New Revelation

Good morning. It's amazing how today news is such a topic of news, especially fake news. We wonder when we see a story, is it true? And one of the things we always want to do is, okay, who's giving this story? Are they reliable? And we have the opportunity and we have the ability to do a lot of fact-checking. So it's something whenever I see news, I immediately second guess it typically. I want to go back and I want to research something especially important. I bring that up because I don't think that's necessarily new to us. I believe there's something in all people at all times that makes us skeptical and that's probably because there's a lot of people who are deceptive. And this morning, we're going to be looking at news, right? We're thinking about a specific piece of news And we're going to think about Paul and how he's defending himself as the source of that news. If you're listening as Heather read the passage, Paul is going to talk about himself a lot in this text. He's trying to declare how reliable the news is that he's stating. And it's important that he does this. Because Paul is giving us good news. Paul's giving us the kind of news that just doesn't inform us about something happening somewhere else. Paul's giving us the kind of news that changes everything about us. Paul's giving us news that's going to change what you value, what you prioritize. It's going to change every relationship you have. Especially the relationship you have with God. And so as we've gone through Ephesians chapter 1 verse 3 through chapter 2 verse 10, that was really a grand declaration of all the good news. This is what God has done. And then chapter 2 verse 11 addresses a very specific issue. How Jews and Gentiles, two people who were at one time hostile, but now have become together. They're one new man in Jesus Christ. There's a significant change that Paul is expecting to happen. And so to back up the news that this new charge is dependent upon, he talks about how he now knows of this news. So this morning we're going to look at this text a little differently than we often do. Typically I try to walk through verse by verse in order. This morning I'm going to try to do more reasoning from the text. Because Paul kind of circulates through a few themes. So I want to just go through and pick up some of these themes and walk through the theme together. And the first thing I want us to do is look at for this reason. Chapter 3, verse 1, Paul is clearly continuing an argument. Well, what did he just say? Let's look back at chapter 2, verse 19. So then, You're no longer strangers and aliens, but you're fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit. There's a few things that Ephesians keeps coming back to. One is what we have in Christ. If you mark in your Bibles, go through, take an hour to read Ephesians. It should take you no more than an hour. And go through and underline every time there's a reference to in Christ, through Christ, with Christ, and in Him, and through Him, and with Him. All those references to somehow union with Christ. They're throughout the text. They're especially in chapter 1, where we focus on that theme, but here you see again, verse 22, in Him. Verse 21, in whom. There's a great blessing we have in Christ. This is a new identity. So this is the reason Paul is going to defend his apostleship. This is the reason Paul is going to explain how he got the news. It's because that news is that you're now in Christ. You no longer have guilt. You're no longer guilty of all the sins before God that you've committed. You're now a child of God, which means God is always with you and for you. There's no reason to fear. It means that you are now united with other brothers and sisters, believers, committed together in a covenant to live together, to grow together. These are the words that come out of the For This Reason text. You're being built up. You're growing into a structure. You're actually growing into a holy temple. This picture, verse 19 through 22, is quite a grand vision of the church. A temple. Christ being the cornerstone. A dwelling place for God. It puts a certain weight on what we do here this morning. That's why we started by singing, Holy, Holy is the Lord God Almighty, to give a weightiness. The word glory means weight. There's something glorious about what we're doing here. And it's not because we ourselves are glorious. It's because the One who's actually called us to be here. The One who's commanded us to be here. The One who's commissioned us and given us the grace to be here is glorious. I mean, if you just think back, you know, in the bigger picture, God ordained that Christ would purchase us as a people to praise Him together right now. To be His holy temple. There's a wayness to what we're doing. That's why we do not come here casually. We should come here with great expectation and eagerness that God is going to speak, that we're going to grow, that we're going to grow together. Now, as we think about how we grow, it's hard. If you've ever been part of a building project or if you've ever seen a house built down the street, you know it takes a lot of work and time. Some of you have built houses or had houses built for you or just done a remodel. Remodels are the worst. You just have to live there while the work's going on. But it takes time and energy just to handle a physical building. We're talking about people here. We're growing together with people, which makes it easier in some ways and makes it harder in some ways. As we think about this building together, I want to remind you of one of the most basic principles we have to think about as we are seeking to make disciples of one another. It depends on grace. Look around, members of the church. These are the folks we're supposed to be growing with and growing together. These are the folks we're dependent upon growing with. It means we actually depend upon grace to think I'm going to contribute something so that the others grow and that God's going to give us the grace so that they give me something that I will grow. It requires faith. The end goal. Again, chapter 2, verse 22. In Him, you are also being built together into a dwelling place for God, by the Spirit. This is beautiful imagery that we're called to partake in and enjoy. So we look at for this reason, well what's Paul going to say next? What is the reason he's given? Well Paul is going to make a very, he's going to focus in on that there's a mystery that's been revealed. A key word in this text is mystery. Verse 3, how the mystery was made known. Verse 4, you can perceive my insight into the mystery. Verse 6, this mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs. And then verse 9, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery. Now when we think of mystery, we usually think of like Sherlock Holmes. There's something, there's a riddle, or there's a problem to be solved. In the New Testament, when Paul references mystery, what he's actually referring to is a mystery that's already been disclosed. It's a resolved mystery. Look at verse 5. That mystery was not made known to the sons of men and other generations. There was a time when the truth of what Paul is talking about was not made known. But look at verse 3. How the mystery was made known by revelation. The mystery was once not known, but now it's made known. We'll talk about that more in just a moment, but I want to just get down to the very point of what the mystery is, and it's verse 6. It's nice when Paul just kind of gets to the point. The gospel proclaimed is the mystery. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the mystery that has now been revealed, and it's stated very clearly in verse 6, the mystery is this. that Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promises in Christ Jesus, you have that phrase again, through the gospel. Now the mystery is revealed that the Jews and Gentiles, they used to be separate people, separate religions, separate gods. The Gentiles were worshiping the images made up in their own mind, following the passions of their hearts and their sin. The Jews were given the revelation of God, but now the mystery is that Gentiles are welcomed into the church. They're part of the people if they believe in Jesus Christ. So let's walk through, there's three basic declarations here, and a lot of it's repetition from what we've seen before, and I think Paul probably repeats himself with a purpose. The mystery is that Gentiles are fellow heirs. Jews and Gentiles now share the same inheritance and the inheritance is the declaration of sonship of God. That's from chapter 1. The inheritance comes back over and over again to be known as a child of God. Both people groups share the same inheritance because they've been saved by the same Savior, Jesus Christ. Go back to chapter 1, verse 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. It doesn't say blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who blesses some people with some blessings. If you are blessed in Christ, you are blessed with every spiritual blessing. There's a grand equality here. God blesses all of his people who believe in Christ with the same blessing which makes them fellow heirs. It's important to remember, we're rich. We're rich. We now receive the indestructible eternal life of Jesus Christ. We're not afraid of death. That causes a whole new kind of living, doesn't it? How rich is it that we do not have to fear death? We now are fellow heirs of the indestructible eternal life God. We are now heirs. Our inheritance is that we're loved by the most loving, lovely God. The inheritance we have makes us rich, which is helpful for us to remember so that we stop chasing after the vanity of this world. Our heart always looks to these things that glitter and think, how can I feel more rich? Well, let me go out in this world and see it. No. How do you experience true wealth? It's by pursuing Christ. Our inheritance is equal. In the church, there is no one greater than the other. We're going to hear, Lord willing, later on, some clarity that there's different parts that do different jobs, different responsibilities, but we all have the same inheritance. And the great thing is, it's not like siblings squabbling over a will. Who gets what? No, it's all of us rejoicing together. We're all richly blessed. We're all equally blessed by the glorious God who gives good gifts. It causes this wonderful unity. We have an identity and a purpose together. It draws us together in God, which is what makes Sunday so wonderful. We're all here gathered, different kinds of people. In the world, there's hardly anything that makes us alike. But in Christ, we all share this wonderful inheritance that makes us rich. So the mystery is that the Gentiles and the Jews are fellow heirs. The second thing is that we're members of the same body. Now I want to be very clear about what words mean here. The word member in Greek that's translated, it actually means member. It means an organ or a limb. It means a part of a body. This is why we have church membership. It's funny how folks say, well, no, church membership's not in the body. Yeah, it kind of is. Like, there's members of a body. That's where we get membership. We could call it branch-ship, right? We could call it stone-ship. We could call each other stoners. That would be confusing. I don't think we should do that. Someone's already taken that term. We call each other members. The church has adopted this for years. That membership, it captures the real beauty of the church. There's two things I think it captures specifically well. There's a sense of belonging. When you're a member of a body, you belong there. And secondly, it means we're all working together. So I'm not that scientifically inclined. Actually, when I think about the human body, I was just telling a friend who's a doctor, please know that when you talk in detail about things, I want to throw up. So I don't, like the whole organs, how they work, it freaks me out. So I have a weak stomach. But I know enough to just state with full confidence, there are numerous organs inside of us. That's brilliant, right? And they all have to work together. They all have to be healthy, working together. If you have an organ that is not healthy or is not working with other organs, what happens? Grow weak. They all have to be working together. They all belong. They all have a specific kind of role. And if we look at this, it's a beautiful picture. Christ the head. Us, all the working parts of the body. He is the one who puts each one of us in the proper place. He's the one who helps us function. He's the one who gives us the grace and the Holy Spirit and equips us to function together. It's a beautiful picture. It's not like a club where you pay your dues and you're just one person who's there doing what everybody else is doing. Like a gym. You pay your dues and you never show up because you forget. When you're a member of a church, you have a specific function as a different kind of organ or a different kind of limb that does something that the others do not do and it creates this beautiful whole. It makes you irreplaceable in many ways. Relationally. You can't replace people with other people in the church. It's impossible. Because those people are human beings. They're unique. They have different gifts, different personalities, different things we love and like about them. It's difficult and painful for people to not be at a church because it's impossible to ever replace them. It's like a family. You have a grandpa, you have a parent, you have a child, you might have a pet. You can never really replace any of them with other human beings or another pet. No, each one has its own place. This is the beautiful picture. It's burdensome, because we're people, we're sinners, but it's also just a beautiful picture being built up in that temple of Jesus Christ. The third thing we see, the mystery is that Gentiles are fellow heirs. We're all rich together, the same wealth in Jesus Christ, the same love, the same life. We're all members of the same body, and then we're all partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus. Now, the Jews, they were given the promises for years before the Gentiles were fully brought into the church at this time. And that's why it's important to realize that all those promises, and again, we'll hopefully get into this a little bit more later, all those promises, while they were first handed to the nation of Israel as a deposit for them to trust, now all those promises are for all peoples to partake in. By faith. You see, all those promises were fulfilled in Christ Jesus so that whoever believes in Christ now, no matter of their nationality, no matter of their ethnicity, we're now one new man, fellow heirs, members of the same body, being blessed by receiving the good news of Jesus Christ. Now let me stop here, because what we're getting into here is the gospel. The gospel says that no matter who, what nation you're born into, who your parents are, it doesn't matter your background, we have all sinned against God. The gospel states that first. God created us as good. He created us to know Him, to love Him, and we sinned, we rebelled against Him. We said, God, we think we can do it better. We think we can find our own happy way. We rejected Him. That caused us to be strangers and aliens, as we read earlier in chapter 2. Well, God desires us to be close to Him. To have access to Him, but our sin keeps us from God. And so God the Father sent His Son to walk on this earth like us. God took upon a humanity. So that righteous man who was perfectly good, who always obeyed his Father, always obeyed God, he died on the cross. righteous man dying an unrighteous death so that we who have sinned when we believe in him were forgiven because God the Father crushed his son for our sin so that his righteous rule his righteousness will be satisfied so that now he can say my he now looks at us and he says your sin has been paid for Christ took the punishment Your guilt is now off of you because Christ has been counted guilty for what we have done and we are now counted righteous because of what Christ has done. That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. You believe in the work of Christ. He died so we can be forgiven. He rose again so we can have new life. We're distant from God. We're still in our rebellion against God and His wrath is still upon us until we believe in Jesus Christ. If you're here this morning and you are not a believer, and you don't understand that gospel, please do not leave without talking to someone this morning. So we've seen that the mystery is one of the main themes here. It was once hidden, now it's made known. That mystery is those three great declarations. And now I want to look at the fact that there is a timeline. I want to look at the fact that there was a time when there wasn't knowledge and now there is knowledge. It's important to see this is also tied to last week. Last week we talked about Gentiles at one time and at that time. Here we still get the previous generations in verse 5, verse 9, it was hidden for ages. Now the mystery is revealed. The mystery has been made known by revelation. The apostles and the prophets now declare a truth that is known. And it's important to see that there was a, there's a timeline. There's a plan of God and it's important for us to back up for a moment and see this plan of God because it helps us see three things about God. One, He's patient. He's patient. It's pretty unbelievable how unfaithful His people have always been and how faithful He has always been to His promises. Two, He has purpose. He is guiding and directing this world according to His promise. He has purpose. This world is not meaningless. God has a purpose, therefore this life has meaning. Third, He's powerful. He is powerful. He is able to do what He says He will do. In Galatians, we can see this idea of time being important. Paul says, at the right time, he sent his own son. Actually, I have no idea what made it the right time. I just praise God that he sent his son. In his wisdom, he saw that there was a right time. In his wisdom, he had built up these expectations of promises, and then at the right time, he sent his son to fulfill them. If we think about it, God has been at work promising for thousands of years. He's made hundreds of promises. There's been billions of people. And we have always been unfaithful and God has not failed a single promise or a single person. All that time, all those people, all those promises. And God has never failed a single promise or a single person. Let that be comforting. Right? Because we get tunnel vision, right? My problem, it gets overwhelming when I just think about my problem and how it doesn't seem to be resolvable. But when we look at the fact that God's been at work for thousands of years with billions of people and hundreds of promises, He's never failed. It relieves the anxiety. Or it should. It should help us see, I can be, God give me patience. God, God, God, give me, give me grace. Help me to get past this tunnel vision and help me to see, God, you have promised you will always be with me and for me. That's the summary of all of God's promises. He is with you and He's for you. He's patient. He has purpose. He's powerful. He can be trusted. Now, let's also step back and look at this plan. God's plan was never for Israel alone to be his people or nation. His plan focused on Israel so that they would be a blessing. Again, we could go back to Genesis 12 as we looked at last week. It's very clear that God blessed Abraham and the people who would come after him so that they would be a blessing to all nations. They weren't supposed to just be a sponge that held everything in. They were supposed to be a sponge that squeezed Full of blessing being poured out as a blessing on all our peoples. Let's go to another text that makes this very clear. Go to Deuteronomy chapter 4. It's on page 148 if you're using a pew Bible. Deuteronomy chapter 4. I'm going to begin in verse 6. These are Moses' commands for Israel. They're not yet in the promised land, but he says once you get here, this is the plan. I'll begin in verse five. See, I have taught you statutes and rules as the Lord my God commanded me. That you should do them in the land that you are entering to take possession of. Keep them and do them. For that will be your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples. Who when they hear all these statutes will say, so the nations are supposed to come And they're supposed to observe Israel. And they're supposed to say this because Israel is being obedient to what God has said. Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people. For what great nation is there that has a God so near to it as the Lord our God is to us whenever we call upon Him? And what great nation is there that has statutes and rules so righteous as all the law that I set before you today? Now, if you think about the history of Israel, it's pretty sad. I don't think any nation ever said that about Israel. But that's why God established them as a nation among pagans. So that those people who were worshiping fake gods would come and see, wow, here's a people who has a God near to them. Here's a people who have righteous rules. This is the right way to live and enjoy life. And we can so easily look and just beat up the nation of Israel for failing, but have we as a church historically been faithful to being a people who are known as having a God who's near to us? Would people come and observe a church over time and say, wow, look how righteous the rules and expectations are. Look how they are so different in the way they live with wisdom. I fear we fail as much as Israel. But here we see this plan of God. He's made promises so that His people will be a blessing to all peoples. It's always been His intention. And here we see in the New Testament, that has come to fruition and that since Israel failed, Jesus Christ has come and He says, I will be a blessing to all peoples. Whoever believes in Me, Jew or Gentile, you're rich. You're members of the same body. You're partakers of the same promises. As we continue, I want to now focus on one of the other main themes here. Paul talks about himself as a minister. So we've seen how the time works, that there was a promise that Israel was supposed to be a blessing to the Gentiles. Now in Christ, we are all blessed the same. That that time change happens because Christ has come. He's the Savior of all peoples, being the one new man. And Paul, he realizes he has a special job in this plan of God. Listen to verse one. He's a prisoner on behalf of the Gentiles. For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ, Jesus, on behalf of you Gentiles. Verse two, he's given stewardship for the Gentiles. Assuming that you have heard the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you. Verse four, when you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mysteries of Christ. So he's appealing to them to see what he's revealed. Verse seven, 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. It's a stewardship, it's a work. And then verse eight, to me, though I'm the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. And then finally verse 13, so I ask you not to lose heart over what I'm suffering for you, which is your glory. Paul realized he has a special role among the Gentiles. Now, Paul is an untimely born apostle. Paul did not see Jesus before his death and resurrection. The only time Paul ever saw Jesus, which makes him unlike all the other apostles, is after Christ had ascended to the right hand of the Father. And Paul, remember, he's a persecutor of the church. He stood by agreeing of a stoning of a disciple. He goes and he ravages the church. That's how Luke describes it. He's dragging men and women off to prison. And here we see that he's now saying, I've been changed by the God, I've been given the grace, I'm now an apostle because of the new revelation. This is exactly how God would work. Elsewhere we know Paul boasts and describes himself as a Jew of Jews. He's a Pharisee. He's one of those Jewish men to live at this time, and God, in his sovereign wisdom, Decides that he's going to make this Jew of Jews the apostle to the Gentiles. He's going to send him out. And Paul has a great love for his Jewish people. He wishes that they all would believe in Christ. But God says that's not your job. Your job is to go out and talk and spread the good news to these other people. These people that you once despised. The new revelation changes Paul. And it changes his job. And it changes his perspective. Now, also, one of the most amazing things about this passage is Paul's an apostle. That gives him a very unique authority in the history of the church. Apostles were those who had seen Christ and were given the responsibility of teaching the new church the truths of Jesus Christ. Our New Testament is written by apostles. He's an apostle that has a unique authority. But I want you to notice here, he doesn't say, I've said it, therefore believe it. He appeals that there's other prophets, that there's other apostles that I've conferred with, and we can even go back to Galatians 2, verses 1 and 2. When Paul received his revelation, he didn't assume it, he actually went to go make sure that it was the same truth, that he understood it in the same way as the other apostles. Paul understood that for the church to be united, we have to be united under the same truth. He did not want to preach a different gospel. He wanted to be very clear that this mystery, it has been made known to him by revelation, and he has said it's also been revealed to the other prophets. But notice how the mystery, verse three, how the mystery has been made known to me by revelation, as I've written. And verse four, he's writing to the church. When you read this, you can perceive my insight in the mystery of Christ. So at one level, he's not going to claim, I'm out here doing my own thing as my own apostle. No, there's other apostles, there's other prophets who have received the same revelation, who are preaching the same gospel. But here he's actually appealing to the church. Trust the church. You're going to perceive the truth of God. You have the power as the church, with the keys to the kingdom, To recognize the truth of the message. Now it's important, Paul did not create the good news. He received it. The church does not authenticate the good news. They receive it. They receive it with thanksgiving. Let me challenge you, church. There's something important that you need to understand that I'm not up here always saying everything perfectly right. Do I need to tell you that? There's a beauty in what Paul is saying here. He's saying, Church, if the Church of Jesus Christ, all possessing the same Holy Spirit, you're going to recognize what's true and you're going to recognize what's not. He trusts in the people of God, not because he understands all the people to always be right, but he understands the power of the Holy Spirit to have united people into the same message. He's very insistent, he's insisting that there's one message that the one people of God are going to agree upon. It's to the point in Galatians where he scolds them. How dare you church, not the elders, not the apostles, how dare you members of the church to allow a false gospel to infiltrate the body of Christ. So members of Jefferson Park, if you hear something that you understand to be theologically accurate, You have the right to come and challenge an elder. Based upon what scripture says. Right? We need to be careful in saying, oh, you know, I like this opinion more than that opinion. All right, well, we can disagree there. That's fine. But, Church, I want to say you have the right to say, all right, biblically speaking, can you help me understand what you're saying and understand what this text says? And let me understand why you think this way. Let me go a little bit further. You not only have the right, you have the responsibility to do that. Because we're one church. United under the one truth. And if we're disagreeing, we're hurting that unity. And I believe that as the people of God, as we come together under Scripture, we're going to be united. We must be. And this means that we're growing together. That means we're all going to be recognizing, okay, I haven't actually thought that correctly. You know what's great about heaven when we see that glorious picture Dennis read earlier in Revelation 7? All of our theologies will be corrected. That's actually what's so fantastic about Revelation 7 is that shingles are going to fall off our eyes like they did with Paul. And we're all going to see all the truth as it is declared and as it is true according to God. And just as we're looking forward to seeing that day without sin, we're seeking to be purified now. Waiting for that day to be purified of all our wrong beliefs and sin is not a reason to say, I'm going to wait and not do anything about it now. We should be seeking to grow. We should be seeking to learn and correct one another. That's how we grow. One of the things I want us to see about Paul and his ministry here, which he goes on and on about to make sure he's defending the gospel. He's been made a minister according to the gift of God's grace. Paul serves with humility. Verse 8. To me, though, I am the least of all the saints. I don't believe this is false humility. We can see by the way he's served his whole life, this is not a false humility. I think I mentioned this before here, but I was reading an Anglican order of service where they were appointing new elders. And one of the elders had been a deacon previously, and the leader of the ordination service said, and now he's going to take on a lower role. To take on the role of deacon from member, that's taking on a lower role. That's how leadership works in a church. You're taking on more responsibility. To take on the role of an elder from a deacon is a lower role. You're taking on more responsibility, a different kind of responsibility. Paul gets this. I believe we can see it modeled in his life. There's a humility here that he recognizes his ministry, it's a gift. It's a grace given to him. He recognizes his ministry as a stewardship. It's a responsibility. He recognizes his ministry is for others. He's constantly saying it's on behalf of you, for you. He recognizes the source of power, verse seven. 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. Paul's an apostle, so we can too easily look at this and say, what's wrong? He's higher than me, he's an apostle, I can't relate to this. No, I think Paul's just a good model of stewardship here. There's a way in which he realizes God has given me a job, he's given me a task, it's not something I own, it's something I steward. He realizes that he's an ambassador for God, he has a certain responsibility and he's supposed to keep it. We can see stewardship as a central theme throughout all of Scripture. It goes back to creation. Where man is given a commandment by God, keep this garden. He didn't say, hey Adam, here's the keys to the garden, it's yours. No, he said, keep my garden. It's a stewardship. The jobs given to us by God, the work given to us by God, it's stewardship. Paul was commanded to go preach the gospel to all the nations all over the place. Maybe your job is to preach the gospel to your neighbor across the street. Your co-worker across the cubicle. We have to realize, what has God called me to do? And understand, as we walk through Ephesians, let's be very clear, we all have work. Chapter 2, verse 10. It's been pre-appointed for us. Paul even saw his suffering is suffering as a stewardship. One of those basic principles we have to understand, there's two parts to it, to really be good stewards, again, I'm repeating myself, we are blessed to be a blessing. That is the two basic parts to be good stewards. Realize how great a blessing we've received and that we've received it so that we might be a blessing. You can't deny the fact that you're blessed if you just read Ephesians 1. We are greatly blessed. And then we are called to be a blessing. It recognizes that every good gift comes down from above. It repents of the desire to be selfish and receives and reciprocates the blessing. So stewardship. This involves your money, your time, Your energy. It requires us to say no. It requires us to think about, what are the things I'm committing to? What are the things I'm prioritizing? And if you're a parent, one of the best ways to figure out, alright, where am I, what am I stewarding the most? What do your kids think is the most important thing in life based upon how we prioritize our lives? If somebody actually looked and saw, alright, what amount of time do I commit to these things, And that's what we're saying is most important. Are our priorities in line with Christ? The final thing I want to make note of is verse 7. Paul says, of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace. It is God's grace that's given him this role. The word minister there is the same word we get deacon from. It just means servant. Again, grounding that idea that here we are just being stewards of the great gifts that God has given us. If you want to think more about this idea of stewardship, I challenge you to look later at Luke 7, verse 7 through 10. Jesus says, will any one of you who has a servant plowing or keeping sheep say to him when he has come in from the field, come at once and recline at table? Will he not rather say to him, prepare supper for me, and dress properly, and serve me while I eat and drink, and afterward you will eat and drink? Does he thank the servant because he did what he was commanded? So you also, when you have done all that you were commanded, say, we are unworthy servants. We have only done what was our duty. Praise God, he gives us the grace to do that. The final thing I want us to look at is the mission of the church. Look at verse 10. We have that phrase, so that. There's a purpose, there's a mission here. What has happened is for a reason. Christ is building a holy temple of us as a building for his glory, a dwelling place for him. We're gonna end with verse 10, a purpose, the mission of the church. Verse 10. So that, this mystery has come, so that all may believe, become that church, so that, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Heavenly places has been referenced a number of times already in Ephesians, and it'll be referenced more. Heavenly places is simply that spiritual realm above the earth, where the angels, God is saying that the church is supposed to be this way so that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might be known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Just like in Deuteronomy, this nation was supposed to be among all the pagans so they would look and say, wow, look at the wisdom of these people, look at the wisdom of their God. We see there's a cosmic purpose. So that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might be made known. It's a high calling. It's a weighty calling. Might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly place. This was according to the eternal purpose. Again, there's a, there's a purpose of God. There's a plan of God. He has the power to keep it. This was according to the eternal purpose that has realized, there's our phrase again, That purpose that has been realized in Christ Jesus our Lord. All things are coming together in Christ who is at the center of God's plan and is the end of God's plan. So that through the church all the wisdom is made known which is ours in Christ Jesus. And then verse 12, it's actually a repeat of what we saw in chapter 2 verse 7. In whom, speaking of Christ, we have boldness. and access with confidence through our faith in Him. We're no longer strangers and aliens. We're no longer distant from God because in Christ we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in Him. Christ lets us go into the presence of the Holy God and know Him. You're rich. You're rich. You can behold the lovely, glorious God. That's the riches. And you can do so now. You don't have to wait because in Him, listen to the language, we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in Him. Because Christ has taken away our sin. He's taken away our guilt. He's taken away our rebellion. He's now gone before us at the right hand of the Father. And in His name, we can enter into His glorious presence. Verse 13. There's a final charge to persevere. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory. Paul sees it as a great privilege to suffer. Because it helps him participate in the sufferings of Christ. Because it allows him to demonstrate his love for his people. For those he's been called to. He's suffering for their sake. Which is going to be for their glory. Because they're going to be built up into that holy temple. Paul's a steward. He's willing to give up everything he has. Because everything he has has been given to him. He's willing to use everything He has for the purpose of the mission which is Christ and His glory and His people, the church. Let us pray. Father, as we look at Your Word, we thank You that You've given us a history where we can see You've been sovereign at all times over all peoples. You've made these promises. You have a purpose. We thank You that You're patient with us. Forgive us, Lord, for how sinful we are with our tunnel vision of just thinking about ourselves, either selfishly according to our sinful lust, or selfishly just in our anxiety, not looking at You and trusting You. We thank You, God, that You're with us. You're for us. We thank You, God, that You're at work building up a dwelling place. And you not only make us that dwelling place, you call us to be working in that dwelling place that's built up. Lord, help us to be faithful. Help us to be good stewards. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.