Sunday, July 25, 2010
Room65 Podcast Available
Just a little update to say that the official Room65 Podcast with interviews, features and information on our upcoming month of mission in Carrubbers is now available for free subscription on Itunes HERE
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Summer Index #8 Eph 5:1-21
Ephesians 5:1-21 “The Motivation for the Gospel New Life”
This was a hard study this week, but by God’s grace may He still bless this to us all.1) What we are called to be:
We noticed that there is a big focus on how we are to be active in seeking to live out the new people that we have been made in Christ, rather than sitting back expecting it to happen magically.
- imitators of God (v.1a)
- beloved children (v.1b)
- walking in love like Christ loved us in dying for us (v.2)
- thankful (v.4b)
- children of light, producing the fruit of light (v.8-9)
2) What we are called not to do:
- defiling ourselves in sexual immorality, which includes all sorts of impurity or lust (v.3) – why this great focus? Probably because as Jesus says when we are made a new man, when we are sexually impure it is like we are joining Christ to what is sexually impure.
- defiling our speech with foolish or filthy talk (v.4)
- not to be partners with the “sons of disobedience” who incur God’s wrath in their rebellion against Him (v.6)
- taking no part whatsoever in the unfruitful works of darkness (v.11)
3) The Motivations to live this new life:
We read of four motivations to practically live out the new life in our Christian experience:
a) We are recipients of God’s love, as demonstrated through Jesus’ life, death and resurrection (v.2), so want to live in a way that is pleasing to Him in thanksgiving (v.10)
b) We have been made God’s light in a dark world (v.7-14): Jesus said that we are the light of the world and we should let that light shine. We are called not to take part in the acts of darkness instead we are to expose and bring to light sin with God’s truth through our lives in that truth (v.11). The sin of people can be made visible by the contrast of our lives in God. But that is not the only function of our light, because Paul also says that “anything that becomes visible is light”. John Stott suggests this: ‘this may mean that Christians who lead a righteous life thereby restrain and reform evildoers, yes, and even convert them…for it may bring people as they see the ugliness of evil to conviction of their sin and so to penitent faith in Jesus.’ (J. Stott, The Message of Ephesians pp.200-201) => the quote introduced as “therefore” in v.14 while appearing close to Isaiah 60v1 is suggested to be an early church hymn sung at baptisms (which is a picture of the death of the old self with Christ on the Cross, and the new self raised into new life with Christ in His resurrection) which is fitting if it is the culmination of this idea of our light also leading to people being saved.
c) We have God’s wisdom so should make the most of our time to make a difference for the gospel in a dark age (v.15-17). Walking in wisdom means conducting ourselves as the new creation in Christ Jesus in a proper way before the world, because if we act unwisely in sin then we will only be seen as hypocrites and will never lead the lost to Christ. But wisdom also involves understanding “what the will of the Lord is”, which comes from our relationship with God, for as we grow closer to Him and are changed more into the likeness of Christ (with the renewing of our minds) we will better know and live out wisely the will of God.
d) We are filled with the Spirit (v.17-21). God doesn’t expect us to do the new life on our own, He offers us His Holy Spirit in incredible measure. We read: “be filled with the Holy Spirit”, which should literally be read: “continually let yourself be filled with the Holy Spirit”. All what comes after that (the thanksgiving, singing, encouraging one another in psalms) filling is simply the overflow of what happens when we live a life that is constantly letting God fill us to overflowing with Himself. The new life is in Christ and having Christ in us and having Christ overspill out of us into this world. Rather than being drunk with wine (which Dr. Martyn Lloyd Jones says is a depressive substance that reduces our higher mental functions of man reducing us to animalistic functions), we are to be filled with the Spirit (which creates and conforms us more into the likeness of the true and perfect man, Jesus Christ).
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Summer Index #7: Eph.4:17-32
Ephesians 4:17-32 – “The Gospel Brings New Life"
Last week we looked the unity of the new gospel community, this week the focus is purity.
1) The Old Life
- v.17 “this I testify in the Lord” => Paul speaks and issues commands in the name and authority of Jesus the King
- .17-19 => unbelievers have a hardness of heart due to their sin nature, which as they choose to ignore God and rebel against Him then they grow in darkness of their minds, ignorance, futility and are alienated from the life of God => this also hard heart and mind against God then translates into sinful acts of them choosing to give themselves over as slaves to all kinds of sin and impurity.
=> parallel text to see this development of hardness and rebellion in the old sinful nature self is Romans 1:18-28.
2) The New Life
-v.20 “BUT this is not the way you learned Christ!” => there has been a break with this former way of sin, ignorance, hardness of heart and impurity by Christ having liberated us from our slavery under the dominion of sin.
- v.21-24 the way that we have learned Christ in the past is altogether different (Paul is not telling non-believers these things, rather they are Christians who need a reminder and call to purity, so this applies to all of us today. Paul is calling the Christians to have behaviour consistent with the new life and identity they have Christ – he is not being moralistic, rather is calling us to live holy lives because we have been and are being made holy by God)
=> in contrast to the unbelievers futility of mind, Christians are renewed through their minds to see and know God and worship Him; our conduct then in daily life needs to be examined with this new mind from Christ so we live consistently with who we are
=> we are to be involved in co-operation with the Holy Spirit in “putting off” the old self and “putting on” the new self.
v.24 the new self is in true righteousness and holiness => so essentially the new life is not just about the things we do differently from when we were unsaved, the new life is about putting on Christ, abiding in Christ, growing in Christ, being made more like Christ through sanctification as He alone is true righteousness and holiness and He alone can bring that to be a reality in our lives. The fact He gives us this new life and all these new things in true righteousness and holiness is all of grace!
-v.25-32 Paul then goes from the lofty theology of how we have been made a new person in Christ to practically show us 5 examples of what that looks like (all of this is application of the theology – see next section).
- v.30 the Holy Spirit can be “grieved” – He is a person (not just a force, energy or thing) with emotions and a gentle character. He can be grieved by our sin and living inconsistently with our new life in Christ, as a Temple of the Holy Spirit (which means are lives are called to be set apart from sin and all that defiles that holy place).
=> remarked how when Jesus was baptised the Holy Spirit came and “rested upon Him” like a dove. The Spirit rested on Jesus who lived a perfect life, never grieving Him. However, we don’t! The Spirit is promised never to leave us, but we still can hinder His work and grieve Him.
3) Application
Based on our understanding of God has saved us through the Cross of Christ and the grace we have received, being made new people in His new holy community we are to live changed lives. We will never be able to perfectly achieve these things and this is not about us trying to live in such a way to impress God or make Him love us more (nor does He loves us less when we fail), because we live by grace and not by law – but that grace we have received and our new identity should spur us on to want to live pleasing obedient lives to His honour, praise and glory:
a) speak the truth (put on) and do not lie (put off)
Why don’t we tell the truth? Sometimes because we want to protect ourselves, sometimes to protect others…but the real heart of the matter is (as Tim Keller says) that we love something or ourselves more than we love Jesus! *Our new life in Jesus as His bride means we need to battle our tendency to spiritual adultery and loving other things more than we love Him! His grace for our evil idol-factory hearts is no license to continue with our sin!
b) be angry and do not sin
There are things which it is good to have righteous anger (false teaching, sin, injustice, etc.) but we are not to judge, for that alone is for God. Often our anger is sinful because we judge and condemn the person, forgetting that we ourselves are no better and are only recipients of God’s grace and have received pardon of our sins, which God offers for this life to that other person too. Sometimes we have totally selfish reasons for our anger (simply people have inconvenienced our agenda), which shows that something is not right with our anger.
c) no longer steal (put off), rather work to give (put on)
Our new life in Christ means we must have integrity in all parts of our lives and do honestly to receive earthly blessings, and the focus of those earthly blessings must always not be to accumulate treasures for ourselves, but to bless others and take care of the needy as part of the compassionate work of Christ.
d) no more evil talk (put off) only that which builds up and gives grace (put on)
This is a very hard and challenging calling, but if we are to be ambassadors of Christ and the reality of this transformed new life in the gospel, then it is crucial that we speak only in a way that reflects His perfections and beauty; rather than speaking sinfully and corruptly. Our tongues are dangerous, as James 3 warns us!
e) no more bitter and divisive attitudes (put off) but rather be kind and forgiving (put on)
Paul’s words cover a lot of attitudes here: quarrelling, sour spirit, passionate rage, speaking evil of people, and wishing ill on people. We need God’s help to deal with these wicked heart attitudes of the former self. But we are called to strive as much as we can to be kind (the Greek word is Chrestos, which is a worldplay on Christ – so we are to be kind like Christ was kind even to His enemies) and forgiving (literally in the Greek: giving grace to one another) since we have already been forgiven infinitely more by Christ in His giving grace to us!
Last week we looked the unity of the new gospel community, this week the focus is purity.
1) The Old Life
- v.17 “this I testify in the Lord” => Paul speaks and issues commands in the name and authority of Jesus the King
- .17-19 => unbelievers have a hardness of heart due to their sin nature, which as they choose to ignore God and rebel against Him then they grow in darkness of their minds, ignorance, futility and are alienated from the life of God => this also hard heart and mind against God then translates into sinful acts of them choosing to give themselves over as slaves to all kinds of sin and impurity.
=> parallel text to see this development of hardness and rebellion in the old sinful nature self is Romans 1:18-28.
2) The New Life
-v.20 “BUT this is not the way you learned Christ!” => there has been a break with this former way of sin, ignorance, hardness of heart and impurity by Christ having liberated us from our slavery under the dominion of sin.
- v.21-24 the way that we have learned Christ in the past is altogether different (Paul is not telling non-believers these things, rather they are Christians who need a reminder and call to purity, so this applies to all of us today. Paul is calling the Christians to have behaviour consistent with the new life and identity they have Christ – he is not being moralistic, rather is calling us to live holy lives because we have been and are being made holy by God)
=> in contrast to the unbelievers futility of mind, Christians are renewed through their minds to see and know God and worship Him; our conduct then in daily life needs to be examined with this new mind from Christ so we live consistently with who we are
=> we are to be involved in co-operation with the Holy Spirit in “putting off” the old self and “putting on” the new self.
v.24 the new self is in true righteousness and holiness => so essentially the new life is not just about the things we do differently from when we were unsaved, the new life is about putting on Christ, abiding in Christ, growing in Christ, being made more like Christ through sanctification as He alone is true righteousness and holiness and He alone can bring that to be a reality in our lives. The fact He gives us this new life and all these new things in true righteousness and holiness is all of grace!
-v.25-32 Paul then goes from the lofty theology of how we have been made a new person in Christ to practically show us 5 examples of what that looks like (all of this is application of the theology – see next section).
- v.30 the Holy Spirit can be “grieved” – He is a person (not just a force, energy or thing) with emotions and a gentle character. He can be grieved by our sin and living inconsistently with our new life in Christ, as a Temple of the Holy Spirit (which means are lives are called to be set apart from sin and all that defiles that holy place).
=> remarked how when Jesus was baptised the Holy Spirit came and “rested upon Him” like a dove. The Spirit rested on Jesus who lived a perfect life, never grieving Him. However, we don’t! The Spirit is promised never to leave us, but we still can hinder His work and grieve Him.
3) Application
Based on our understanding of God has saved us through the Cross of Christ and the grace we have received, being made new people in His new holy community we are to live changed lives. We will never be able to perfectly achieve these things and this is not about us trying to live in such a way to impress God or make Him love us more (nor does He loves us less when we fail), because we live by grace and not by law – but that grace we have received and our new identity should spur us on to want to live pleasing obedient lives to His honour, praise and glory:
a) speak the truth (put on) and do not lie (put off)
Why don’t we tell the truth? Sometimes because we want to protect ourselves, sometimes to protect others…but the real heart of the matter is (as Tim Keller says) that we love something or ourselves more than we love Jesus! *Our new life in Jesus as His bride means we need to battle our tendency to spiritual adultery and loving other things more than we love Him! His grace for our evil idol-factory hearts is no license to continue with our sin!
b) be angry and do not sin
There are things which it is good to have righteous anger (false teaching, sin, injustice, etc.) but we are not to judge, for that alone is for God. Often our anger is sinful because we judge and condemn the person, forgetting that we ourselves are no better and are only recipients of God’s grace and have received pardon of our sins, which God offers for this life to that other person too. Sometimes we have totally selfish reasons for our anger (simply people have inconvenienced our agenda), which shows that something is not right with our anger.
c) no longer steal (put off), rather work to give (put on)
Our new life in Christ means we must have integrity in all parts of our lives and do honestly to receive earthly blessings, and the focus of those earthly blessings must always not be to accumulate treasures for ourselves, but to bless others and take care of the needy as part of the compassionate work of Christ.
d) no more evil talk (put off) only that which builds up and gives grace (put on)
This is a very hard and challenging calling, but if we are to be ambassadors of Christ and the reality of this transformed new life in the gospel, then it is crucial that we speak only in a way that reflects His perfections and beauty; rather than speaking sinfully and corruptly. Our tongues are dangerous, as James 3 warns us!
e) no more bitter and divisive attitudes (put off) but rather be kind and forgiving (put on)
Paul’s words cover a lot of attitudes here: quarrelling, sour spirit, passionate rage, speaking evil of people, and wishing ill on people. We need God’s help to deal with these wicked heart attitudes of the former self. But we are called to strive as much as we can to be kind (the Greek word is Chrestos, which is a worldplay on Christ – so we are to be kind like Christ was kind even to His enemies) and forgiving (literally in the Greek: giving grace to one another) since we have already been forgiven infinitely more by Christ in His giving grace to us!
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
CHALLENGE: What If His People Prayed?
This summer Carrubbers is running 27 days + nights of prayer in preparation for our Summer Festival Outreach: Room65.
As our Students and Young Workers, we would appreciate your prayers for this mission work for the Lord's glory. You can sign-up on the Carrubbers website to receive the daily prayer points e-mail "Praying Together - R65 'What If His People Prayed?' " or you can follow along on the Carrubbers blog each day.
But also you can benefit because we are also taking the whole month of July to GROW and MATURE in our understanding and practice of prayer. Also this coming year we will have a look at the Spiritual Discipline of Prayer with Wayne Sutton. We would really commend to you the daily prayer e-mails and reading/listening along in the daily devotion book: "With Christ in the School of Prayer" by Andrew Murray!
What if INDEX prayed?...Let's Find Out!
INDEX
As our Students and Young Workers, we would appreciate your prayers for this mission work for the Lord's glory. You can sign-up on the Carrubbers website to receive the daily prayer points e-mail "Praying Together - R65 'What If His People Prayed?' " or you can follow along on the Carrubbers blog each day.
But also you can benefit because we are also taking the whole month of July to GROW and MATURE in our understanding and practice of prayer. Also this coming year we will have a look at the Spiritual Discipline of Prayer with Wayne Sutton. We would really commend to you the daily prayer e-mails and reading/listening along in the daily devotion book: "With Christ in the School of Prayer" by Andrew Murray!
What if INDEX prayed?...Let's Find Out!
INDEX
Monday, July 5, 2010
Summer Index #6: Eph 4:1-16
Ephesians 4:1-16 – “The Unity and Diversity of Gospel Community Gifts"
We noticed that the passage has a circle, it begins talking a lot about unity with a focus on what we are to do in order to maitain a spirit of unity within the gospel community. It then deals with how there is unity in our diversity of giftings. Finally, it describes how we are all growing up into Christian maturity and Christ-likeness as part of His body which He holds together and causes to be unified.
1) Community Unity (v.1-6)
- "walk in a manner worthy of the calling"(v.1): based on all the previous studies unpacking the gospel's meaning, Paul says therefore this is to be our great aim. What an exhortation, but what does that look like? Paul helps us unpack it with some directional instructions in how we should walk:
2) Community Diversity (v.7-11)
Having emphasised unity so far, Paul introduces this new idea with "But" in v.7 to say that God's grace (charis) gifts (charismata) have been given to each believer in a different way, according to the measure of Christ's generosity.
-v.8 => we had a long discussion about the use of the OT quotation from Psalm 68:18 in the NT. Paul appears to quote out of context (a Psalm about Israel's victory over her enemies and receiving the gifts of spoil and tribute from them) and changing the meaning as he says that there was a giving of gifts instead.
=> God's Word is infallible (it will not lead us astray) and inerrant (it is authoritative and accurate in all it reports)
=> far from having tampered with the Word or quoted out of context (making it up), Paul here has been faithful to be meaning in the Psalm which widely was speaking of having brought a spoil from victory - which meant that the victor both received the spoil from enemies and gave it to their people. The receiving and giving in the Psalm are indissolubly linked, so Paul is being faithful to the original text in rendering it merely giving.
=> So Paul is not saying Psalm 68 was prophetically looking forward to Christ's ascension, giving of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. No he is using an analogy of the triumphany Israel as an illustration to show that Christ having triumphed through His Cross has stormed Satan's dominion, freed captives and given them gifts from His spoil of victory.
v.9 "...he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth" => we had another long discussion about what this meant and concluded it meant that one of the greatest gifts God has given us is Christ having come incarnate into this world. This is not teaching that Jesus descended into Hell, which is an erroneous doctrine arising in the 2nd century and should not have been added later in the Apostles Creed (nor appear in Robin Mark's hymn: The Lion of Judah)
v.11 lists some of the gifts God has given to His community to bless and help them:
3) The Purpose or Outcome of Community Gifts (v.12-16)
The purposes of these gifts to His church is our spiritual growth in Godliness and maturity in Christ. If we do not keep our focus on these things then we will lose sight of why we are doing anything and what these gifts are for.
We noticed that the passage has a circle, it begins talking a lot about unity with a focus on what we are to do in order to maitain a spirit of unity within the gospel community. It then deals with how there is unity in our diversity of giftings. Finally, it describes how we are all growing up into Christian maturity and Christ-likeness as part of His body which He holds together and causes to be unified.
1) Community Unity (v.1-6)
- "walk in a manner worthy of the calling"(v.1): based on all the previous studies unpacking the gospel's meaning, Paul says therefore this is to be our great aim. What an exhortation, but what does that look like? Paul helps us unpack it with some directional instructions in how we should walk:
- in humility
- in gentleness
- with patience
- bearing with one another in love
- eagering seeking unity
- there is one hope
- one Lord
- one faith
- one baptism
- one God and Father of all
2) Community Diversity (v.7-11)
Having emphasised unity so far, Paul introduces this new idea with "But" in v.7 to say that God's grace (charis) gifts (charismata) have been given to each believer in a different way, according to the measure of Christ's generosity.
-v.8 => we had a long discussion about the use of the OT quotation from Psalm 68:18 in the NT. Paul appears to quote out of context (a Psalm about Israel's victory over her enemies and receiving the gifts of spoil and tribute from them) and changing the meaning as he says that there was a giving of gifts instead.
=> God's Word is infallible (it will not lead us astray) and inerrant (it is authoritative and accurate in all it reports)
=> far from having tampered with the Word or quoted out of context (making it up), Paul here has been faithful to be meaning in the Psalm which widely was speaking of having brought a spoil from victory - which meant that the victor both received the spoil from enemies and gave it to their people. The receiving and giving in the Psalm are indissolubly linked, so Paul is being faithful to the original text in rendering it merely giving.
=> So Paul is not saying Psalm 68 was prophetically looking forward to Christ's ascension, giving of the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts. No he is using an analogy of the triumphany Israel as an illustration to show that Christ having triumphed through His Cross has stormed Satan's dominion, freed captives and given them gifts from His spoil of victory.
v.9 "...he had also descended into the lower regions, the earth" => we had another long discussion about what this meant and concluded it meant that one of the greatest gifts God has given us is Christ having come incarnate into this world. This is not teaching that Jesus descended into Hell, which is an erroneous doctrine arising in the 2nd century and should not have been added later in the Apostles Creed (nor appear in Robin Mark's hymn: The Lion of Judah)
v.11 lists some of the gifts God has given to His community to bless and help them:
- Apostles => the foundational period of the church had these men who were called by the risen Jesus
- Prophets => again the foundational period had prophets who wrote inspired scripture. We agreed any gift of prophecy still continuing is something a bit different, because it is not on-par with scripture and is always having to submit to its higher authority for testing.
- Evangelists => interesting that this is an office, but we are all called to in some part do the work of an evangelist (so we can't use this as an escape clause from evangelising!)
- Shepherds and Teachers
3) The Purpose or Outcome of Community Gifts (v.12-16)
The purposes of these gifts to His church is our spiritual growth in Godliness and maturity in Christ. If we do not keep our focus on these things then we will lose sight of why we are doing anything and what these gifts are for.
- "equip the saints for the work of ministry" => the ministry in focus here is the widest possible one (not just restricted to a clerical class or institutional church) we are all ministers as believers, we all have a work of ministry towards one another, to serving in the church community, to witnessing to others about the gospel. We are a priesthood of all believers.
- "the knowledge of the Son of God" => how important it is that our gifts are not meant to be the focus themselves, but rather are meant to be there to cause us to grow in our knowledge and relationship with the Lord Jesus
- "to mature manhood" => the standard for Christian maturity is not other Christians, instead it is the "stature of the fullness of Christ" => so we've all got a long way to go. But thanks be to God, that it is His work and not our own!
- "no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine" => we need to be equipped with the truth so we know what is right and wrong about the CHristian faith and the world in which we live.
- in contrast to the "crafty and deceitful schemes" of the world; we are to "speak the truth in love". We cannot just tell people the truth (we will only be a clashing gong as in 1 Cor.13) but we must always speak that truth in love. Truth is a person (not an abstract concept), the Lord Jesus and His Spirit and His Word (He is the Word incarnate); and that person is full of love. So if we are to speak of Him we must speak of His whole person of truth and love!
Monday, June 28, 2010
Summer Index #5: Eph 3:1-21
Ephesians 3:1-21 – “The Mystery and Ministry of the Gospel”
Paul suffers imprisonment for the sake of the ministry of the mystery of God’s gospel.
1) The Mystery (v.1-6)
- “Mystery” here refers to something which was veiled in the Old Testament but which has now been made known; namely, that the Gentiles would be grafted into the tree of Israel and become dominant in the church, while many Jews fell into unbelief for a time. For Jews, who hated Gentiles, this message was of great offence and so they sought to have Paul imprisoned (as seen the in latter portion of Acts).
2) The Ministry (v.7-13)
- “Minister according to the gift of God’s grace” (v.7) is an interesting way to describe evangelism. We see it more as a duty or responsibility (sometimes an unpleasant burden), but here we see Paul imprisoned because of his evangelistic activities describing it as a gift of God’s grace. This is perspective shaping.
- This ministry is done through the power and strength of God (v.7b) and we are not just left on our own to accomplish it, rather we have “boldness and access with confidence through our faith” to the reigning King Jesus to help, comfort and carry us throughout the many hardships and rejections that must necessarily come as gospel ministers.
- Purpose is to “preach” and “bring light to everyone” what is God’s plan and purpose in the gospel
- The theatre for the gospel is i) this-worldly with bringing the gospel to unbelievers who have previously been in ignorance of God’s plans (like the Gentiles), and also ii) other-worldly since now God’s wisdom is being “made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (v.10) so that all the angelic creation might marvel at God’s plan of redemption in His loving grace (something they do not participate in, as those who have fallen have no hope of salvation)
- The focus of this ministry is God’s “eternal purpose” (v.11), not just to save us individually for our own purposes but rather that we might fit into His eternal and cosmic purposes. Let’s not make the gospel so small that it’s just about us!
3) The Ministers (v.14-21)
- Paul prays a long, complex, one-sentence prayer for the individual ministers of the gospel.
- In summary, He prays for their growth in the Christian life (their sanctification) which is made up of being strengthened in their inmost parts by Christ taking up His dwelling/residence within and as they yield to Him daily that He will more and more fill them with His fullness (perfections) and know the incredible, inescapable, incomprehensible, unconquerable love of God. Jesus in our hearts is renovating our being, His dwelling, for Heaven by making us more like Himself through His great power that works within us.
- All the stages that Paul prays for is fuelled and accomplished by an attribute of God’s character and being – we don’t need to make ourselves better by our efforts, we need Him to come and work in us.
- A great reminder in v.20 of God’s incredible power to do more than we can ask or imagine – what a great God we have!
4) Application:
- Paul’s desire to preach the gospel to the Gentiles is still relevant today with many still to hear, but now also there is the need to call to unbelieving Israel to be saved. - -
- What a challenge also to be outward focused and selfless no matter what the cost and consequences to ourselves, just as Paul was in his ministry and imprisonment for the gospel!
- Paul while in chains prays for the Ephesian church that they would grow as Christian believers, which is a challenge for what our prayer life should be like for others and the priorities for prayer!
- We need to be letting Christ dwell in our hearts and be daily surrendering to Him in every area. This also means to cease the many areas of rebellion in our lives which hinder and quench His work through His Spirit, like sin and complacency.
- We need to be heavenly focused on God’s eternal purposes which are the most important, that we might be saved and sanctified. We so easily spend most of our time and energies on things which are far from these purposes.
- A constant reminder of the majesty and awesome love and character of God which is revealed throughout the passage, of His incredible love, strength, grace, abundance, wisdom, purposes, power.
Paul suffers imprisonment for the sake of the ministry of the mystery of God’s gospel.
1) The Mystery (v.1-6)
- “Mystery” here refers to something which was veiled in the Old Testament but which has now been made known; namely, that the Gentiles would be grafted into the tree of Israel and become dominant in the church, while many Jews fell into unbelief for a time. For Jews, who hated Gentiles, this message was of great offence and so they sought to have Paul imprisoned (as seen the in latter portion of Acts).
2) The Ministry (v.7-13)
- “Minister according to the gift of God’s grace” (v.7) is an interesting way to describe evangelism. We see it more as a duty or responsibility (sometimes an unpleasant burden), but here we see Paul imprisoned because of his evangelistic activities describing it as a gift of God’s grace. This is perspective shaping.
- This ministry is done through the power and strength of God (v.7b) and we are not just left on our own to accomplish it, rather we have “boldness and access with confidence through our faith” to the reigning King Jesus to help, comfort and carry us throughout the many hardships and rejections that must necessarily come as gospel ministers.
- Purpose is to “preach” and “bring light to everyone” what is God’s plan and purpose in the gospel
- The theatre for the gospel is i) this-worldly with bringing the gospel to unbelievers who have previously been in ignorance of God’s plans (like the Gentiles), and also ii) other-worldly since now God’s wisdom is being “made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (v.10) so that all the angelic creation might marvel at God’s plan of redemption in His loving grace (something they do not participate in, as those who have fallen have no hope of salvation)
- The focus of this ministry is God’s “eternal purpose” (v.11), not just to save us individually for our own purposes but rather that we might fit into His eternal and cosmic purposes. Let’s not make the gospel so small that it’s just about us!
3) The Ministers (v.14-21)
- Paul prays a long, complex, one-sentence prayer for the individual ministers of the gospel.
- In summary, He prays for their growth in the Christian life (their sanctification) which is made up of being strengthened in their inmost parts by Christ taking up His dwelling/residence within and as they yield to Him daily that He will more and more fill them with His fullness (perfections) and know the incredible, inescapable, incomprehensible, unconquerable love of God. Jesus in our hearts is renovating our being, His dwelling, for Heaven by making us more like Himself through His great power that works within us.
- All the stages that Paul prays for is fuelled and accomplished by an attribute of God’s character and being – we don’t need to make ourselves better by our efforts, we need Him to come and work in us.
- A great reminder in v.20 of God’s incredible power to do more than we can ask or imagine – what a great God we have!
4) Application:
- Paul’s desire to preach the gospel to the Gentiles is still relevant today with many still to hear, but now also there is the need to call to unbelieving Israel to be saved. - -
- What a challenge also to be outward focused and selfless no matter what the cost and consequences to ourselves, just as Paul was in his ministry and imprisonment for the gospel!
- Paul while in chains prays for the Ephesian church that they would grow as Christian believers, which is a challenge for what our prayer life should be like for others and the priorities for prayer!
- We need to be letting Christ dwell in our hearts and be daily surrendering to Him in every area. This also means to cease the many areas of rebellion in our lives which hinder and quench His work through His Spirit, like sin and complacency.
- We need to be heavenly focused on God’s eternal purposes which are the most important, that we might be saved and sanctified. We so easily spend most of our time and energies on things which are far from these purposes.
- A constant reminder of the majesty and awesome love and character of God which is revealed throughout the passage, of His incredible love, strength, grace, abundance, wisdom, purposes, power.
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