So our text today is Ephesians 3, 1 through 7. We're continuing this study of Ephesians. Ephesians was about the sovereignty of God and what God did in a global, universal sense in predestination of the elect and also that Ephesians Two, how he personally saved us by regeneration of the spirit, by grace alone, through faith. But then also how Jesus broke down the demonic rule of the law so that the Gentiles would be led in. OK? And the second half, there was a big but. The big but at the top of chapter two was, you know, We were dead in sin, but God, right? And then also, we Gentiles were kept out by the law, but God, okay? The second but in chapter 2. Now in chapter 3, Paul gets personal with himself. He says, I'm the one that's been called to minister this thing to the Gentiles, to the nations. And So let's look at the text again, Ephesians 3, 1 through 7. So he says, for this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles, dash. Okay. Now, what that means is, if you're looking in your Bible, okay, at Ephesians 3, he says, Anyway, he's going to continue with this after all this. The dash applies to all this, OK? He's like, I'm going to tell you something. Oh, wait. Before I tell you, I'm going to tell you all this instead. OK? For this reason, I, Paul, oh, let me tell you something first. He tells you all this that we're going over today. Then he'll get back to what he wanted to say. For this reason, I, Paul, what? That comes next week, okay? This week, we're talking about what comes after the dash, okay? Verse two. Yeah, I'm the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles. Paul's in prison for the sake of the Gentiles. I mean, we often think, well, yeah, obviously the gospel's offensive to people. Well, yeah, offensive to the Jews. Offensive to sinners too, yes, but usually more offensive to the Jews apparently, okay? If you see who stirred stuff up. It wasn't the secular worldly people who opposed Paul so much as it was the Jews who said Paul was against the law. Let's look at Acts 21 real quick. He's a prisoner for the Gentiles. He's not just a prisoner for Jesus and a prisoner for the gospel, but he's a prisoner for the sake of the Gentiles. If he hadn't gone out for the sake of the Gentiles to preach to the Gentiles, he probably wouldn't be in prison. See, he could have preached just to the Jews, you know. But man, Paul says in the book of Romans, I am exalting my ministry to the Gentiles in the hopes that it'll make the Jews jealous and they'll come back in. I hope they'll get jealous and they'll see what the Gentiles have in Christ and they'll want back in to that vine that they were cut off of. So he says, I'm here for the sake of the Gentiles. Well, he's here for the, he's ministering ultimately for the sake of the Jews is sort of what he said there in Romans. But in the process, first step is for the Gentiles. Really first step was for the Jews, but he got kicked out of there. Let's see, Acts 21, Acts 21, verse 27, Acts 21. Verse 27, when the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, upon seeing him in the temple, began to stir up all the crowd. It's the Jews, see, the Jews. I'm not picking on Jews as a race, okay? But because of the new covenant coming in to God's plan, the Jews took offense, okay? Upon seeing him in the temple, began to stir up all the crowd, and laid hands on him, crying out, Men of Israel, come to our aid. They're stirring up a crowd. We need a crowd here to grab this guy. Okay, come on, let's grab this guy. This is the man who preaches to all men everywhere against our people, and the law, and this place, this temple. He's preached against all of this. And besides, he's even brought Greeks into the temple. He's brought some Gentiles in here. and has defiled this holy place. For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple. Then all the city was provoked, and the people rushed together, and taking hold of Paul, they dragged him out of the temple, and immediately the doors were shut. While they were seeking to kill him, A report came up to the commander of the Roman cohort that all Jerusalem was in confusion. There's a riot going on. It's all because of this mystery. See? This mystery that Paul's preaching about. It's a mystery. At once, this commander took along some soldiers and centurions, and ran down to them. And when they saw the commander and the soldiers, meaning the crowd, saw them, they stopped beating Paul." The cops are involved now. We better keep quiet for a while till they leave. They don't beat him up again. Okay, well, so you can see how Paul was as it says in chapter, don't turn back yet, but I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles, right? I'm just referring you, don't go back, but yeah, but that's Ephesians 3.1. And he had to talk about that before he could go on. So I'm just giving you some more about it. So look at chapter 23, Acts 23. Acts 23, verse 25. So at some point, they decided they've got to have like a, well, you'll see. They were also to provide mounts to put Paul on and bring him safely to Felix, the governor. And he wrote a letter having this form, Claudius Lucius, to the most excellent governor Felix, greetings. When this man was arrested by the Jews and was about to be slain by them, I came up to them with the troops and rescued him, having learned that he was a Roman. And wanting to ascertain the charge for which they were accusing him, I brought him down to their counsel. And I found him to be accused over questions about their law, but under no accusation deserving death or imprisonment. When I was informed that there would be a plot against the man, I sent him to you at once, also instructing his accusers to bring charges against him before you. He says, see, the secular people, they're not the ones that are locking Paul up. The Jews. Because he's spreading these ideas to the Gentiles, to the nations. And the Jews are not in favor of this. It seems like he's preaching against their law. which in a sense he is because the new covenant comes down, as it said in the Ephesians, that Jesus, let's see what it said there. It says in chapter two, remember that formerly you Gentiles who are called the uncircumcision, well, the foreskin, remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances. so that he might in himself make the two into one new man. So he abolished the enmity which is the law of commandment. You can see why they would be concerned. Now, at one point, when he was on trial, he didn't say that. He said, I'm on trial for the hope of the resurrection or something to that effect. And the Pharisees were like, hmm, we find nothing wrong with this man. Because they were there with the Sadducees, and the Sadducees didn't believe in the resurrection. So Paul was trying to get the two against each other just so he could save his skin. He wasn't really telling. The whole truth, he was telling some of it, right? To try to get out of that situation. I'm here for the hope, which is true, okay? And so let's continue to chapter 25 in Acts. Chapter 25, verse 18, 25, 18. When the accuser stood up, They began bringing charges against him. So this is Acts 25, 18. They began bringing charges against him, not of such crimes as I was expecting, but they simply had some points of disagreement with him about their own religion and about a dead man, Jesus, whom Paul asserted to be alive. Being at a loss how to investigate such matters, I asked whether he was willing to go to Jerusalem there and there stand trial on these matters, et cetera." So, you know, there seems to be some disagreement about the law here, you know, and this dead man that Paul says is alive. You know, it's not the secular world. And we see again and again in the New Testament about these Judaizers who are trying to, you know, when they can't stop the Gentiles from coming in, then they say, well, okay, you can be saved, but you also have to become a Jew. You know, the Judaizers, they're trying to make everyone a Jew, you know. So these are the issues. So Paul's... I, Paul, the prisoner of the... I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles, if indeed... So now we're in Ephesians. Ephesians 3. Ephesians 3, verse 1. For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles... Okay, I gotta explain this a little bit. If indeed you have heard. of the administration of God's grace, which was given to me for you." You know, God called Paul to be the minister, the evangelist, the apostle to the Gentiles. The apostle to the Gentiles. Yeah. Have you heard about that? You know, I'm in jail for you because God called me into this ministry. The rest of the apostles, you know, they got, we got 11 or 12 that are dealing with the Jews. They, they don't seem to be in jail. Of course, they all got in trouble too, eventually. But, uh, Paul says specifically in my case, it's because of ministering to Gentiles and they chased him from city to city. When he would go from one. Gentile city to the next, the Jews would follow him to the next city from the previous city and stir up a commotion in the next city against him, you know, because he was ministering to Gentiles. So, if indeed you've heard of the administration of God's grace which was given to me for you. So, he's really taking a soft approach here in the book of Ephesians. But he is saying he's a prisoner for the sake of you Gentiles. You know, you should listen to me about this stuff, you Gentiles, because I'm really paying for it. verse 3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery as I wrote before briefly so if we're looking in Ephesians chapter 1 he says No, no, no, chapter two, okay. So I'm sure he says mystery in the chapter one, but I can't find it right now. But he talks about the mystery, and then in chapter two, of course, which we already read, that we were strangers and aliens, okay. So he had mentioned it in the early chapters here, and so now he's saying a little more about it. And just because he says to be specific doesn't necessarily, which actually is added, okay. to be specific is Words are added but but That doesn't mean that this is Everything about the mystery you see elsewhere that all about Christ is a mystery everything about Christ is a mystery the very things that we say were foretold were a mystery, okay? If nothing had been told about it, it wouldn't be a mystery. A mystery is when you have partial knowledge, right? That makes it a mystery, okay? So it was a mystery because it wasn't fully explained yet. So yes, it's in the Old Testament, but it was a mystery, okay? It wasn't fully explained yet. So he says here that these things were made known to me Verse four, by referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to mankind. Now, as I just said, that doesn't mean nothing was made known about it. Some things are made known about it, but it wasn't fully made known, okay? Not a full explanation yet. as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit." And you notice in the book of Acts, we read a verse at the beginning of this. our worship time here, Acts 15, 30 to 32, where Judas and Silas, also being prophets themselves, okay, gave some lengthy messages there in Antioch and in Acts 15, 30 to 32. So these things are revealed to the apostles and prophets. It doesn't mean Old Testament prophets in this verse. because it says, now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets, right? That means when Paul was writing it, right after the time of Christ, that these things were revealed to the apostles and prophets, the New Testament prophets, okay? To be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body. We're all in one body, right? Some say the Gentiles are the Bride of Christ. Some say the Baptists are the Bride of Christ. The Baptist Bride, they call that. Everyone else will be guests, but the Baptist will be the bride. No, no, no. There's one body and one bride for Christ, all the elect. And the Gentiles are fellow heirs. You know, as Paul says in the book of Romans, the Gentiles are grafted into that one vine. Okay. The vine, the root, I mean, Christ and the Jews, and then the Gentiles grafted in, but some branches were cut off. So that could be, if you think about it, when you graft something, you got to cut something off first, right? If you're going to make a grafting with in horticulture, you got to do some cutting first, okay? Now, admittedly, sometimes you might just put a slice, okay, and insert something, but there's got to be some cutting, okay? And often it's a cutting off of a branch and then splicing in of another branch. And so that's what happened. And we're all in one vine, okay? It's not two vines. So we're fellow heirs, we're fellow members of the body, there's just one body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. So you'll notice that not only does that mean we're together, it means that the promise comes to the Jews also, right? It's not just to the Gentiles, or it's not just to the Jews, but it's to both. In fact, the promise in the New Testament, the New Testament refers to the promise given to Abraham. And it says the law was added later. See, why was the law added, you know? And it said the law can't annul the promise. The promise came first. The promise still stands that was given to Abraham. And that promise comes to us and the Jews. Okay, that's the promise, the promise to Abraham. And so we are fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. There's only one source for that promise to be fulfilled, and that's in Jesus. So that's why it says in Jesus. There's not in Muhammad or in Confucius or in any other religion, and it's not in a ceremony or any religion for that matter. except the true religion, uh, in the sense in Christ. And it's through the good news or the gospel of which I was made a minister. So Paul saying, Hey, I I'm spreading this good news and it's really good for you Gentiles because you know, you've been grafted in you. You've been, uh, you become fellow partakers. You were excluded. Now you're included according. So he was made a minister. And by the way, in the Bible, minister is not like a pastor or a, what is the guy? An apostle, okay. A pastor, an apostle, okay. That's not the same as a minister, okay. In the Bible, minister simply means Like a doctor, right? Your mom can do the doctoring, right? If you're a kid, your mom's your doctor. Or you might call her the nurse. But she does the doctoring in the family. Unless it's beyond her capability, then she goes to the professionals. But she's a doctor. She just doesn't have a degree, right? Maybe it's the dad sometimes, but usually it's the mom. Mom's doing the doctoring. And you, as a part of the body of Christ, are ministers, okay? You do the ministering outside the body and within the body, right? I may be a pastor, but I'm not the only minister, right? We're all ministers, okay? The minister has come to mean pastor, but that's not what the word means in the Bible, okay? Minister means that you minister to somebody, just like doctor means you doctor somebody, okay? And you could be a professional, but you might be part-time, okay? And a minister is everybody in the body of Christ. And if you have a specific ministry, that's your ministry, right? That God's called you to do specifically, right? And so each one has their ministry. Pam's playing the piano, that's her ministry, right? You know that? That's my ministry. It is, right? And she ministers to the body and for God. And we each have our ministry. And Paul had a ministry, which was to the Gentiles, okay? So he was made a minister of, he administered the gospel to the Gentiles. According to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me. And so, you know, obviously he was called on the road as he was traveling to try to persecute the Christians. and have them arrested and or killed, that's when he was saved and God's grace came to him and he was made a minister of the gospel to the Gentiles in those short period of time after that. It was given to me according to the working of his power. And Paul goes back to this all the time. He didn't, it's his power and there's two alternatives to that that some people might say, Paul, Was that you doing that? You made this all up, right? No, no, Jesus revealed these things to me, right? The revelation that was made known to me, the mystery, okay? That came to me, a revelation from Jesus. It's not something I made up. That's one alternative. Some people might say, well, Paul made this up. The other alternative is Paul got this from the other apostles. The other apostles told him all these things, and he's following in their footsteps. Paul's like, no, I didn't get approval and delegation from the other apostles. Jesus gave it to me. I'm an apostle of Jesus. I'm not an apostle of the apostles. I wasn't sent by those who were sent. Jesus sent me directly. an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, right? There it is, Ephesians 1, verse 1. Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God. See, I didn't do it. The other apostles didn't tell me to be an apostle. Jesus, God, made me an apostle. He sent me. That's what apostle means, sent. And it's the same thing here. I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me according to the working of His power. It wasn't me. It wasn't the other apostles. It was God who did it and made me this minister, to be a minister of this mystery, okay? that, as it says here, which in other generations was not made known to mankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets. I'm a prisoner because of the mystery. So it's a significant thing, this idea of the mystery. Paul's in jail for it. That's how significant it is. Let's pray. Gracious Heavenly Father, thanks, Lord, for helping us to understand the fact that When Christ came, he brought a new covenant, and the mystery of it was explained by him and the apostles and the prophets, and we thank you for it. We thank you for those who suffered. so that the good news and the kingdom could be spread throughout the nations, the Gentiles, that's us. So we thank you for that. And we ask, as we remember today, your son, we also remember this aspect of what he did on the cross, which was to bring us close, bring us near, and make one body for himself. And we ask in Jesus' name, amen.