The ministry of Paul and the individual

So we're going to finish the last couple verses here. We're actually going to go back a little bit and review some of what we did back in Paul's ministry in the church a little bit. And then next week we'll have a review. And actually what I'd like to do in the review, if you have questions, think about some things that you may have questions about. I'm not sure I'll be able to answer them all, but I'll give it a shot. And then I'll just go through and look at some of the things, kind of highlight the things that we we looked at in chapter one. Okay, so I've been using this outline from Macaulay and I mentioned early on the person of Christ is kind of described in verses 15 through 18 in chapter one and the work of Christ is kind of in three parts which actually go into chapter two a little bit. The description in 19 and 20, its application in 21 and 23 and then the spreading which is So we looked at, actually Bob covered part of this last week, or two weeks ago. And today we're going to look at this section right here, which is kind of a cool section. We're going to talk about the mystery a lot. So if you're into mysteries, that's one of the questions, is there just one mystery or are there many mysteries?

And so we'll talk about that. But this is Paul's ministry in terms of the word. And then in terms of individuals, proclaiming Christ, presenting every man complete in Christ, and laboring according to his power, to Christ's power. So that's kind of the outline here.

I'm hoping some people will show up. Of course, whenever I bring something for somebody, they're not here, of course, right? Anyway, hopefully they'll show up. They may only come the following week. Okay, so could someone read, we're going to go back a little bit, 25 through 29.

You can read it off the overhead or you can just read it from your Bible. Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to his saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. We proclaim him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to his power, which mightily works within me. All right. Fantastic. Fantastic. Yeah. All right.

So if you notice in here, the word mystery shows. That's why I want to go back. The word mystery shows up quite a few times. So we're not. And if you look carefully, Paul's going to kind of connect mystery. Look at 25 there. He's going to connect mystery to the preaching of God's word. Maybe he hadn't thought about that before. I had not fully realized the connectivity and investigating what is the mystery is going to be key here.

Then he's going to get into God's will in terms of the Gentiles, in terms of the mystery. Then he's going to talk about proclaiming Christ and then about presenting and then about his striving according to his power, to Christ's power, so it's a pretty cool section. So from last time, of this church, remember in scripture the church is called the body of Christ many times, of this church I was made a minister.

So Paul basically is claiming, and we see that in Galatians a lot, he's He is a special person that God has called out, right? He met him on the Damascus Road. It wasn't Paul's idea, right? You could argue that Paul was happy to persecute the church. He was doing his thing. He was on a mission to do the church in. Then God had a different idea. So Paul is going to restate here again what we see in Galatians. He is going to say, I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God.

So before we look at the definition, what do you think about when you say you have a stewardship? It's not a word we use a lot today. If you're watching over... Actually, I'm giving the definition away by doing that. So what's a stewardship? It just comes to your mind when I say stewardship. It's kind of a job. A job, okay. Right, right. Okay, good. All right. So Wiest has a stewardship.

And this is according to the New Testament times, a household steward, which we don't really have too many household stewards today. You might get somebody to watch your house, right? I think the Eccles do that. They have one of the, someone comes and babysits, they have dogs, so they have somebody come and, House sit if you will. This is a little bit more than house sitting. Household steward had a lot more to do than just house sitting. Household steward was one who was given responsibility of administrating the laws and regulating the proper conduct of affairs of the household. So that meant in those times, maybe buying the food, making sure household repairs, just a whole bunch of things. A building manager, something like that, might be today. You hire companies for that sometimes, not just a person.

So what Paul's claiming is that I was made a minister according to a stewardship from God. Bestowed on me for your believer's benefit. So God had a plan. He bestowed on Paul a stewardship for us, the believer's benefit. So that's pretty cool. so that, with the purpose of that, I might fully carry out the preaching of God's word." So we kind of go down the stair step here. So the bottom line is, he wants Paul to fully carry out the preaching of God's word. So that's pretty cool.

So as we see, Paul is the chosen instrument of God, and he has the stewardship from God, and he's going to fully carry out the preaching of the word of God. And fully carry out So Paul's stewardship was preaching God's Word, fully carrying out as to make a complete presentation of its content, and the spreading of the message. And boy, in Paul's life, his ministry, you see that in spades. All his missionary journeys he did, and you look at his 13 epistles, I mean, his exhaustiveness. God has accomplished through Paul a tremendous amount. In fact, Paul's epistles are key to the Christian life, key to the church.

We're doing this in the main service, but just to remind ourselves, Could someone read Galatians 1.9 and then 11 and 12 for us? This is talking about Paul was to preach the gospel. So that's part of fully carrying out this ministry.

John says, As we have said before, so I say again now, if any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you have seen, he is to be accursed. and then 11-12, For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I did it through the revelation of Jesus Christ. Okay, so Paul is, you know, his connectivity to God's plan, you know, he says, no, this wasn't, once again, it wasn't my message, it's God's message, and I'm delivering this message, and actually this message I'm God's instrument, and if you choose a different message, you're in trouble, basically. So he says, I'm God's messenger, and a pretty bold statement.

But it's true. So anyway, kind of setting the stage here. So now I want to connect it to this word mystery. So that's what the next verse does. That is, That is the mystery. So actually it's almost like an equal sign. They're fully carrying out the preaching of God's word. And that's been supplied. The translators decided that that is the mystery. So then what follows in the rest of 26 is the definition of the mystery. And the mystery in New Testament times is not something mysterious. It's not like a clue.

What are the three things you have to get? The weapon, the room, and the person. This is something that God, in his wisdom, didn't show us in the Old Testament, in what was written. It has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifest.

So that's what a mystery is. And it defines it in that verse, which is pretty cool. Actually, it's defined in other verses, OK. And to his saints, to believers. OK. So here's the question I kind of already posed it before. So what is the content of the mystery? So he's given us the general definition of the mystery. It's something that's been hidden and now revealed. So what do you think? What's the content of the mystery? And is there only one mystery or many? So just from your Bible knowledge. What do you think? Do you think you've come across only one mystery or multiple mysteries? What do you think?

Go ahead, Tom. I'd say that Paul's just basically setting the stage. There's going to be more to come, but at least this is the first beginning clue that this is really what's the important stuff, and he's going to put it in in God's timing, but in good order. Okay, okay. Alright, so anybody else? Go ahead.

I think, I mean, it's like we hear the mystery of the church, so the church itself is a mystery. The fact of Christ, Christ in the person is a mystery. Right, that's good, that's good. So there's actually, you know, I didn't actually count them all, but there's 27 occurrences of this word mystery, and like you're right, there's going to be a bunch, there's going to be a bunch about the church, the body of Christ, and then there's a bunch that says that Christ is a mystery. And then it talks about the mystery of the kingdom. That's in the gospel, the mystery of the kingdom.

So it's used a couple different ways. And I won't tell you the answer yet. I won't tell you. Actually, in some ways, both those are true. We'll see. We'll carry on here. OK, so now I'm going to hold you in suspense a little bit. And we're going to work up to what what I think it is in this context.

So the next verse is, To whom God willed to make known what is the riches or the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. So now he kind of narrows it and he says, I'm going to tell you about this mystery among the Gentiles. So he kind of qualifies it If you look at all the occurrences of the word mystery, there is something like the mystery of Christ, the mystery of the kingdom. This is a mystery among the Gentiles that he is going to talk about here. But first he is going to add some description to the mystery. To whom God willed or desired to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. I think he's first going to say, this is Paul writing, he says, you know, this mystery is so incredible that it's described as the riches of the glory of this mystery.

I mean, the mystery is so expansive, so wonderful that it's described as riches of glory. So I just was kind of curious about that phrase, riches of glory, and I found there were at least three good occasions. The riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy which he has prepared beforehand.

And that talks about, actually maybe we should just read the Could someone go to Romans 9.23 and read 23 and 24 and get the context here? But it's not clear what he's talking about here. The other two are clearer.

So Romans 9.23 and 24.

And he did so to make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he prepared beforehand for glory, even us, whom he also called not from among Jews only, but also from among Gentiles. Okay, so it's kind of focusing on the church, I think. Okay, then the next usage that I picked out here was, what are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints? That's pretty cool. And the last one is, according to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with power through his spirit in the inner man. So there's three of the uses of that phraseology of riches of glory.

Okay, so now we're getting closer to this. Okay. Which is, this mystery is, so here's the mystery as defined in this context. Christ in you, and it reads Christ in the text, it reads Christ in you, the hope of glory. But what I found as I looked at that, and I studied it, some people have argued that, you know, it's almost like there's two parts to it, Christ in you and the hope of glory. So, I'm not, you know, I think that's interesting.

So, I went ahead and went with that. So, Constable says here, that God would save, Gentile was no new revelation. Remember, a mystery is something that wasn't previously revealed. In Isaiah, Let me just read you in Isaiah 49 verse 6 it says, I also make you a light to the nations so that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth. In Isaiah it predicted that his salvation would reach the end of the earth.

But it never talked about this idea of Christ being in you. That concept is something totally new. Paul is the one that has revealed that to us. So that is something that has been hidden, that wasn't revealed in previous times. So Christ in you is a new piece of information. So as defined here, the mystery is Christ in you and the hope of glory. So two parts as I saw it. Christ will indwell every believer.

So can someone read Romans 8.10 for us? If Christ is in you through the body, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. Great, thank you.

And then the second part, Hope, which in scripture is absolute certainty, the absolute certainty of His glory. And I saw this as heavenly home. So it's the assurance that Christ is in you and that you have a heavenly home basically, the hope of glory, the absolute certainty of glory. So that's the definition, and this is the mystery, remember this is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, and that is defined right in the text, which is Christ in you, and I like to add, and the hope of glory.

Okay, so let's go on. OK, so then I wanted to kind of look and try to answer the question I posed. Is a mystery just, is there just one mystery? Are there many mysteries? So I found something at Kossel. I thought it was pretty good, what Kossel brought forward. And he talks about there are at least four defining characteristics of the church that are described as mysteries.

So I'd like to spend some time looking at those. OK, so the first one is in Ephesians. The body concept of Jew and Gentile believers united in one body is designated as a mystery. OK, so this is a little bit long. So let's see. Let's just read. Would someone be willing to read Ephesians 3, 1 through 7? I think that captures most of this idea here. Ephesians 3, 1-7.

For this cause I, Paul, prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words. whereby when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto you, his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel, whereof I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God, given unto me by the effectual working of his power.

Great, thank you. So in this passage, as I mentioned before, it talks about Christ himself, the mystery of Christ. But I think the key part is in verse 6 here, where it says that this is a key part of the mystery among the Gentiles. that Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, fellow partakers of the promises in Christ Jesus through the gospel. So that's a key part of this mystery. So Constable is kind of saying, I'm looking at this mystery about the church and the relationship to our Savior, and he has four aspects of that.

Which I think is pretty good. So now the next one is actually what we're looking at right now. The doctrine of Christ in dwelling every believer, the Christ in you concept. And that's just what he defined in 27, right? The mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. So that's characteristic number two. Characteristic number three is the bride of Christ concept. And that's also in Ephesians. And that's in Ephesians chapter 5.

And can I get someone to read, well actually, we probably shouldn't read it all. I'm sorry. Can somebody read 22 through 32? Because it talks about, you know what it's going to talk about here? It's going to talk about husband and wife, but constantly in the relationship between husband and wife, it's going to refer to Christ and his church. So it's pretty cool. So God is going to explain the relationship between husband and wife in terms of Christ and the church. He's going to tell us some really cool stuff. So, can someone read that? Sorry. I'll give you. Thank you.

Be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church. He himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, so that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.

For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the Church, because we are members of his body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.

This mystery is great. that I am speaking with reference to Christ and the Church. Yeah, pretty cool. So this whole mystery among the Gentiles, this is another part, it's all wrapped up between Christ and His Church. So, you know, several places in here, the Church is subject to Christ in verse 24. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the Church and gave himself up for her. And then 27 says that he might present to himself the church in all her glory.

So all this is what's kind of wrapped up. So you begin to see, I'm going to make a statement at the end. It's not my statement. It's from Chafer. But the mystery is pretty big. This mystery, if you think, is going to grow. Actually, I was kind of surprised when I saw this. It's going to grow. When I read this final statement, it's pretty encompassing, the mystery. So we're just kind of on the doorstep here.

But just think about all the truths about Christ and his church. Don't we study that all the time? Isn't that what we study every Sunday here at Holly Hills just about? All the relationships like Mike's going to talk about in Galatians. We're going to finally finish chapter 2 here I think.

It's more about, you know, I'm crucified with Christ. It's all about Christ's body. So I'm going to keep going here. So a couple more verses here in this It comes down in 5.29, it says, For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourished it and cherished it, just as Christ also does the church. And it comes down at the very last, The mystery is great, but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. And the last characteristic is the rapture.

And I could just, only three verses, or four verses this time. Could someone read 1 Corinthians 15? We can read just 50 to 53. We'll kind of cover that. Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. Excellent reading. Excellent. Very good. OK, so now we expand it even more. We take in the rapture.

Behold, I tell you a mystery, when all sleep will be changed. So that's included in the mystery. So here's a statement from Dr. Chafer. He says, the mysteries comprise practically all of the added truth found in the New Testament. Whoa. So I had not actually, I realized in Mysteries, but I didn't actually realize, when you start looking at the definition of Mysteries and what he brings in here, you know, this is constable, this is constable, but it does take in, it does take in all the relationship between Christ and his church, really.

And that's pretty pretty substantial. And that's part that in the Old Testament, the Old Testament saints never realized that God would dwell in man. That concept was never talked about. It was foretold that the Gentiles would be saved, but not much beyond that. So I found this pretty eye-opening.

Any thoughts on that? At the end of 27, it changes and starts talking about Paul's ministry to individuals. This is the last part of the mystery. Roy, do you have any thoughts on this? I know a couple of weeks ago you asked about this. Actually, thank you for asking the question, because when you asked the question, when I started studying this, the more I looked, the more I said, there is really a lot in here, and I didn't actually realize. So I found this very beneficial. And so, anyway.

I was thinking when David said, take not your Holy Spirit from the sheep. So I don't know if that was an indwelling or that was just... Well, the Spirit didn't... didn't the Spirit come... He came for a season, right? And He would enable men, right? And so that was their concern, that the Spirit wouldn't be with them. But, of course, then we come to the New Testament. Was He indwelling them or maybe just with them? Well, He enabled them to do miraculous things, right? So, yeah. Okay. All right. OK, so the last two verses are going to talk about Paul's ministered individuals. OK, so we'll go on here. OK, so now we proclaim him, Christ. OK, the proclaiming and preaching of Christ has two parts.

Admonishing, to put into the mind or warn every man, and that's the So actually he's going to say there are two parts, admonishing and teaching. So Wein kind of differentiates here. He says the difference between admonish and teach seems to be that whereas a former has mainly in view the things that are wrong, a call for warning. The latter has to do with chiefly imparting positive truth." So I said, well, okay, let me see if I agree with that. So there's a couple of verses that talk about admonishing.

So could someone read 1 Corinthians 4.14, which uses the word admonish.

I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as beloved children. Okay. Pretty short and sweet. So he said, what do you do with children? You admonish them. You say, remember Johnny, remember Sarah, whoever. This is what we do. This is proper manner. So admonishing is putting in their minds, warning them. There's one in Thessalonians that says, Admonish the unruly. So admonishing is something that is part of proclaiming Christ. Part 2.

Teaching every man with all wisdom. Notice it's every man. Every man is this word in the original PAS. It means all inclusive, none excluded. So in this case, there's a parallel verse. I'll just read that, it says, I wrote it down, hopefully I have it all. I can look it up to make sure.

Colossians 3.16 says, Let the word of Christ richly dwell with you. with all wisdom and teaching, admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God." So that's the parallel verse and it uses both this admonishing and teaching.

And actually those are the only two verses in the New Testament that use that kind of pair. Even though teaching is used a tremendous amount. There might be 90 or 100 times that's used. Teaching is Daskalos, the teaching instruction. And actually, that shows up. There's one verse. Actually, I'll just turn over to it here.

Colossians 2.7. We're going to cover it here in a couple of weeks or months. Whichever comes first.

And Colossians 2.7 says, let's go back to 6.

As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him, established in your faith, just as you were instructed, that's our word, overflowing with gratitude. So that's a cool verse that we're going to see, but it has this word instruction. So instruction, or teaching, is used a tremendous amount. So basically he's saying here, we proclaim Him, Christ, and admonishing every man and teaching every man. There is a purpose in this. So that we may present every man complete in Christ. As I was studying again for this, I listened to different people. I listened to Macaulay and other people. Macaulay spent a long time on this here.

What's the focus here? Is the focus just the man's salvation? And it's not. The focus of what Paul is saying is, I want to present every man complete in Christ. That's a step up, right? You can come to know him as your Savior and be saved, but boy, you're just at the ground floor, so to speak. You probably don't know a whole lot But the goal that Paul has is complete. He wants you to be mature.

Actually, that's another synonym. Mature is a synonym of that word. Present is to place or set before, like as an exhibit. It's almost like a trophy. But the word complete, is the idea, and this is a parallel verse, yet he has now reconciled you in order to present you before him holy and blameless beyond reproach. And then complete is, it means completely blameless and mature man.

So he desires to present mature believers. So God's goal through his servants, through Paul, is to present a complete, he's not just interested in I just got you saved. He wants you to become useful, valuable to Him. And you're valuable when you're walking in Christ, walking and understanding who you are in Christ.

That's not to say that salvation, you know, for many people, you know, I have relatives that aren't saved. I mean, I would love to see them, you know, becoming complete or mature in Christ. Is it down the road to peace for them? Right now I'm concerned with their salvation. But God's goal is not just... He doesn't stop at salvation. Okay, in Ephesians... Can someone read that?

Ephesians 4.13.

Until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to a mature man. Okay. So basically, attaining to the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature man. So God's desire, which is Paul's desire, is to present man complete and mature in Christ.

So last verse. Now Paul is going to talk about his worth ethic. Does he sit around saying, the Lord's going to do it? I'm being a little bit facetious here. Let the Lord do it. Actually, it brings up a story about my grandson. A little grandson. He's five years old. And he's something else sometimes. So we were talking with him about something and he couldn't do something. He didn't want to do it.

So I'm called Papa. I'm Papa and she's Nana. So he said, Nana, you do it. You do it. He didn't want to do it. So he said, you do it. You do it. So we're always making fun of him. He comes up now and says, you do it. You do it. So that's not Paul's. That wouldn't even be in his radar scope. It's not God, you do it. Paul says, we'll see what he's going to say here.

For this purpose, let's go back to the previous verse, teaching and admonishing, I also labor And this is one of these very descriptive words. I know Vern did a really good job on these. Now, this is the athletic idea. To the point of exhaustion, like the marathon. The guy who ran the first marathon, he died, right? He didn't make it there. So to the point of exhaustion. I labored to the point of exhaustion, striving.

And striving is another intense word. And the word from agonized to contend for victory in a public event. to put forth every effort, but Paul's not going to claim that this is him, he's going to modify that. Let's look at a verse or two here before we get to that point.

Could someone read 1 Corinthians 9.25? Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do not get a crown that will not last, but we do it and get a crown that will last forever. labor and striving, and labor is the idea that I, and he talks about that in Corinthians as well, I labor even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God. So we're going to see as he ends this up, he's going to say, you know, I'm laboring and it's exhausting and it's agonizing for every effort, but the bottom line is, it's really Christ in me that's the focus here.

That's what we just read. according to his power. He didn't say according to my power. So part of the problem is, how does that work? How does that work? I'm exhaustively doing this stuff, but it's according to his power, which mightily works within me. So Wiest has it, engaging in a contest in which I am controlled by his energy, which operates in me in power.

To answer that question, I would say that the focus here is that Paul is striving. He's available. He was there to do God's will. If you look through all the different tribulations he went through, all the different hardships he went through, sometimes it seemed like he maybe put forth some of his own efforts. It seemed that way, but he always came back to the fact that God, Christ, or the Holy Spirit was in control of what he was doing, and it wasn't he. And then we're going to see, again, remind again this morning that it's not I, but Christ.

Alright, so that's the last verse in this chapter. Next week we'll go through and do a brief summary. And try to just hit some of the highlights. And if you have questions, we'll try to answer them. So any last thoughts or a quiet group today? I can't get you. Bob's here or Andrew. You guys talk a lot. Maybe it's a teacher. I don't know. I mean, it's a good thing. Maybe it's so thought-provoking you can't take it all in, right? You guys are being kind. We can certainly end early. Dear Father, we thank you for our time today, Lord. We thank you for the blessings we have, Father. Thank you for your Word, Father. We thank you that we can study it and examine it. We just thank you for this time. In Christ's name, Amen.