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Book: Ephesians
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Ephesians 3:1
I. A prisoner of Jesus Christ.
A. Paul did not see himself as a prisoner of Rome, but of Jesus
Christ, the irons of the Roman prison did not constrain him,
but the love of Jesus Christ.
1. I am what I am because of Jesus Christ.
2. I am what I am for Jesus Christ.
3. A man can only say this who has said, "And when Christ
who is my life."
4. The life that is totally committed is one that sees
everything in the light of Jesus Christ.
a. Nothing happens to me except it be allowed by
Jesus Christ.
b. If He has allowed it then He has allowed if for
some good purpose.
c. Thus I will not question or complain concerning
my lot for my Lord is working out His good
pleasure in my life.
5. My pleasure comes in pleasing my Lord, He is pleased
when I place my trust fully in His wisdom and purpose
for my life.
a. If my pleasure is in my lot in life, then at
times I might be very pleased, and at other
times very distraught.
b. How wonderful when we can say with David, "I
delight to do Thy will O Lord."
c. Jesus said, "I do always those things that
please Him." He could thus say to the Father,
"I have finished the work you gave Me to do."
His life was that of total fulfillment.
d. You will never find total fulfillment living
for yourself.
e. The self-centered life is doomed for
disappointment and ultimate emptiness.
B. Paul was a prisoner of Jesus Christ for the Gentiles sake.
1. Paul's problems with the Jews arose not because he was
a follower of Jesus Christ. The church in Jerusalem had
co-existed with the Jewish community for some time. The
Jews had come to tolerate the church. I personally
believe that this was a sign of the waning influence of
the church.
a. When the church can peacefully co-exist with
the world it means that the church has
compromised it's stand against the world.
b. Jesus said to His disciples, "If the world
hates you, you know that it hated Me before it
hated you."
c. Jesus said that the world hated Him because He
testified that its works were evil.
d. Paul warned to beware when all men speak well
of you.
2. Paul's problems arose because he being a Jew took the
gospel to the Gentiles, declaring that the promises of
God were available to the Gentile apart from the law of
Moses.
3. When Paul came to the church in Jerusalem with an
offering from the Gentile churches James said to him,
"You see how many thousands of Jews that believe, and
they are all zealous of the law. They have heard that
you are declaring to the Jews who are among the
Gentiles that they should forsake Moses and not
circumcise their children or to keep the customs. They
have heard that you are here, and are going to be
gathering. Paul was requested to go through the vows of
purification with four young men, shaving their heads
and then the Jews could see that Paul walked orderly
and kept the law.
4. When some Jews from Asia who knew of the ministry of
Paul among the Gentiles saw Paul in the temple court of
the Jews, they stirred up the people against Paul, and
the mob sought to kill him.
5. He was rescued by the Roman guards and was granted
permission to speak to the Jews. He was doing very well
as he shared with them his conversion to Jesus Christ
until he came to the place in his testimony where Jesus
asked him to go share the gospel with the Gentiles at
which point the whole mob went berserk.
6. This was the reason for Paul's imprisonment which led
to his being sent to Rome to make his appeal before
Caesar.
7. He thus saw himself as a prisoner of Jesus Christ for
the sake of the Gentiles.
II. Since you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God that was
given to me to share with you.
A. This was the issue, the message of God's grace to the Gentiles.
B. How much we Gentile believers owe to Paul the Apostle.
1. He hung tough against all of the opposition of the
Jews, and of the many in the early church who did not
believe that the grace of God did not extend to the
Gentile believers.
a. The fact of the matter was that they did not
believe that the grace of God extended to them.
b. They still felt that their righteous standing
before God came by their keeping of the law of
Moses.
c. They did not understand this dispensation of
grace.
2. The book of Hebrews sought to deal with this new
covenant that God has established through Jesus Christ.
It is a covenant of grace.
a. The old covenant was established by God through
Moses whereby God could be approached by sinful
man through keeping of the law which involved,
among other things the offering of the
sacrifices for the covering of the sins.
b. The new and better covenant provided an
approach to God through God's offering of Jesus
Christ as a sacrificial Lamb for our sins.
3. The first covenant, which failed, was dependent upon
man's faithfulness in his works for God.
4. The new covenant is predicated upon God's work for man
in the finished of the cross, and our believing and
trusting in Jesus Christ.
5. This is known as the dispensation of grace, because it
is not my works that opens the door to God for me to
enter, but God opening the door and inviting me to come
in.
6. The old covenant provided a earthly fallible priest as
a mediator between God and man, who needed to make
sacrifices for himself before he could offer the
sacrifices for me.
7. The new covenant provides the Son of God as the
mediator who offered Himself as the sacrifice for my
sins.
8. The book of Hebrews was written to warn those who had
come to the knowledge of the new covenant through Jesus
Christ, from turning back to the deep rooted
traditions, and trying again to relate to God through
the law.
9. In the church in Jerusalem their was a blending of the
two.
10.Stood strong against this mixture of law and grace, and
as a result was not well received by the church in
Jerusalem.
11.He was willing to challenge Peter publicly over the
issue of a distinction between the Jew and Gentile in
God's eyes.
C. There is still a great admixture of the two concepts in the
church today.
1. There are many who think that they are made righteous
and acceptable before God by their good works.
a. Many churches and groups push this concept and
idea.
b. The Catholic church places a strong emphasis
upon works.
c. The holiness churches also have a strong
emphasis upon a righteous standing before God
through works.
2. Paul told the Galatians that if righteousness could
come through the law, then Christ died in vain.
3. He encouraged the Corinthians not to receive the grace
of God in vain.
GAL 5:4 Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are
justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
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