The Church is NOT a Parenthesis

Paul’s Prison Epistle and the Mystery Revealed in Ephesians 3

Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist. My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist. Today we're going to be in Ephesians chapter three. So if you wanna open up your Bibles and turn there, we're going to be beginning looking at verse one and we're going to go down to, well, we're gonna go down to about verse six.

But before we turn to the scripture reading, I wanna make a quick announcement because I know many of you are members of Sovereign Grace Family Church and you're aware that I was out of service last week because of a potential COVID exposure.

Well, the tests have been completed and the exposure that was potential has been determined to be not an exposure and so I am good. I'm out of quarantine and I will be back to my normal duties at Sovereign Grace Family Church on Wednesday night.

So if you're a regular Wednesday night attender at Sovereign Grace, we'll have our Bible study at 6 .30 and you're welcome to join with us. So just keep that in mind that I'll be back to my normal routine, actually beginning tomorrow.

I'll be up at the church office tomorrow working and that would be Tuesday, July the 7th. So things are going pretty well at the beginning of this week. And again, I wanna thank Brother Mike Collier for leading a wonderful sermon last Sunday in my absence.

He preached a wonderful message on the importance of David and Goliath and David as a picture of Jesus, wonderful message. And I encourage you, if you have not heard it, to please go into our archives at the Sovereign Grace website and listen to that message.

Or you can go onto our YouTube page and the worship services there that includes that message. All right, so today we're going to be in Ephesians chapter three. It says, for this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles.

And that's interesting. This is often called a prison epistle because it's believed Paul wrote this from prison. And so this is just a mention of that as we go past it, but that's not the point I'm gonna focus on today.

Progressive Revelation and the Meaning of the Mystery

Verse two, he says, 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 as I have written briefly. Now, what I wanted to focus on today is this word mystery because Paul uses it several times.

And as I mentioned in previous Bible studies, if you've ever studied with me, I say, anytime you see a word come up multiple times in a short space, often that's the focus. If there's a single word that's coming out multiple times in a short amount of text, then that tends to be the focus of the study.

And you'll notice he says that in verse three, he says, the mystery was made known to me by revelation. Verse four, when you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ. Verse five, which was made known, excuse me, which was 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 spirit.

Now, that word revealed is important because that which is revealed is not a mystery. So revealed is like using the opposite word. So you have that which is revealed and that which is a mystery. That which is revealed is something that's shown.

That which is a mystery is something that's not revealed. So even in verse five, we have the word revealed and it's the antithesis of mystery. And then verse six, he actually tells us what the mystery is.

He says, this mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Paul says that there is a mystery that the former believers, he says that the previous generations, verse five, men and other generations did not know.

It was not revealed to them. And this tells us something important. First of all, it tells us that the Old Testament saints, even though they had a lot of information, they did not have all information.

And this is where we get the idea of progressive revelation. Revelation is progressive, which means that over time, God's people learned more about God as he revealed himself progressively through history.

And so I've said it before, you've probably heard it on this program. We know more now than did Abraham about God, about the gospel, about the Trinity, about God's attributes. Even though Abraham was called the friend of God, that doesn't mean that it was all revealed to him.

And you say, well, how could we think we know more about God than Abraham? Well, it's not hubris, it's not pride to say that God has put us on this side of the cross. And therefore we have the ability to look back.

We have the ability to look at revelation as something that has happened and been revealed, and it's no longer a mystery. To us, what's coming is a mystery, but what has come is something we can look back on and investigate and understand.

And that's the point Paul is making here. He's saying there was a mystery that the old covenant saints didn't really understand. And the mystery was that the Gentiles were going to be made partakers. I'll just read it to you.

It's again, it's verse six. The mystery is, and by the way, he says what the mystery is. Some people say, well, we have to wonder what the mystery is. We don't have to wonder here because Paul tells us.

He says, this mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. There is a tremendous amount of desire among people to divide over every single possible way that they can divide, whether it be doctrinally, whether it be because of a particular affinity for a certain type of music or a particular affinity for a certain type of worship style.

Some people like high church, some people like low church, which would be low liturgy versus high liturgy. Some people really like the responsive reading, a dialogical worship where the participants are speaking back and there's a lot of interaction.

Some people don't like that as much. And so there becomes a lot of divide and everybody of course thinks they're right. Everybody, well, this is the right way because this is my way. My way is the right way.

That's the way a lot of people think. But in this regard, what we need to remember is that if we are in Christ, we are all one body. And Paul makes that point very, very clearly in the book of Galatians.

He says that in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek. There is neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female for we are all one in Christ Jesus. Now, a lot of people make a big issue about the male, female part of that sentence.

A lot of people make issue about the slave and free in that sentence. But the most important part of that sentence in my opinion is there is no longer Jew or Greek because that's the point. In fact, a lot of Christians, a lot of Jewish Christians like to identify themselves that way.

And if you are a Messianic Jew, if that's how you define yourself, I'm not attacking you. But I do think that there are times where there is a sense in which that becomes the identity. I'm not just a Christian, but I'm a Jewish Christian.

As if that somehow increases your stock, it does not. We are all one in Christ Jesus now. And whether you are Jew or Greek doesn't matter because that dividing wall that was there has been broken down.

Why the Church Is Not a Parenthesis in God’s Plan

And this is my biggest issue. And I'm gonna say it and offend a few people. And if you're offended, feel free to send me a message. But I will tell you this is ultimately, I'm not trying to offend you.

I'm just trying to tell you what I believe is true. This is the biggest fault I see with dispensationalism. Dispensationalism makes a hard divide between ethnic Israel and the church. And the dispensational view tries to say that the ethnic Israel was the focus of the Old Testament.

Since the cross, the church has been the focus, but there will come a day when the church is raptured out. That's the belief of dispensationalism. And after the rapture that ethnic Israel will become the focus of the church again, or excuse me, the focus of God's plan again.

In fact, some even say that that makes the church a parenthesis in the plan of God. You know what a parenthesis is? It's something that there's something before it and there's something after it. And the parenthesis isn't the focus, it's a parenthesis.

It's an aside. That's where my biggest issue is with dispensationalism because I will not say the bride of Christ is a parenthesis. The bride of Christ is not a parenthesis. The bride of Christ is the focus.

That is for whom Christ died. Jesus said, I laid down my life for the sheep. That he came and it says, husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her. So when someone tries to make the church a parenthesis, I take great issue with that because one, they're saying there's a distinction between the church and Israel.

And here's my problem with that. This passage tells us, again, listen, the mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs. Fellow heirs with who? Fellow heirs with Israel. If you have your Bibles open, and hopefully you do, and you look over into the book of Romans, you come into Romans and in Romans chapter 11, the apostle Paul talks about this in a little bit of a different way, but I want you to hear this.

He says in verse 11, Romans 11, verse 11, he says, so I asked, did they stumble in order that they might fall by no means? He's talking about the Jews. He says, rather through their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles so as to make Israel jealous.

And he said, well, right there, he's making a distinction between Israel and the Gentiles. Yes, but listen as it goes on. He says, now, if their trespass meant riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean?

Now, I am speaking to you Gentiles, and as much as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead?

If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. But if some of the branches were broken off and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches.

If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root supports you, then you will say branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in. That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast in faith, so do not become proud, but fear.

And he goes on to say, for if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. And ultimately the point is this, that if you imagine Israel like a tree, Israel is the tree and God has removed unbelieving branches, but he's grafted in believing branches.

And he's very clear that that's the Gentiles that are being grafted in. And the Gentiles who are being grafted in are being grafted in to that tree, to Israel. And therefore the church represents not a different nation than Israel, but the church represents an expansion and a bringing into the nation of Israel.

Expansion Theology and the Israel of God

Okay, so let me paint it like this. Maybe this will be a little bit easier. Some people would say, well, pastor, you're teaching replacement theology. The church has replaced Israel and I just can't stand for that.

Well, let me tell you what I'm actually teaching. I'm not teaching replacement theology. I am teaching expansion theology because throughout the old covenant, the promise of the gospel was held primarily within the Jewish nation.

But when Christ came, the gospel went out to every tribe, tongue, and nation. And now the spiritual Israel of God is made up of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation. It's no longer just the Jews. And there is no more Jew and Gentile distinction.

Those who try to make that Jew-Gentile distinction in the church are making the wrong distinction. The only distinction that matters in this world is either you are in Christ or you are outside of Christ.

And if you are in Christ, the apostle Paul says in Galatians chapter six, you are part of the Israel of God. And if you're outside of Christ, even if you are of Jewish descent, you will not see the kingdom of heaven because the kingdom of heaven is not earned simply by being a Jew.

The kingdom of heaven is received by faith in Jesus Christ. He is the true Israel. And being grafted into him is being grafted into that national tree. Only those who believe on Jesus will see the kingdom of God.

That's the mystery. That was the mystery that was not understood in the old covenant, but it is the mystery that has been revealed in the new covenant. The gospel, the gospel that Abraham received that he didn't fully understand because he didn't understand so much because again, progressive revelation, right?

You go back, what does it say? The apostle Paul tells us in Galatians, the gospel was preached to Abraham when he said what? Through you, all the nations of the world will be blessed. How are all the nations of the world blessed by Abraham?

Through the seed of Abraham. Who is the seed of Abraham? Jesus. When we believe in Jesus, we are placed into him. The Bible says we believe in him and we are placed in him. And because of that, we are true Israel.

So again, some of you may take issue with that. Feel free to leave a comment below if you would like, and I will try to answer it to the best of my abilities, but understand this. This is what I believe the Bible teaches, and I think that it teaches it in so many places.

We who are believers are sons and daughters of Abraham. We should not ever doubt that fact. So this ends today's episode of Coffee with a Calvinist. If you have enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to like, comment, share, and subscribe.

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May God bless you.