Ephesians chapter three, verse uno. For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles, if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace, which was given to me for you, that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery as I wrote before it in brief. And by referring to this, understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it is now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the spirit, to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise of Christ Jesus through the gospel." of which I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of his power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things, in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which he carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in him. Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory. This is the word of the Lord. Heavenly Father, thank you very much once again for bringing us here and thank you for all that you have done and the providence that you have shown us and that all of these things have been revealed to us that you had planned before time began. Lord, we ask that this meeting here would be a blessing to you and that it would also be a blessing to us. And once again, Lord, we ask that you would open our ears to hear open our hearts to receive, and open my mouth to speak. In Jesus' name, amen. This section of scripture I am calling, Moving On. Paul has spent the last two chapters laying out very heavy theology. Things which were revealed to him, this mystery of the gospel, mystery of the grace of God that was foreordained and predestined before time began. And as I said, when we started this book, he starts with theology so that you can get a good basis for why we believe the things that we believe and what it is that we believe. But then he moves on to the practical aspects of it, right? Because again, head knowledge is good. You should absolutely know your Bible. You should know what it teaches and you should know why we do the things that we do. But if none of that actually translates into a change of heart or to a change of behavior, then essentially it's just useless, right? There's, uh, there are going to be many, many people before the white throne of judgment who said, but I can pass the test. And new you. And you don't want to be one of those people. So you want to establish what it is that you believe and then move on from there. But before he moves on, because you'll see in chapter four, it starts talking about the unity, the Christian walk. Chapter five is famous for telling kids to, you know, love their parents and stuff. And it goes on after that. But before he covers it, he wants to make sure that everyone knows why you should listen to him as opposed to some of the others. See, back in the day, Paul was under a concerted attack by contemporary Christians at the time, particularly those who said that in order to become a Christian, you have to become a Jew first. So these were called the circumcision crowd, which was saying that the Gentiles needed to be circumcised so that they could be part of the promise of Abraham and then move on from there to become Christians. Now, this was coming hard at Paul, and he was having to defend that. You can see that in this chapter. You could also see that in the entire book of 2 Corinthians, and also in Galatians, where he talks about having to establish who he is and why you should listen to him. Now, because there is nothing new under the sun, the same thing is happening today. So two weeks ago, I complained about modern scholars and why you shouldn't listen to them, uh, specifically about holidays. We were talking about Halloween at the time. And at some point this year, I'm sure I will talk about Christmas because I'm obsessed and I can't help it. But this is what we're talking about is that these guys, and I'm not talking about the people who are preaching from these guys, or Christians who are following these guys. I'm talking about the actual modern scholars themselves. They are doing the same thing now that Paul was having to deal with back then, except that he was alive to defend himself. They are going after Paul. And it's always Paul. Whenever they look at the Bible, they always go, these things are not really scripture. And it's always the parts that they cover are always the parts in Paul. For instance, when we started Ephesians, I talked about how nowadays the Pauline authorship of Ephesians is questioned, right? They say, well, I don't really think that Paul wrote this book. It was someone else who was claiming to be Paul. Or they'll say, yes, but the early Christians didn't really accept this book as their own. And so they say that we don't need to listen to what this book is saying because it's not coming from God. And these are the modern scholarships I'm talking about. They are there questioning the traditions of Christians and the traditions of history. Now there is a a scholar nowadays that you can read if you like. His name is Michael J. Kruger, and he is an archaeologist and a scholar of equal weight to these other gentlemen. But he is coming at it from a position where he's saying that these modern scholars have a fundamental flaw in their reasoning, and he tries to then show it. What he's basically saying, and he said this in a book called The Heresy of Orthodoxy, says that most of these modern scholars nowadays will not allow for the possibility that Christians were unified in one message, that there was such a thing as orthodoxy at the time, right? They will also argue that they didn't really read much and they didn't care about the scriptures themselves, like the letters of Paul, Mostly they were following the teachings and that, depending on where you were, the apostle or the teacher who was there was the guy that you listened to. When you look at the evidence, the one thing they will not accept is that there was such a thing as a Christian belief that everyone held in common. And a lot of these guys are doing so because they want to just bring doubt to the whole thing. So, I figure since we've got here, Paul's dealing with the same thing that we're dealing with nowadays. I'll go ahead and just cover something and then we can move on from there. It's the question of canon. Where do we get our scripture and how do we know that the books that are in it are the correct ones? So, The reason why this comes up a lot is because these modern scholars are pointing out things that are correct. We do not have the original copies. We do not have full copies from the first century. We also know, as Paul said here, as we read it, let's see here, in verse four, and by referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ. So what he's kind of saying here is that I had written you briefly earlier, and now I'm explaining it more. So there was another letter that he sent. And we know, well we don't know, but it's pretty clear that Paul wrote many, many letters and we don't have them. We only have these letters that were preserved. So what about those other letters? We also know that there was the revelation of Peter Peter wrote a book of Revelation. We don't have a single copy of that around, but the early church referred to it a lot. So we know kind of what it says, but we don't have it. There was a gospel of Barnabas. There are many books that early Christians referred to in their writings that are also gone. And so the question is, why these books and how do we know that these are the right books? A lot of people go at it from a scholarly position, and I personally think that's the wrong way to go. There is a theological position that I think we should start with first. First off, we know that God did write scriptures. We know that he did, which means that there is a canon, because God knows what he wrote, right? Like if I were to write a bunch of books, then I would know which ones I wrote. But if like Ari or Elijah or Carrie Ann were to read my stuff, they would not know for sure that this is what I wrote. And especially if I have like something that was written by someone else in the pile of letters that I had, they would go, well, I'm pretty sure he didn't write this. And so they would take it out. Right. But I know what I wrote because I wrote them. So there is a canon of scripture that God knows. Now we also know that God preserves his word as it says that my words will never fade and they will last forever. So we know that God is actively preserving his his, what he wrote. So why would we not also assume that he would be preserving the stuff that he wrote for his children to know? Right? Which is why from history you do see kind of a bit of an argument going back and forth. People going, yes, this one, not this one. Yes, this one, not this one. But by the time you get to the fourth century, Pretty much everybody's agreed. It's like, no, no, no, these are the scriptures, and these are the ones we're sure of it. So the idea that God would not do that is kind of against what he's said because he said he wrote these things for us and that he would preserve it. So it makes sense that he would make sure to preserve the right ones and not preserve the wrong ones. And so these are the scriptures that we've had for the last 2,000 years. of the church. And so from a theological perspective, we can have confidence that God has preserved them for us. But You may say, the scholars disagree. Well, this is what I've talked about with modern scholars. Of course they disagree, because their purpose is not to educate the church. Their purpose is not to inform the spirit-led men and women of God. Their purpose is to cast doubt. It is like what the serpent in the garden said as the first temptation was, has God not said? In other words, are you sure that's what God said? And that is what led to the fall. This is the first lie of Satan is, are you sure that this is what God said? So Ephesians 2.20 here, we see having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone. He talks about the church and the foundations, the base, of the church are the apostles and the prophets. So let's address now the issue that they only had teachers and not written. works, right? So Paul here says that the church was founded on the apostles and prophets. Now we know what he means by prophets. 100% that is the prophets of the Old Testament, scripture, right? And so in that day, The prophets were known by what they wrote, and there was no question as to what their attitude about that was. If it's a prophet, and it's real, then it was written down. you know, there was a lot of illiteracy back then, like people couldn't read and write. Although, you gotta be careful with that, because nowadays, not the modern scholars so much, but the people who are considered like, you know, amateurs or whatever, are actually going back, and they're realizing that actually people could read and write a lot more than we thought. Which makes sense, because Greek, the Greek alphabet and the Latin alphabet are phonetic. In other words, a letter represents a sound. So all you really need to do is know your alphabets and you can write out what you're saying. Right? That's pretty easy and that was largely what people were doing back then. Now the spelling was all over the map because they were just writing down what they thought it sounded like, but they could read and write. Uh, but regardless, even if they couldn't, they knew that a written word is better than a spoken word. It's more official. Now, what does Paul here say? And you'll see this a lot in the scriptures. It was founded on the apostles. and prophets. So if the apostles are equated with the prophets, then it would make sense that they would go, well, the more official e-apostle stuff would be the stuff written down. So the idea would be that they would have the Old Testament scriptures, scrolls of the Bible, and the letters given to them by the apostles would be more weighty. And so in the churches, they would be reading the Old Testament prophets, but they would also be reading the New Testament apostles. So these letters that were being spread around were read in these churches to people and Over time, people started recognizing that some of them were more important than others. For instance, in 2 Peter 3.16, the talking of Paul, and also in his letters, speaking in them all these things in which are sometimes hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort as they do the rest of scriptures. So Peter, when talking to his churches, talking about Paul being misunderstood, said people misunderstand what Paul is saying as they do the rest of the scriptures. Rest of. In other words, Peter here is saying that Paul is scripture. I think the idea that these guys didn't know they were writing God's words is a little silly because obviously they did. They talked about their own scriptures or their own words as coming from God. And we've got all of the early writers of Christianity, we're talking like Clement of Rome and, you know, Arrhenius and all of these guys, very, very early on, within a hundred years of Jesus. They were quoting what they said was scripture, that God's holy words, and they were quoting the same books of the Bible that we have today. So these early Christians recognized that these letters were different than the regular books around them, and they put them on the same level as they did the Old Testament. So this idea that somehow Christians didn't really have a Bible until the third century is not very supported in history unless you are like one of the modern scholars and you refuse to have the idea that there was such a thing as a unified Christian message back at that time. And they're doing this now for the same reasons as they're doing it back then. As Paul is talking in this section, that he is revealing the mystery to this age of Christians. And the big mystery is that the Gentiles are included in the promise. Yes. And also in other places that the circumcision crowd, and we read this in two, where the circumcision says in 2.11, Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcision by the so-called circumcision, which is performed in the flesh by human hands, remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenant promise, having no hope and without God in the world. So these circumcision crowd was going around telling these Christians that they weren't real Christians, that they needed to do something extra, that there was something about the gospel message that was given to them, which is false. They were sowing doubt. And for the same reason today, these modern scholars are going about sowing doubt. They want you to doubt that your scriptures are true. Or if they're true, but we don't actually know which parts of them are true. You see, it's the same sort of, it's like, how do you know if you're really a Christian? You're following the Bible. Is that what Jesus really said? So, and they're going after essentially the same people. They're going after Paul, which in the past they were going after Paul for the inclusion of the Gentiles. Today they're going after Paul because of behavior stuff, which isn't a giant surprise because as we read in the book of Jude, there were people at the time who were going after Jude because they also wanted to have all the sex and all the drugs and all of the parties and they wanted to get paid for it. And so, this was what Jude was talking about. Peter wrote about that too. So, going after Paul because of we are heirs to the promise, which today, unfortunately, you get some people who are convinced that Christians must be Jews first, and then they can go from there to be Christians. Paul was talking about the same thing back then. He disagreed. And the way that you get around that is, well, did Paul really say that? See how clever that is? It's the same thing that the people were doing in Ephesus that Paul was having to write to them and say, no, actually, I did say you're included. You got the people today who are saying we don't need to trust the Bible because the Bible says thou shalt not a lot, and we don't like that. So we're going to say, but did the Bible really say you should behave yourself? How do we know that? Are you sure you have the right Bible? Well, this is the stuff that Jude was talking about, saying these false prophets were coming in teaching something that wasn't scripture. So that is why I go on and on about Christmas and Easter. It's because it's the same attack. It's just that we Christians are looking at that and not realizing it's the same attack. So they're going after, you know, that the Bible is inspired, that they say the Bible is inspired, there isn't such a thing as an orthodox position, or if there was an orthodox position, that we would have it. And these same people are bringing up Saturnalia, at, you know, Christmas is supposed to be Saturnalia. I'll be happy to tell you why it isn't, but that's not the point now. Or they'll talk about Mithra, that it's the rebirth of Mithra, who was a Roman god. Which, by the way, 30 years ago when I was not a Christian, that was the argument against Christian. That was the thing that everybody knew Christian was a pagan holiday because it was actually Mithra's birth. 30 years later we're all talking about Saturnalia with the exact same confidence. It's because Mithra, that wasn't true 30 years ago, and since then it's become harder and harder to And now we're all like, Saturnalia! It was Saturnalia! No, it isn't. And then you get Easter, where you get the people that say that's actually Ishtar, which would be a nice trick because Ishtar was a dead god for 2,000 years before Easter started being celebrated. uh or and then you've got the one that it's Oestre who is the uh saxon god of spring And these same people who are telling you these things should be doubted. They should be questioned. You should not let modern scholars get away with telling you something without asking them, yeah, but you don't want me to believe in Christ to begin with. How do I know you're being true about this? So going back to the day when that sort of a thing was being done, and remember the circumcision crowd, these were scholars of the Old Testament. These weren't just random guys. They were coming through and telling people that, to doubt Paul's words. But the fact is here, the Gentiles are included in the promise. In other words, we. Gentile is just a word for not Jew. We, the Gentiles, are included in the promise to the Jews because Paul said so. We are fellow heirs of the promise, it says. Because we just read that. It's like, it says to be specific, verse six, three, six. To be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made minister according to the gift of grace, which was given to me. So we are included in this. Paul is a prophet, an apostle, speaking to the Gentiles to let them know that they are included in the people of God. And if you skip forward to verse 14, for this reason, Paul would say, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened within the power through his Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints, the holy ones, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ, which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up in all the fullness of God. I ask you, how can that be accomplished if God has not preserved his word? But at the same time, we know that we were included in, we know that we have been strengthened by the Holy Spirit, that we have been, that we dwell now with God and God in us, and that we have all the knowledge. So when Paul starts teaching how we should walk, we need to listen to him. We need to obey him. because Paul is speaking God's words. And God has put his words in his children, who were the Jews first, but then also the Gentiles. And he has preserved his word throughout the generations. These last 2,000 years, God has preserved his word inside the church, the body of his children, and he has made sure that they have enough to know who he is. And so we have our Bibles, we know what it says, and so we should do that. And we should remember that we are part of something bigger, something bigger than ourselves. Christianity, or Jesus, did teach that the individual is important, which was a new thing, by the way. But the Bible reminds us that we are part of something bigger than ourselves. We should also remember that there was something that was kept from the people of the Old Testament, which was revealed to us. which is that the Gentiles are included in the promise of God. In fact, it was even kept, we can see here, that God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. The church let the angels and the demons know. a secret that God had kept for himself, which is that all of us are included in this picture. And all of this was done through Christ, our Lord and Savior. And so when you think of, when you're reading your Bible, understand that these last two millennium all of the workings of God has come through his children, through good and through bad, that he has been working in his children, in his church, and now we here stand inheriting the same promise that Paul delivered to the Ephesians. We are now the children of God. And all of this was done through Jesus Christ. On the cross, he destroyed the enmity, the eneminess of the Gentiles to God. He destroyed the dividing wall between the Jews and the Gentiles. He has destroyed the dividing wall that kept you outside of the promise and has said, through me, you come into the promise. And so, I like to end with a prayer, but sometimes I have to make it up and sometimes it's good, sometimes it isn't, but this time I don't have to make it up because in verse 20, Paul has a prayer for me that is about this chapter. So, now to him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Jesus Christ to all generations forever and ever. Amen.