostle, even though he was sitting in a prison cell. He was still on apostolic mission. Whether we are in a prison cell or we are in a hospital bed or we are walking freely, we are still on the mission that the Lord has set us to. He knows how he will fulfill it through us and what we may or may not look like at the end of it, right? We um we're still, no matter what, on his mission. So Paul concludes this doctrinal portion. Really, the first two and a half chapters are kind of doctrinally inclined. They're doctrinally, they're teaching us proper doctrine, proper perspective, who we are in the Lord, who we are in Messiah, who we are together, what we constitute, what all of us coming together constitute to his glory. And he but he doesn't give us further argumentation. From verse 14 on, he's not giving us for uh further argumentation, he's leading us to prayer and to worship. Uh he's unfolded this eternal plan, this mis this mystery, this mysterion, as we talked about before. He uses that several times in the first half of the chapter, that has now been revealed. And that is the unity that comes by faith in Messiah, by his redemptive work, as Jew and Gentile joined together, uh, as we, as I've said it in this way many times before, a healing of the judgment that came upon the Tower of Babel generation. As the Lord separated the nations, now in Messiah he brings the nations together, redeemed, to bring forth one new humanity. So he's turning, he's kind of turning this for us and explaining this powerful truth that moves beyond our intellectual understanding. Again, our faith in Messiah, our biblical faith, is not one that is grounded upon intellectual ascent. Okay, it's not dependent on intellectual ascent. That doesn't mean intellectualism is not part of it. That doesn't mean we can't intelligently engage the faith, but at the end of the day, it is, and as I explained it to in our men's discussion this morning, the how we come to faith in Messiah is as we look at this judgment. We are guilty. In heavenly places, we are guilty outside of Christ. We have a we have a judgment that isn't against us, it's a death penalty that is against us. But by the grace of God working in us through faith and Messiah, he has borne that punishment, he has taken that judgment. The judge is now being has been judged for us and on our behalf, and now we receive new new life and freedom in him. And that is a beautiful uh, you know, there's nothing that we add to it. All we brought to the table is the decree of death, right? Is the guilty verdict. That's what we bring. But what he gives in return for that when we turn to him is new life. And we have to be mindful of that. We have not brought anything to uh to this equ uh to this um uh to this formula that would add to or take away from what Christ has done. This is something between the Father and the Son that we receive the benefit of. So his concern, of course, uh Paul's concern is not just that we understand intellectually the mystery of God. You know, the Lord, of course, wants us to understand his word, but more importantly, he wants the relationship between us and him and us together. The relationship that glorifies him, and I'll talk about that in a moment. So we have to recognize that we've been inwardly transformed. We are not who we formerly were. We don't have to identify with who we formerly were, what we formerly have done, what we were addicted to, what we have shamed for, whatever it is in your personal experience, that no longer shapes or forms our identity. Our identity is completely shaped by faith and Messiah. Now, as Paul tells us in Romans 8 29, we're being conformed to the image of the Son, and in him we find our identity. We know who we are because of who Christ is, who Messiah is. So we bear that in mind. But we're being transformed by the Holy Spirit. Daily, we talked about this in the men's meeting this morning. Daily, we are being sanctified. We are experiencing how he is transforming us and daily setting us apart. So we're never not set apart to him, right? But we grow in relationship and in relationship to him. And he draws us closer. Or we become, well, I don't want to say he draws us closer. I think that would be slightly off. I think we become more aware of the relationship that we have, the depth that we have, as he, as Paul puts it, the the depth, the breadth, the length, and so on. So uh, of course, we're rooted, only people who are strengthened by the Spirit, rooted in the covenant love of Messiah, filled with the fullness of God, can truly embody the unity. The unity that is expressed through that one new man, of neither Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free male nor female, and then we can embody that truth, that powerful truth that we've learned about in the first three chapters. So the prayer today that we we're gonna look at is a literary and theological bridge. He is taking us from the theology of who we are, and as we'll see in chapters four, five, and six, it'll be the three, the theology of how we live. So one is the technical aspect, one is the practical aspect. What is it to walk worthy of our calling and Messiah? How do we walk worthily of him and in him? And that this is the bridge, this prayer that we read from 20 uh from 14 to 21. So the truths of these chapters are not just meant to inform the mind, although it does, obviously, because it forms our theology. Um they're meant to shape the life of the ecclesia, the outcalled of God. How we interact with each other, how we join with each other, how we view each other, how we live, how we live in the midst of the world, and so on. And that is a beautiful um truth for us to not only get our minds around, but also to get our hearts around, to get our lives uh living in unity with. So the grace that saves, the grace that saves, the peace that reconciles, the mystery that unites Jew and Gentile now and must now be expressed in community whose conduct reflects the call of the Lord. In congregation, we put theology to the test. We put our hearts to the test, we put our forgiveness to the test, we put our identity to the test, who we are in Him, who we are with each other, who how do we relate to each other? And I know that you all walk in deep forgiveness because of how much I irritate you every week. And glory to God. You have to exercise. I'm just helping you grow in forgiveness and grace. That's what my whole my whole job is. I'm glad. I'm glad for that. If I was doing a poor job, I'll try harder. So this is the the the um the direction. And that's why I've said so often, it would be very difficult to be an isolated uh saint or uh someone with a kind of lone wolf syndrome. Oh, I believe in in God, but I don't go to assembly, I don't congregate with other believers. I think that would be very difficult to uh articulate with a persuasive argument. So there it the chapter ends with this magnificent doxology, this glorification of the Lord. Uh it's both the climax of his theological exposition and the threshold, as I said, of the practical exhortations of how do we live this life of faith. So, beginning this chapter, we're going to see he turns from what the Lord has accomplished in Messiah. What has he accomplished? He brings us together. And now, how do we live in light of his accomplishment? How do we glorify him through our living faithfully unto him? Again, you didn't hear me say he lived perfectly, right? I've been hammering that nail for a while. We're not we're not ever going to be if you know the people go from congregation to congregation looking for the perfect congregation, not realizing that the moment they show up, that perfection is gone. Right? So we're not looking for perfection. You're never going to find it. We're not intended to, because if we were to arrive at some type of perfection in ourselves or with ourselves, we would not need him. Right? And because there's a continual need, we realize that we are imperfect, but we can walk in faithfulness with him. And I think that's what is expected of us. So the believer's walk is not an attempt to earn the Lord's favor. That's something we all need to remember. You are not going to be more, uh, you're not going to ingratiate yourself to the living God more now than you did before. We're not earning his favor. Oh Lord, if he would only grace me more, he'll just look at you and say, I've given you all the grace of uh of heaven. How much more do you need? So we have this grateful, we should have a grateful response in light of what he has accomplished, what he has done, what he is working continually in us and among us. But you have to be, you know, we have to recognize that we are among the redeemed, because we are redeemed, that we are reconciled, and that we are reconciling, that we're incorporated into the household of God. And that isn't just your local household of God, but it's his, as I'm gonna use this with a small C, not a capital C, so everybody cool your jets. The the the Catholic universal body of Christ. Okay. So everybody cool your jets. I wasn't telling you, never mind, I'll stop there. So we're not going to earn his grace. We are not intended to, or nor should we try to, because we'll get into legalism. When we try to earn grace, we we slide into a legalistic approach, and that will destroy. It has no choice. Because again, we will not we will never live up to our own expectations, neither will we live up to anyone else's expectations. Um the men's group's discussion this morning was phenomenal because we hit on a lot of these themes. Uh talking about judgment. Now imagine in a legalistic frame, if our eternal security, I know that's uh can be a naughty phrase, but if our salvation depended on us living up to our own expectations, how would we do? If we, you know, if the bar that we set, how would we do with that bar? We wouldn't do very well. So think about how we judge others according to that rather than according to scripture. So we have to be mindful that our particular viewpoint or our particular set of expectations might not be uh really worth a hill of beans, to say it politely. For by grace you have been saved. Where is our boasting? Our boasting is entirely in Messiah. We cannot boast in ourselves. We cannot say, you know what, the Lord, I'm the only person who is born again because of my merit. That's a very lonely club, and it's not a club that belongs in the kingdom of heaven. And too often I we're seeing again and again and again, there's another um kind of cultish organization. I don't remember you know what they're called. There's some some faction of Church of God. I'm not talking about the Church of God in Cleveland, but it's it's some faction, a church of God, very rigid, very legalistic, modern-day apostles. And all of a sudden it's been revealed that they're not perfect, that the leadership is not perfect. The leadership is uh proven to be uh somewhat corrupt, and there's uh financial impropriety. And so there was, you know, so we see that even those who set the bar and say, look at how how fine our clothing is, how beautiful our services are. Again, when we put the emphasis on ourselves, we fall short. Put the emphasis on ourselves, we replace Christ. We cannot go into that direction. So I want to clarify that's not the Church of God in Cleveland, Tennessee. It's not the church of God in prophecy, it's not the church of God Jerusalem Acres, it's not Church of God in Christ. I mean, you know, there's a lot of variations on that. So uh let's consider 14 through 19 first. So Paul, Paul begins this beautiful prayer. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father. Very Jewish um point of view here. Uh remember, the normal posture at this time for prayer was standing. So you prayed when you stand, when you or you stood when you prayed. In the synagogue today, that's called the Amida. So we stand to pray certain uh prayers, the Shemoneshra, the 18, which are actually 19 prayers. So he's it's a the in the Alainu prayer is a beautiful part of it. So he's saying, Mumodim, lifte melech amlachim, ha kado shvaruhu. So when we sing that, we actually bend at the bend at the waist, bend at the knee, bowing forward, we bow before the majesty of of the sovereign Lord who reigns forever and ever. Um and here he's for this reason. I bow my knees before the Father. For what reason? In verse 13, so I ask that you not lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. Now we'll talk about that in just a moment. For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father. So he is He is giving glory, he is standing humbly before the Lord, who has, in his sovereign will, taken Paul to this place. Again, uh Rome might have held the chains, but uh the Lord was uh governing Paul's direction, Paul's feet. So he bows in humility, he bows in dependence. So again, he's not sitting to pray, he's not kneeling to pray, he's standing to pray, and he bows before. So that you have you have the the prostration you have when we lay prostrate. That's not an Islamic thing, that was originally a Jewish thing. You lay flat before the Lord. Um, and then of course there's the posture of standing in prayer, and Paul is referencing that that I bow my knees before the Father. So I'm standing humbled at all that he's doing. He's looking at the mystery, the mystery of the Lord's redemptive plan, and he's bowing before that. So he's giving glory to the Lord. So the prayer is is remarkable, it's beautiful in its richness, we might say. So Paul is not asking primarily for a change of circumstance. He's not saying, Oh Lord, if you will remove me from these changes in this prison cell, I will bow before you. I think I said to you someone, Cheryl, maybe a little while ago, doing another hard, hard, hard workout um because I had been in such a horrible condition, absolute pain every day, from waking till sleep. It just my legs, my back, my shoulders, my head, constant chronic um headache, you know, just horrible. And I I said to the Lord in the middle of this hike, going up this hill, uh, Lord, when am I ever going to feel well again? And what he was really saying to me was, hey dummy, you have to sit still for a few weeks, you have to rest for a while, you have to get yourself back together. That's not the answer I wanted. I want to go and have fun. I'm I'm a type two, you know, I'm a type A personality with type two fun. I like the stuff that's miserable when you're doing it, but fun in hindsight. But it was also killing me. Really, it was killing me. That's not how I would order this. I would work harder, play harder, and expect to feel better. But the harder I worked, the harder I played, the worse I was feeling. Just the way the body mechanics. Mechanics and biometrics work, I guess. So, you know, it it's not how we want it to unfold. But we can still ask the question, because he'll give us the answer. My answer came on Sunday morning when I was sitting in the chair. We were supposed to go for a beautiful kayak. Renee still went for a beautiful uh bike ride, but we were supposed to go kayaking and out for the oh for the and I just I didn't have it in me. I didn't have it in me to stand, I didn't have it in me for the second cup of coffee. That's how miserable I was. I'm like, oh I'm dying here. So he gave me the answer. It just wasn't the one I was looking for. Anyone else ever experienced that before? No, not a single person in this room. Glory to God. Yeah. At 35. Yeah. Yeah. So he prays that uh we as believers might be, there's five points here, be strengthened through the Spirit, right? Reliance on the Holy Spirit and how he strengthens us. That uh we would have Messiah dwell richly within. So the the the beautiful thing when we when we look at this, um that Christ may dwell in your hearts, verse 17, through faith. Now he's already talked to us about Christ dwelling in our hearts, right? Dwelling in us and so on. Well, why does he revisit it here as if it's a new idea? Well, because relationally we need that reminder, we need that refreshing that yes, in fact, Messiah does dwell in us. We need to be reminded of that because it's the relationship that we are to have with him. It's not just meant to be the emergency lever that we pull when we're in trouble, it's to be a living relationship with him. So we're to be rooted and grounded in love, and I'll talk about that in just a moment. Uh, number four, comprehend the immeasurable dimensions of Messiah's love. If you find yourself in a place where you're saying in tears and wailing that Messiah doesn't love me, you haven't understood the depths and the breadth of his love. You're still learning because he does. He does. And then, of course, be filled with the fullness of God. So the progression moves from again inner renewal. He's recognizing that we are inwardly renewed, but also we have to be corporately mature. We have to have a living faith uh among the saints of God gathered. Again, this is where we prepare. This is where we are prepared for our mission field. This is not your mission field in here. This is this is uh you know, where we come to recruit, it's where we come to learn, it's where we come to be to be safe. That's why I've never really understood church splits, I've never understood some of the dynamic of the modern church, uh, you know, that comes largely from the customer is always right corporate model. Well, if you aren't doing what I want, I'm gonna go shop at another place. That I think is a sometimes there's legitimate, obviously, legitimate reasons. I've said that before. Legitimate reasons to leave a congregation, uh, doctrinal shift, biblical shift, no longer the word of God is no longer the um uh what's being ta uh taught, the it's being questioned, it's being disputed. I mean, uh, you know, there are legitimate reasons. Open sin is being condoned and so on, or the denominational government is um accepting of it, and is is that that is becoming the norm. I don't know why, but denominational bodies for some reason have continued to believe that if they reconcile with the broader culture that they'll be accepted, and the opp the the opposite thing happens. They empty not only the people but the congregations themselves. So that you you cannot make peace with sin. You cannot make peace with the world. I know that's hardline, I know that's orthodox, but that's the position that scripture takes. Um Paul combines this agricultural ministry, or excuse me, uh, imagery and uh architectural imagery, and it's kind of neat how he does it. He tells us being rooted, verse 17, that you being rooted and grounded in love. Those two words should stand out to us. We should hold those very seriously. Roots provide life, roots provide life. That's why he wants Psalm Psalm 1 is one of my favorites. Yes, I know I say Psalm 23. That's also one of my favorites. And I told the men's group this morning I have no need for Psalm 51. I've already graduated past that. No, just I'm teasing. People on uh people on the podcast are not gonna get that joke at all. Um, Psalm 51. Yeah, I might want to extrapolate or uh uh explicate that point a little bit. No, um I'm obviously joking. Um but roots provide life, they provide nourishment for the plant, for the tree, and so on. Foundations provide stability. So we are rooted in Christ. We are grounded in Christ. We're rooted in love, we're grounded in love. And love is both. Love is both the root and love is the foundation. So love is both. And that I think captures, um captures the idea of covenant faithfulness, of chesed, that the loving kindness of the Lord, the covenant faithfulness, the covenant kindness that he shows towards his people, uh, being rooted and grounded in love, captures that. And that's the the heart of the relationship that the Lord has with Israel throughout Israel's history. Um there are certainly periods in Israel's history where the Lord should not have shown Israel his kindness. Did you know the Babylonian exile was the Lord's kindness and his grace? He destroyed Israel, he destroyed Jerusalem, he took his people from the promised land into Babylon. But that was grace, that was kindness, that was correction. How do I say that? Because he could have, by his divine right, flattened Israel and the seed of Israel. But he didn't. And that's, you know, again, so we look at how he has worked that dynamic and apply that to your life. Yes, you may have sinned, you may have lost your temper, but that doesn't mean you're disqualified. Fall on his mercy, fall on his grace, trust in that, trust in the forgiveness that we receive through. Confess it. Because John tells us he is faithful to forgive. He is. He will. He has. He's just waiting for us to come to our senses most of the time. So this is his covenant kindness, his covenant love that he's showing to us. So the body, the ecclesia, the church of Messiah, can only remain united, and you can see where the errors have come in over the generations, when we are rooted and founded upon the covenant love revealed by God Himself. When we put our preferences above his truth, we're not glorifying the Lord. We think we are, but we're not. Yes, I've said, you know, there's some for whom organ music is the desirable means of worship. There's some that contemporary is the desirable means of worship. There are some who like a cappella, and that I think all of it is beautiful and all of it works if it's glorifying the Lord. If it's a concert, you can do concerts with organs, ladies and gentlemen. You can you can just have a concert soloist with an organ. People go to school for their master's degrees and doctorates and organ performance right down to Syracuse University, uh Sutner School of Music, they have that program. That can be a performance, a cappella can be a performance. What am I saying? It's our heart. Are we doing this intentionally toward the Lord? Are we glorifying Him through it? So can we sin a cappella? Can we sin with contemporary? Can we sin with an organ? Yes. So we need to always be directed and redirected towards the Lord Himself. So knowing this, Paul speaks paradoxically. He brings up this paradox that you know before our eyes. He he says, um, to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. To know but surpass knowledge. Right? You have know and knowledge. To know, but that it would surpass knowledge. He's too confusing. You can see why Peter said that Paul's writings were confusing. So how to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, it's not just see, to know hebraically, in the Greco-Roman mindset, to know is to gain knowledge of something. I know this is a well, this is a plastic water bottle and it has a an identifying wrapper around it that has its name and so on. I know this, but I don't hebraically know it. So hebraically knowing it would be to take the cap off, drink the water. So it's experiential. As much as it is to know intellectually, it is to know relationally. So we can learn there you can go to uh several divinity schools and study God in a scientific way and receive a degree at the end of it, and know things, but not know Him. That's part of the theological drift that's happened the last you know hundred years. So this is Paul is giving us classic Hebraic thought. Biblical knowledge is experiential rather than solely intellectual. Now that doesn't we we don't throw our brains away, we don't throw our intellect away, but we to yada something, to know something, that's the the uh defining characteristic of marriage, that they would know each other. Um and it's to be so close to to share breath, to be that close. And in the case of this water bottle, it's to drink what's contained in it. So we can you can study God's love endlessly. You can read about God. There have been so many books written about the love of God, you can read them endlessly, endlessly, know everything intellectually about it, and still not know the love of God because you haven't experienced it. And quite often as we experience it, it's not just something that happens inside of us. That's part of it. But it's also this love that we have as brethren in Christ that we can't explain. We can't explain. It's a love between the brethren that doesn't come because, you know, everybody knows I like Michael more than Joe. That's that's not what this is, right? It's not. But he's right behind you. So be careful. Now I like Joe more than Michael. Um but that's the you know, but that's that's not it. You know, it's the love that we have that honestly doesn't make any sense. Quite often we have a love for the brethren that even exceeds our love for our family. You know, because there is it's the recognition of the Spirit of God that is in us. Now, if our family's believers, obviously that includes them. But it it's not something we can rationally always uh express. But it is something that, you know, uh to go back to Joe to, you know, he came in, and I would say within five minutes, you were home. I'll be honest with you. You were like it was like you were here for years. You know, there was a peace, there was a connection, there was a familiarity, there was a comfort that does not make rational sense. Well, y'all know you gotta, you know, we gotta put you in the corner for a few months to get to know you. Um but that's the spirit of God, and that's the love of God that's working inside of him, that's working inside of us, that's working with us together. Now that I've got myself out of that hole, I'll find the next one. I can do it. I can do it. Hey, glory to God. So um we we can study the love of God endlessly, but the fullness can only be encountered through relationship with Messiah. So the astonishing thing in verse 19, when we read verse 19, um the second part of the sentence, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God. What is this a reference to? The temple. So Paul's prayer here is very Jewish. He starts with bending the knee. That's what you did as you prayed before the Lord. So he's imagining standing and making this prayer before the Lord Himself, but also that we are standing here in the fullness of God, but also that the fullness of God is in us. Why? Because I don't want to jump ahead of myself. Let me lay my thought out rationally here. So he did he develops this temple imagery, uh, or he draws back to it. He's recalling it that he kind of developed in in chapter two. So God's fullness uh no longer resides in some sacred space over there, right? Imagine if you're you only imagined the fullness of God could reside in the Jerusalem temple, which has been destroyed for 2,000 years. And that's you know, Paul is helping us to understand that the temple has shifted. The temple that the Lord is building is the temple of his people, not only in us individually, but all of us corporately. Because now the fullness of God dwells in us, Father, Son, and Spirit, just as the fullness of God was incarnated in Christ, the Spirit of God who now dwells in us. Remember, this, you know, the Holy Spirit is the Lord, right? And now the manifest presence is not only in us individually, but all of us together, right? And it's a beautiful, beautiful image. And it fulfills that prophetic hope that we read of in Ezekiel with the third temple, and the image of the renewed temple that comes. And I think that Paul is drawing on that hope for that the that the Ecclesia of God, the the uh saints of God and in Messiah now see themselves as this renewed, but it's not just isolated by geography or territory, it's now around the world. So it's a beautiful image for us to grab a hold of. Uh Paul concludes uh with a doxology in 20 and 21, now to him who is able to do far more abundantly or far exceedingly abundantly, or more abundantly, however you want to say it, than all that than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within where? Over there, right? That's only the power of the work being done over there. No, it's right here. It's with us, within us. To him be glory in the church and in Jesus Christ or Christ Jesus through all generations, forever and ever. Amen. That's a very uh Jewish way of concluding the prayer. So when we think of this, Paul concludes with this great doxology, perhaps one of the greatest in the New Testament, glorification of God. Um it's not optimism. He's not being optimistic. He's not said, you know, when I was born again, uh before that I was a pessimist. Now I've become an optimist. He's not saying that. So he's not relying on optimism. He's relying on God's covenant faithfulness. And that's what he's directing us to. It's confidence in the one who saved us. It's confidence in his word. It's confidence that he will fulfill his promise. It's confidence that, yes, you know what, and I'm I've I've received uh from a number of uh from a number of colleagues who read an article I wrote about being faithful in the acre, the acre that the Lord is entrusted to us. Quite often we we become we look at what the Lord is doing everywhere else and we wonder, why on earth doesn't he have me doing this? Why doesn't he have me doing that? Why am I not here? Why am I not there? Um because he's entrusted each of us with something specific, our acre, right? That we are that we are to tend to. So when we think about how the Lord has historically demonstrated his faithfulness, his power beyond our expectation, and what he can have us do. Yes, we might only see our acre as this small little insignificant thing, but when we draw out and we see that our acre is part of the fullness of what the Lord is doing through redemptive history, that puts much greater emphasis, much greater value. It's not insignificant. Nobody is doing anything insignificant in the kingdom of God if we're faithful to what he has set us to. So we um so we we we we look at that. So I'm sorry, emails. When we think about how the Lord has demonstrated uh his faithfulness, he's demonstrated his kindness that exceeds our expectation, the Exodus. Think of the Exodus. Did the Lord have to do the pen plagues? He had a theological reason to do it, but couldn't he have just said, hey, next Tuesday morning, six o'clock, be out front. We're walking out. If you're not there, you there's no other bus. We have the Exodus that far exceeded when he gave the when he gave the promise to take his people out, when he gave it to Abraham, I will take your descendants out. That's all we're thinking of. He's gonna take us out. We didn't think of everything else he would do to take us out. The return from exile. I love, you know, I think it's on the building here somewhere. Um, I will give you a future and a hope, right? And we grab a hold of that and we take hold of it, and it's beautiful. I love it, I rely on it. But it was given to people at the beginning of the exile who might not see the end of the exile. So the future and the hope isn't necessarily what happens here, but what happens eternally. We're part of that, right? The coming of Messiah. Why wouldn't the Messiah just the heavens open and here he comes? Why didn't he just do that? Because he exceeded our expectation by incarnating the deity, the fullness of the Godhead bodily, into this child who came through this young girl who grew, who matured, who lived in the promised land. That exceeds our expectations, right? We think of, you know, that would be that would that would be a way that we would make the hero arrive, right? So we need to remember he's not doing these things according to our design. So Paul declares that God's work among the Gentiles, among the Jewish people. The one new man exceeds anything that we could have. Designed for the plan of redemption. I'll tell you. In first century, in the first century, Roman Empire, the first century Judea, first century wherever they were in the empire, the idea of the God of Israel bringing together Jew and Gentile as one in Messiah and his son, that was not on the on the scorecard. That was not on my, you know, on anybody's radar. Yeah. That was not. That's why Paul took such abuse from this one and this one. They're like, what are you nuts? What's wrong with you? And he's like, no, look at Zachariah, look at Isaiah. This was prophesied. Look at the promise to Abraham. The Lord gave the gospel to Abraham in chapter 12. It's right there. The Lord gave us the gospel in the Exodus when the Eravrov, the the uh the mixed multitude comes out with the children of Israel. It's right there. And they're like, yeah, that was then, but this is now. Great. Now I got a monkey song in my head. Anyway, I'll move along from this. So now Paul declares that this work is bringing glory to him and exceeding our expectations. What does he say? To him be the glory in the church and in the Saiyeshua throughout all generations. So notice this inseparable group: glory in Messiah, glory in the church. What is what is he talking about here? The church exists, the body of Christ exists to give glory to God. Yeah, us is the church. We exist to give glory to God. So that's not only with our word, but it's with our lives, it's with our living. Not only with each other, but our testimony out in the street. You know, one of my one of my qualifications uh in order to be nominated to even be uh to be a bishop was that I had to have a good reputation in the community, not just in the church houses, not among just those who are in but also in the wider community that I live. What is what is what are the what is testimony of people that interact me with it at at the store, at the grocery store or at the transfer station or whatever? What is their testimony about that jerk that comes in here and treats us unkindly? What's their you know? So how do that glorifies him? You know, we make sure that we bless those even who don't know him. Why? Because we're radiating, reflecting his glory. So in the church and in Messiah, what we present about Messiah as well. So Ephesians 3, and I'll kind of bring it to a close pretty quick here, uh, invites believers, invites all of us to see our lives within the grander scheme, the grander vision of God's eternal purpose. So we've already talked about this, how the Lord has, in order to glorify himself, it's not to glorify a people group, but how he has brought Jew and Gentile together as one new man. That glorifies him, that confounds man. It doesn't glorify us because A, we struggle enough with it, and we could never have come up with it, and how Gentiles that Paul has dealt with this anyway, are joint heirs, co-heirs, fellow heirs, but not replacements. So again, the the unity of the church, the unity of the brethren within the church is a witness to heavenly. We talked about this last week, but is a witness to the heavenly powers, to the principalities, powers, and world rulers of the present darkness. It's a witness that the Lord is working among his people. Us together, worshiping together, living together, fellowshipping together, studying the word together, whatever it is, it's witnessing in heavenly places. What we do here in this natural life witnesses to the spiritual that Christ has come, that Messiah has come. And then we talked about suffering. Last week we talked about suffering. Paul leads into this prayer beautifully with a reference back to his suffering. Suffering for the gospel is not evidence of failure, but it is the cost of discipleship. We will share in the sufferings of Messiah. Not because we're being unkind or uncharitable, but because the truth of Messiah, to those who are in sin, will bring out the worst of humanity. And sometimes when we have a sin in ourselves, heaven forbid, the reality of Christ's truth, of who he is in us, will cause us to act out, will cause us to be uncharitable. Why? So that we can be damned from it? No. So that the Lord can work on that part of ourselves. We need to work on forgiveness. We need to let go of unforgiveness. Unforgiveness will destroy you. It will. It has no choice because it's not co it it cannot cohabitate with the Holy Spirit. So Paul claims, um, or Paul's chains, I should say, remind us that reconciliation, dear friends, always has a cost. And in forgiveness, forgiveness is not for you to be victorious. Forgiveness is for you to suffer the loss. Because you have to let it go. You have to excuse. Why? Because the Lord has excused the inexcusable in you. Right? So even through chains, Paul gives us this incredible message of the love of Messiah, the faithfulness of Messiah. So we hold on to that. So Paul can concludes chapter three, and the theological foundation that he's laid, leading us to this practical exhortation that begins in the next chapter. Um, so the mystery has been revealed, the household has been established. We are rooted and grounded in the love of Christ. Root, of course, giving us life. The foundation is what we rest on. What do we rest on? The faith of the apostles and prophets with Christ as the cornerstone. So the temple's being built. We're being built up into a temple, a habitation of praise for the Lord. So the love of Messiah has become the foundation of the new covenant community with Jews and Gentiles, working together without denying the faithfulness of God to Israel or the gracious inclusion of the nations. One does not dismiss the other. And unfortunately, it's becoming very popular today to take a position that would oppose that statement. That's scripture. We can argue all we want against scripture, but the eternal word of God will always win out. We'll be dust. And the word is living and will abide forever. So Paul prepares to move from doctrine to discipleship. We need proper doctrine. That's, I am a firm believer in that. That's why I teach the Word of God the way that I do. That's why I disciple the way that I do. We make sure that our doctrine is as lined up with Scripture as we can. And we make adjustments when we find out we're in error or we have an error. But he's moving us to discipleship. How do we live this faith? So having shown believers who they are in Messiah, one, two, and three, are showing you who you are, he will now exhort them and us to walk in a manner worthy of the calling of God. So the church is not, is not only a gathering of forgiven individuals. We are, but that is not our most defining feature. We are the visible manifestation of God's eternal wisdom, a reconciled people indwelt by the Spirit, rooted in the love of Messiah, and called to display his glory. His glory, not our glory, his glory, until the day when all things are fully united under his righteous reign. I had to read that as I wrote it. That's who we are. We come together because we've been forgiven, and then we radiate his glory and his wisdom and his plan, not our own. So we'll conclude uh chapter three, and then uh next we'll move on to chapter four. So hallelujah.

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Amen. Thank you for studying with us, and until our next episode, may the Lord bless and keep you all in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.