Revealing God's Wisdom: The Church's Role in Salvation

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of this gospel Paul writes I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power, to me though I am the very least of all the saints this Grace was given to preach to the Gentiles The unsearchable Riches of Christ. [00:01:03]

Paul has been reminding himself and telling the Ephesians that when it comes to being a minister of the Gospel he's absolutely amazed that he would have been entrusted with this privilege because he regarded himself as not being an obvious choice you say there he describes himself in verse 8 as the very least of all the sins. [00:02:28]

the Creator God has a plan from all of eternity and Paul was aware of the fact that he had both received a divine revelation to which he refers to in verse 3 this mystery was made known to me by Revelation and he had at the same time received a Divine commission which is really at the head of verse 7 of this gospel I was made a minister. [00:03:22]

that Jesus had appeared to him for the purpose to appoint him as a servant and as a witness to the things which you've seen me and to those in which I will appear to you and then here we go verse 17 delivering you from your people and from the Gentiles to whom I am sending you to do what to open their eyes so that they may turn from Darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God. [00:04:55]

the light of the Gospel has Shone Into the Heart of Saul of Tarsus it has shown both externally as it were such a bright light 8 that it has blinded him and brought him to the ground but that light is actually smaller than the eternal light that is shown into his heart and now he realizes that when he goes out to Proclaim this unsearchable gospel to the Gentiles and to Proclaim this light for everyone it is an order that their eyes may also be opened. [00:05:38]

what is being described here is something not that we do to put ourselves in a right position with God but what God has done in Christ to put us in a right position with him that the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ Our Lord and that light has Shone into the darkness of Saul's heart and now he is preaching in such a way that others might understand the mystery of God's dealings and that they might believe the gospel. [00:06:31]

when a man or a woman believes the gospel when a man or a woman is Changed by the power of the Gospel then it actually changes everything it doesn't change necessarily the way you tie your shoes or the way you work as an engineer in your office or whatever it might be but it changes our view of the world dramatically for some of us far more than others. [00:07:43]

and what the Bible says is that when we understand that Jesus is the focal point of history that he is the center in the circumference of everything that he is the alpha and he is the Omega that he is the beginning of the end that he is the ascended King he is the reigning Lord that in him all things hold together then suddenly we have a dramatically different view of the way in which for example the unfolding drama of our political campaign that fits into the framework of things. [00:10:38]

irrespective of your intellectual capacity this morning there is no one in heaven or in Earth more privileged than you or me as a humble believer because we have by God's grace come to understand the depth of this great mystery you see this changes everything that God from all of eternity his plan and his pattern was not Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden but it was actually Christ in the gospel. [00:13:11]

he has revealed himself in his church it is in his church that his power is displayed the power that raised him from the dead it is in the church that his grace is made obvious it is now in the church where his wisdom is set forward and that's our verse so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known now previously this was hidden for the ages but now made known to whom to the rulers and authorities in the Heavenly places. [00:14:03]

the world is is is the theater in which God uh is at work and and what we have here are the spectators namely the rulers and authorities we have the play uh written and directed by God which is his manifold wisdom and we have the players or the actors in the program uh namely the church okay so we'll look at each of these in turn and we'll do it in reverse order all right first of all who are The Spectators to whom is this being made known he says it's being made known to the rulers and authorities in the Heavenly places in other words the Angelic powers are spectators of the drama of salvation. [00:14:43]

the Angels who had been the companions of God in eternity the Angels who are described by Peter in First Peter 1 as wishing they knew what salvation was really about in in First Peter when he at about verse 12 or so he's he says you know the prophets wrote about this concerning this salvation the prophets wrote I think that's it and and so he he gives us a picture of the prophets Isaiah and the others standing on their tip tours as it were look Looking Over the Horizon looking into the future to see what will be the Fulfillment of the things that they're writing. [00:18:39]

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