Ephesians (part 2)

Bethlehem Bible Church

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The book of Ephesians this morning, to finish up our discussion of the mystery of Christ, we pray that you would bring to us many things that we know, so that when we are overwhelmed by a fallen world, which beckons us to rely upon our feelings, we pray that you would give us good sense from the scriptures, presence of mind from the scriptures, that Jesus Christ may be glorified.

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It's in his name we pray this morning. Amen. We're at Ephesians chapter 3.

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We covered the first phrase last time I was with you, and we're going to finish it up today.

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Remember we started with, for this reason, I, Paul, and then we said, stop, you got to stop there, and ask for what reason, and the what reason is, thank you, the what reason is the other two chapters that come before this, and so we went through the other two chapters, and I pointed this out to you, and I hope you pick this up, that the nature of salvation that is described in Ephesians is cosmic.

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Now another word for that would be transcendent. It is beyond us.

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It goes way beyond the material world and universe which we inhabit, and it stretches into eternity, and I'm not going to say eternity past and eternity future.

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There is no past and future in eternity. There's just eternity. It stretches not only to the material universe which we inhabit, but it stretches also to a spiritual universe also created by God, inhabited by spirit beings, which are going to be mentioned here.

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Assuming we get there, we will get there. All right? And so it is cosmic in nature.

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It reaches every space. It reaches every time, not only the physical space, not only the physical time, and you remember the words that sort of give us that impression over in those first two chapters.

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You are seated in the heavenlies. Christ is seated in the heavenlies. You are in Christ. The cornerstone is

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Christ, and you are in the cornerstone, not on the cornerstone, in the cornerstone.

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All of those kinds of things speak of that transcendent nature of all that we are in the

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Lord Jesus Christ. And so the apostle Paul is going to continue now at chapter 3, and I'm going to continue now chapter 3 also.

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So he says, for this reason, for that reason that we are enjoying and are part of this cosmic salvation, this transcendent salvation which extends way beyond us, on to us, beyond us, easy for me to say, to spiritual space, to physical space, to all of that.

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I, a prisoner of the Gentiles, on behalf of you Gentiles, Ephesians, and West Boylstonites, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation.

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Paul says something was revealed to me. It is a mystery. That doesn't mean it is hocus pocus.

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That means it is something that has been in the past, but not revealed in the past, and not revealed until this discussion that Paul is going to have about it right here to the

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Ephesians. It was given to me, made known to me by revelation. As I have written,

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I'll translate above instead of briefly, as I have written previously, that's those first two chapters.

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I get the other interpretation, but I'm here, so this is mine. All right? When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, into what it is about Christ that is known now, but was not known previously.

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This was not made known to the sons of men in other generations, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets, speaking of New Testament prophets.

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When Pastor Mike comes later today to preach, he is a New Testament prophet. He better confine it to the

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New Testament. All right? He will be a New Testament teller of the truth.

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Now, I want to do this, and I want to do it quickly, and I want you to cooperate with me, and I want you to use your radio voice so that we hear this.

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This thing is being recorded, and so if I say I want somebody to read

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Isaiah 42, 6 -9, who will that be? Let's do it quickly. I'm an old guy.

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I don't have too long to wait. All right? So let's do that quickly. Who will read

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Isaiah 42, 6 -9? I'm going to give you several references here. Who's doing that?

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Okay. Over here. All right. 45, 21, and 22. 45, 21, and 22.

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49, 6. 49, 6, Isaiah. All right. 52, 10,

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Isaiah. I'm just doing this from Isaiah. Okay. 61, 1 -3.

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Who will do that? Okay, Charlie. Psalm 22, 27.

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Psalm 65, 5. Psalm 98, 2, and 3.

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Who's going to do that? Let's not leave Psalm 98 hanging. All right,

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Becky. 98, 2, and 3. All right. Now, as we hear these,

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I want you to listen for the following. What do you hear?

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What's the main theme here? And it's an overarching theme. And this is only representative of the

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Old Testament prophets. It's not all of them by any means. And what is missing here?

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What do you not hear? Hear. Hear, hear. Okay. What is not heard?

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So, let's start out, listen carefully, and then we have the test. All right? Remember, let me preface it by reminding you that this mystery of Christ was not made known to the sons of men in other generations.

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I'll give you a hint. We're reading men of other generations, all right, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets.

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That's what you're going to miss in what we now read, what has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the

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Spirit. Okay. So, Isaiah 42, 6 through 9.

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Okay. Now, what do you hear? What's the theme there in all of that?

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There are several things that are said there, but in every one of those verses and they are only representative of the

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Old Testament prophets, in every one of them there was a singular thing that was alike.

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All the nations. The salvation is for all the nations.

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Now, that brings us back to the Ephesians. Now, remember, Peter has commented on this, and this is where we left it last week.

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Concerning this salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the

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Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories.

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It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you.

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In the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the

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Holy Spirit sent from heaven, now watch this, things into which angels long to look.

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Okay. What's missing there in all of those verses that we read?

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All the nations. And this goes way back to Abraham, beyond Abraham really, but it does.

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The Lord comes to Abraham. He says, I'm going to give you a people. I'm going to give you a land. I'm going to make you a blessing for all mankind.

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That's the first mention really of salvation to all the nations. And now here we see it in the prophets.

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Peter says the prophets were looking, but they didn't get it. They were looking into things that angels long to look into.

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So let me point this out to you. The angels didn't get it either. You think, hey, they were in heaven.

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They knew the whole ball game from beginning to end. No, they didn't. They did not know the whole ball game.

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So what is missing in all of those verses that we read? There is something missing.

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What's that? How salvation comes to all nations. Correct. All right.

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And that how salvation comes to all nations is what Paul is talking about as he speaks to the

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Ephesians. Of course, not only the Ephesians, but the Colossians. And if we have time, we'll read something that the

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Lord himself had to say about all of this. How does salvation come to all nations?

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The Old Testament prophets thought this. Salvation is going to come to all of the nations by all of the nations becoming

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Jews like us. That was the conflict when Jesus arrived on the scene. That's how salvation is going to come to all the nations.

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Paul says to the Ephesians, no, no, there is a mystery of Christ not made known to the sons of men and other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the

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Spirit. Now comes the definition. Part of it. This mystery is that the

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Gentiles are fellow heirs. The whole thing about the doctrine of the adoption there, but we're going to go on.

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Fellow heirs, members of the same body. The same body of what?

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The same body of promise that began way back in the Old Testament.

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Members of the same body and partakers of the promise, that promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

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So what is the mystery of Christ? As Paul lays it out to the Ephesians, the mystery of Christ is that even you

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Gentile dogs, even you Gentiles can be saved through Christ in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

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Now I want to rush on because I don't have time to labor over that, but there are lots to labor over there, but we're not going to do that.

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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.

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To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the

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Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.

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Whatever has happened to you Ephesians, it was before the foundation of the world. You go, he's always said that.

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Your computer like mind immediately flashes back to the first chapter and you read that you were chosen before the foundation of the world.

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All of this was in God's mind, but not revealed until the

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Lord Jesus came and everything is wrapped up in Christ Jesus.

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So we have what we call progressive revelation. Salvation begins, at least in the scriptures, back at Genesis chapter 3 .15,

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doesn't it? It's going to be a man born. He's going to deal Satan a fatal blow. He's going to be wounded in the process, and I'm sure that even the people back there went, what?

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Is that okay? And they went on. The whole Old Testament is the sad account of human beings attempting to redeem a fallen world.

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But Paul says in God's plan there was a mystery, and that mystery is how he's going to redeem the world.

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But you know what? A fallen world will not appreciate the redemption that is in Christ, will not appreciate that until they know they are fallen.

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If you have come to Christ because you turned on your television set and heard that this was

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God's week for you, and so you decided to do something about that,

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I have no idea what that would be because they never say except send money, all right?

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If you have thought that and you say, well, now I'm a Christian now because I bought into that, let me say, and this is not nice,

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I know, you're not, okay? You cannot be saved until you come to the conclusion that you need to be saved because you are not only living in a fallen world but are part of a fallen world.

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You all know that, but I just thought I would remind you, okay? All right.

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Now we come to the tenth verse, which is critical. So Paul has said there is this mystery of Christ.

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It is the Gentiles can be saved. Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, West Boylstonites, the whole crowd, the

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Old Testament prophets did not see that. Paul said it was a mystery hidden in the mind of God from before the creation of the world, but now it's been revealed.

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It has been revealed in Jesus Christ. Now here's the point of salvation.

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You know, we come to Christ, we think I need to come to Christ because I have concluded that I'm a sinner.

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I need my sin forgiven, okay? He is the great Savior. I need my sin imputed to Him and His righteousness imputed to me.

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I'll take it, okay? And you notice that the emphasis at that point is

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I, me, and so on. Then we grow a little bit in Christ and we figure out, no, this isn't all about me.

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It's about other things, among them that others should come to Christ, okay?

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And so I'll become involved in that. We're still talking about human beings here, and salvation tends to get stated in a very human -centric way.

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But we have already said that the look here in Ephesians is cosmic. It goes way beyond the material universe and the material humans that live in the universe, and covers the spiritual space as well as the material space, and it is a cosmic thing that it goes in every direction.

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So at 310 of Ephesians I read, so that through the church, that's us.

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You say, wow, I don't know how this is all going to work out, but it's going to happen through us.

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Why? Because Christ has come. Because the mystery of Christ has now been revealed.

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It's all in Him. We read about that two weeks ago in the first two chapters of Ephesians as we flash through there, alright?

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So that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might be now made known.

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I want to go back and camp on manifold for just a second. This is the only time that this word is used in the

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Greek New Testament. It is a word that means many fill in the blank, many colors, many smells, many whatever.

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And the idea is when I look at the field for the wildflowers, for example, I see many colors.

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When a jeweler looks at a diamond, he looks into that diamond and he sees many facets.

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And so the idea here is that Paul is trying to explain the wisdom of God, and he said it covers so many things and goes in so many directions that it's almost unbelievable.

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And to emphasize that, the word is compounded with the prefix which comes to us as poly, okay?

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In other words, Paul is saying the wisdom of God is many colored, many faceted, goes in many directions, but what he's trying to emphasize here is it goes in many, many faceted, many, many colors, many, many directions, and what he's trying to say is the wisdom of God is so amazing that it cannot be adequately accounted for really.

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He blurts that out in, well, he blurts that out when he says,

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I pray at the end of chapter 3, we're not going to get there, and when he says, I pray that you may know the height and the breadth and the width and the depth and all of that, and interestingly enough, in the text, that question is never answered.

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If you ask yourself that question when you get down there in Ephesians 3, the height and width and depth and breadth of what,

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Paul? He never answers that question. It's just like when he's talking about the manifold wisdom of God here, he just goes, it's just great.

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And that's what's trying to be said here. It's not a good translation, but you get the picture, all right?

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Through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known, and now when we look at salvation and it's only human -centric, we say, might now be made known to me.

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I'm saved. I'm on my way to heaven. It's great, great, great. That's little. That's minuscule compared to all that is involved, that it might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

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You say, what? My salvation was ultimately that the manifold wisdom of God would be known to beings that are beyond me, that transcend me, that are outside of me, that are in that spiritual space, and my salvation was to demonstrate something to them?

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And the answer is yes, indeed, for they are the rulers and authorities in heavenly places.

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You say, well, how's that all going to work out? I won't get much past this today, all right?

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Let me take you to a couple of places where this is spoken of.

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Not in Revelation, although I know if we have time we might end up there today.

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2 Thessalonians chapter 1. You remember the story of the

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Thessalonians, or maybe you don't. The Thessalonians were Gentiles, and the gospel had come to them amidst great persecution.

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They had apparently come under the impression that the Lord Jesus was coming back before they would die, and then some of them began to die, and that was a big problem in the church at Thessalonica.

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And so, Paul writes these two letters to them, probably in pretty quick succession.

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But when we get to the second letter, he addresses, first of all, in that letter, their persecution and the trouble they are having for being

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Christians. And he says, therefore we ourselves boast about you in the time of verse 4 of chapter 1 of 2

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Thessalonians, in the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are enduring.

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And now things get cosmic. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God.

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See, now things become transcendent. It's just we're living in the dirt down here in Thessalonica, Paul.

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They're beating us up daily. They already threw you out of town, and you're writing from Athens.

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All right, we're under great persecution. But this persecution is the evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God for which you are also suffering.

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Thessalonians, think about what you know, not about how you feel. That's the appeal here.

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Since indeed God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the

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Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, now things you see got cosmic, didn't they?

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Things are coming from someplace else. Beings are coming from someplace else in all of this.

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And when that happens, when he is revealed from heaven with his angels in flaming fire, we're not talking about the great meeting in the air here.

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And I'll just say to you, yes indeed, I'm a millennialist, a premillennialist, a pre -tribulation premillennialist, and I say that with no apology.

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All right? And if you all millennial folks want to argue about it afterwards, we'll go to lunch or whatever. All right?

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We're not talking about the great meeting in the air here. We're talking about when the Lord Jesus comes to judge the world.

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And we're going to be talking about how he demonstrates to the world that it has made a massive mistake in rejecting him.

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All right? I want you to keep thinking about Ephesians, even though I'm in Thessalonians. All right?

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He will come in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know

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God. Well, that wouldn't be us. In fact, we're not even here. Well, we're behind him at this time.

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All right? And on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus.

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Now here's the answer to, you think God would really allow anybody to go to hell? They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the

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Lord and from the glory of his might. You don't have to write your THD thesis about this.

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The answer is yes. Okay? When he comes on that day, now watch this.

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When he comes on that day of judgment and he's going to judge the world in righteousness, you say, well, how's he going to do that?

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What's going to be involved in that? When he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints,

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Ephesians, Ephesians, you have been saved so that those principalities in power may know the manifold wisdom of God.

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The angels have longed to look into this salvation and on the day of judgment when the

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Lord Jesus returns to judge this old world, part of that is going to be to demonstrate that the world has made a huge mistake in rejecting him.

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And what's the demonstration going to be? The demonstration is going to be you and me. He comes on that day to be glorified in his saints and to be marveled at among all those who have believed because our testimony to you was believed.

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The whole universe, the principalities and powers are going to observe us and every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is

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Lord to the glory of God the Father and we too will confess. I mean, look around this room, okay?

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And you go, this is the manifold wisdom of God? Whoa, this is quite amazing.

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However, when you couple that with the fact that these people sitting around you and me are saved, that is the manifold wisdom of God and the universe will fall on its face in the view of that.

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It's an amazing thing. Now, Paul put this mystery of Christ, so that's why

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Paul says to the Ephesians, doesn't he, through the church, through this motley crew of believers,

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God is going to display his manifold wisdom. And to the Thessalonians he says, and it's going to come on that day of judgment when the church is held up and the universe is going to go, whoa, this was really good.

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And the angels that long to look into salvation are going to go, whoa, it's better than we ever imagined.

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Why? Because it is the manifold wisdom of God. It's the many, many, many, many -sided wisdom of God, of God.

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Now to the Colossians. It's interesting to read how Paul describes the

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Colossians describes the mystery of Christ to the Colossians.

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I'm not going to turn there. We don't have time. But to the Colossians he says this.

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To the Ephesians he says, the mystery of Christ is that Gentiles can be saved. He amplifies that to the

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Colossians. To the Colossians he says, the mystery of Christ is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

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So it's not only that Gentiles can be saved. It is, and this the

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Old Testament prophets knew nothing about, it is

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Christ in you, the hope of glory. And Paul calls that to the

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Colossians, the mystery of Christ. What has now been revealed about this salvation, that the

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Holy Spirit would indwell every believer, and the Holy Spirit is the seal of our inheritance, and the

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Holy Spirit which we possess. I get it. When we look around at each other we go, whoa, that is a dwelling place of the

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Holy Spirit? Whoa. Okay. But the universe is going to say that one day. And when they realize that we are the dwelling place of the

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Holy Spirit, the universe, the angels, the principalities, the powers to whom this salvation is displayed, they are going to fall down and worship the

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Lord Jesus. Described as, every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is

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Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And it talks about all the places that that will happen, including under the earth.

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That's biblical talk for hell. The day comes, if you think hell is bad because it's isolated and it's hot and all of that stuff, great, great, great.

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But the ironic day, the ironic day is, when your knee bows and your tongue confesses,

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Jesus Christ is Lord, it won't be you, brothers and sisters, but those people in hell, bow the knee and confess with their mouth,

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Jesus is Lord, that will be the worst day in hell that there has been up to that point.

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Well, let me go to John 17. And we'll close there. Because we are practicing the bailout school of homiletics, which means it's about time for me to bail out.

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The mystery of Christ to the Colossians was Christ in you, the hope of glory. Watch this.

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I'm going to go to verse 20 of chapter 17. This is the great moment that Jesus was praying for His disciples.

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And then at verse 20 He says, I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one.

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How did you come to Christ? How did I come to Christ? Did you ever see Jesus?

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Nope, not me. Ok, why did you come to Christ?

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Did you believe the testimony of the people that were in the room on the night that Jesus prayed this?

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Yes, you did. That would be the only way you could have come to Christ and that I could have come to Christ.

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I pray not only for these 12, 11, maybe Judas has blown the coop already.

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I pray not only for these that we call apostles, Jesus says, but I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their word.

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It's interesting, isn't it, how significant the word, word, is in the

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Scriptures. The Bible begins with the word, let there be light, described in John 1 as in the beginning was the word.

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And the Bible ends with the word as the Lord Jesus comes back to earth to set up His kingdom and it says on Him is inscribed this name, the word of God, the word of God.

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Well, Jesus said these people, these West Boylstonites, these Ephesians, these Colossians, these

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Philippians, this whole crowd of Gentiles who nobody thought could be saved, including the early church, by the way.

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You know, every time a Gentile, the first time a Gentile came to Christ or a Samaritan came to Christ, they had to send a committee down from Jerusalem to see if this could possibly be true.

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And I'm sure to the chagrin of a few, it was true. They were saved. But they are the people on whose shoulders we stand.

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We have believed through the word. Now watch this. Remember the significant phrase in Ephesians and most of Paul's letters is that we are in Christ.

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We are in the cornerstone. We read that two weeks ago. That they may all be one just as You, Father, are in me, and I in You, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that You have sent me.

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So we are in Christ, but we are in the Father, alright? We are in them.

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We have been invited into the fellowship of the Trinity. Now don't go Mormon on me here. You're not going to be gods, alright?

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But we have been invited into the fellowship of the Trinity at the prayer of the

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Lord Jesus Christ. The glory that You have given me

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I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one. That's not one like your soccer team.

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Hey, okay, we're all one. We win. It's not that. They are one as we are one.

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Well, how are Jesus and the Father and the Holy Spirit one? You say,

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I don't know. We call it the Trinity. I don't get it. Well, guess what? You and I have been invited into that fellowship and you say, how are you one with Christ?

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How is it that you can be in Christ and I can be in Christ? And the answer is, I don't know, but I am because I've been invited into that fellowship by the

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Lord Jesus Himself. I in them. I in them.

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Christ in you, the hope of glory. It's the mystery of Christ. You in me,

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Father, that they may become perfectly one so that the world may know that You sent me and love them even as You love me.

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This morning, folks, here's something to know when things get messy in the next six days.

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That God the Father loves you just like He loves Jesus.

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And He loves me the same way. And when your emotions are going nuts, that's something to remember.

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Father, I desire that they also whom You have given me may be with me where I am.

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Isn't that interesting? May be with me where I am. Where is Jesus today? Pastor Mike's going to be hitting it again.

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Where is He? He's at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us.

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What did Paul say to the Ephesians? He said, you are seated in the heavenly places. Oh, there's an

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I am -ness where I am -ness, a location that is in Christ.

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Okay? And not only that, it is so far into Christ that it is also described as Christ in you, the hope of glory.

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So we are where He is. You say, no, not me. I've got to go to work tomorrow and hold messy nine yards of it for the next six days.

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Sorry. That's your emotions telling you that. The reality is that you are where Christ is.

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Why? Because you are in Christ and Christ is in you. He is the hope, the expectation of glory.

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I want them to be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you love me before the foundation of the world.

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Okay? So what's the mystery of Christ? Well, we didn't really have time to do it justice.

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But, it is this. Christ in you, the hope of glory.

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You in Christ, where He is. You in Christ, the hope of glory. That union between us and the

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Lord Jesus is so organic that He described it this way.

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Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood, you say, what? That's really hard when we get over there to the

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Gospel of John. No, no. The union of ourselves, our union with Christ is a simile of the union of the food that we eat.

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The union of the food that we eat, that it becomes with our own bodies. And you cannot separate that out.

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So, can you be separated from Christ? Nay. That's to know when things get messy this week.

36:20

Father, we're grateful for your word. We're grateful that it brings us up against ideas so big that we can hardly understand.

36:29

And so we pray that you would illumine our hearts by your Holy Spirit. We pray that you would enlighten us by the fact that you are in us and that we are in you.

36:43

And we pray as we walk in a world that is fallen and very messy, that you would cause us,

36:51

Lord, to rely on what we know, not on how we feel.

36:57

It's in Christ's name that we pray this morning, that he may be glorified as we act on what we know and not what we feel.