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0:42And so I'm glad to see you all here. I am going to be going through part four of a four-part series that I've entitled Paul's Perspective on Life and Ministry. Paul's Perspective on Life and Ministry. As you may recall, Ephesians is considered one of the prison epistles. That is, it is one of the letters that Paul wrote while in a Roman prison. And we're told in the very beginning of the book that he wrote to the saints living in Ephesus, these saints who were faithful in Christ Jesus. So he's writing to Christians. And we know from chapter 2, verse 11, that these were primarily Gentile Christians. These were not. Jewish people who had heard the gospel that Paul was preaching and they had responded to the gospel and placed their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so he wrote this letter to them so that they might understand more clearly this glorious salvation and the blessings that they have and that exist in a relationship with Jesus Christ. And so he writes to them that they might understand these things and not just understand them, but it might change the way that they live. That is, if you want to summarize Ephesians in one sentence, it's that. And we come to chapter 3 this morning. And we've been working our way through this passage. And Paul is sort of in a transition of thought. He's transitioning from these great theological truths about salvation in chapters 1 and chapters 2. And he's transitioning into chapters 4 through 6, which are very practical in nature. They are the practical outworking of those theological truths. And so again, in chapter 3 is sort of a transition. And verses 1 through 13 are one unit of thought. And so as last time, I want to read all 13 verses before us so that they will be in our mind as we study together this morning. So again, chapter 3, verses 1 through 13. Let me read them to you.

3:00It says, For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of the 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 in brief. By referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has 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 in 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 the 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, so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which he carried. 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.

4:48As I mentioned before, in these verses, Paul is connecting the dots between the theological truths on one side and the practical outworking of those truths in the day-to-day life. And he does this by sharing his perspective on life and ministry. Specifically, he wants them to understand how his life and their lives, and again, ultimately our lives, fit into the plan and purposes of God. And this is what we've been looking at together the last several times. We looked at three of those perspectives. The first one was, again, that Paul saw himself as a prisoner of Christ. He was literally bound to the person of Christ and bound to go wherever Christ called him to go and bound to the people of Christ to take the gospel to those that Christ had come for, even if that meant going to prison. That was Paul's first perspective. The second perspective was found in verses 2 through 6, and we looked at that, and Paul described himself as the steward of God's grace. You remember when we went through that, he was a steward of God's grace. He had been given a revelation of a mystery, a secret, which God had concealed in himself up to this point in history, but then chose to reveal to Paul and to the apostles and to the prophets. And it was this revealed mystery, this secret, that the Gentiles were no longer separated from God and from his promises, but they were made joint heirs and fellow members of one body. This was the gospel message, the good news that had been revealed to Paul as a steward of God's grace. You were here last week. We saw a third perspective, and that was that Paul had been made a minister of the gospel, a servant of the gospel of grace. And he had two primary responsibilities. We saw that in verse 8 and 9.

7:02Two primary responsibilities. They were to preach. They were to proclaim, to announce the unfathomable riches of Christ. And number two, he was to bring to light the administration or the plan of the mystery, which for ages had been hidden in God. And that's where we ended last time. He was talking about this plan of the mystery, this administration or plan of the mystery. That he was to bring to light. And this leads us to a fourth perspective that I want us to look at this morning. And we're going to be in verses 10 through 13.

7:42In these verses, Paul wants the Ephesians to understand that he was simply a participant in God's eternal plan. A participant in God's eternal plan. That's the fourth perspective. And I want to show you this. I want to show you what God has been planning for all of eternity so that you will be a participant in it. You will participate in God's plan. The first thing that I want you to see as we look at this together is that God had a purpose in his plan. I want you to see the purpose of God's eternal plan. He tells us this in verse 10. Let's look at it together. Notice the words at the beginning of the verse. It says, so that. I love those words. If you read through Scripture, you will find those all throughout Scripture. And they're important words, so I typically, in my Bible, I underline them or put brackets around them because they indicate purpose. So that. Here is the purpose. Paul says that the purpose behind this grace that has been given to preach and to bring to light the plan of the mystery, the purpose behind it is so that the manifold wisdom. Of God might be made known. That's the purpose. And it's clearly stated, the purpose is to put God's manifold wisdom on display, to cause it to be known, to make it known.

9:15And so, if that is the purpose, to make God's wisdom known, then we need to understand what Paul means by manifold wisdom. It's kind of an unfamiliar term. Let me ask, what is wisdom? What is wisdom? How do we understand what wisdom is? Well, it's distinct from knowledge. I think you would agree with that. It doesn't just mean simply knowing a whole lot of things. That's not wisdom. I think you may have met people in your life that have known a lot of things and yet are woefully lacking in wisdom.

9:54So wisdom is not just simply having a bunch of knowledge. Wisdom is the correct use of knowledge. It is the ability to make correct judgments and to follow the best course of action that brings about the best possible outcomes based upon that knowledge. That's what wisdom is. It's the correct use of knowledge. And Paul goes on to say that God's wisdom, God's ability to do this, to rightly use knowledge, was manifold. Man. Now, that's an interesting word, and it's not referring to a part of your car's engine.

10:38It's not that kind of manifold. It's a unique expression that describes something that's many-sided. That would be a literal rendering. Many-sided, variegated, diverse, maybe even multicolored, you could think of it that way. It's a word sometimes used to refer to an intricately woven or fabricated pattern with many colors. You can think of Joseph, right? He was given a coat of many colors. It's kind of the idea: manifold, multicolored. I meant to bring an illustration, I left it out in the foyer, but has anyone gone to the paint store and they give you one of those decks of colors and you fan them out, right? And it's got like a thousand different colors. Has anybody seen those? Man, if your wife brings one home, go mow the grass or something.

11:36It'll be better for you outside. No, there's an enormous amount of colors, right? And it's like, I want to paint the walls white. And you come home and there's 30 shades of white. And you're like, why, you know, I thought we were going with white. He's like, well, yeah, I've dared it down to 30. You know, so I'm sure maybe you have experienced that if you've ever tried to paint something. But there's these, when you look at colors in general, there's just an infinite number of shades in the spectrum of our colors.

12:09And so you kind of get the idea of this multicolored, multi-sided aspect of God's wisdom. Perhaps a good biblical illustration of this, if you want to turn to Exodus chapter 31, this might help us get in our minds what manifold wisdom is. You may recall in Exodus, God has given the law, He's given the Ten Commandments, and He's giving instruction about how to create the tabernacle and all of the clothes and all the things that are involved in being in relationship with God during this time.

12:53And this is an episode where it says that God gives wisdom to the craftsmen. You may remember this story. In chapter 31, in the beginning, it says, Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, See, I have called by name Bezael, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, the tribe of Judah. And I have filled him, verse 3, I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship. To make artistic designs for the work in gold and silver and in bronze and wood, in the cutting of stones for settings, in the carving of wood, that he may work all kinds of craftsmanship. And so, again, it's just a slight example of a master craftsman, right, who's been given a spirit of wisdom, and he can observe and see all the many kinds of colors and textures and stones and materials. And he's been filled with the knowledge of all these things, and the wisdom, and the ability to take that knowledge and use them in the best possible way to bring about what God had, you know, asked them to bring about. And so, again, you get the idea of this manifold, multifaceted, multi-colored wisdom of God. This is how Paul describes God's wisdom back in our text, in Ephesians chapter 3. It's manifold wisdom. And this is God's purpose, to make this manifold wisdom known. Next, back in our text, notice where God purposed for his manifold wisdom to be displayed. What does it say? It says, as through the church.

15:00The church. God's manifold wisdom is to be displayed through the church. Now, let's think about that for a moment. How does the church display the manifold wisdom of God? Well, I think in the most general sense, you know, we can think of a church. I mean, the word is literally just a collection of people, an assembly of people. This word church means. So it's a group of people that have been assembled together for a purpose. And in this context, it is used to describe a specific group of people, a specific group. Who are they? He's referring to the people that God had assembled from all of the various nations, Jew and Gentile, all the various nations of the earth. And he had united them together in Christ. That is the church that Paul is referring to here. And so, in the general sense, I think we can see the wisdom of God displayed in the church and displayed in the variety that exists in the church, in the assembly of God's people. I mean, just look around you this morning.

16:19There's no one identical. It's every shade of humanity is here and in the church. someone from every tribe and tongue and nation. And so in that sense, the church is that colorful masterpiece of a master craftsman selecting and placing the people in a display of God's wisdom. But I think even beyond that, we can see the wisdom of God in the church or through the church when we realize and look at each one of our own personal testimonies. When you think about your own testimony for a moment and the circumstances of your life and all of the variables that existed from the time you were born to today or through the time at least that you were placed into the church, all the things that could have gone different but didn't and were orchestrated so that you could come to saving faith in Jesus Christ.

17:28And then think about all of those infinite possibilities times roughly 250 people in this room, right? Times all the churches, all the true churches through all of history and all the world. It starts to baffle your mind the complexity that God was able to navigate and orchestrate so that he could assemble God's people into... The church. An incredible display of God's wisdom. Listen, there is nowhere in the entire universe that displays God's wisdom more clearly than the redeemed community we call the church. There's no other place. This is where God has purposed to display his wisdom. Do you see the church like that? You see it as God's display of wisdom?

18:30I hope you do, certainly after reading this text. It's hard not to. Notice also to whom this display was made. Look back at the text. God's manifold wisdom was displayed or made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. Who are they? It's kind of an interesting term. Well, we know from our text, he's not referring to human rulers and authorities because he mentions they're in the heavenly places. So we know that they're in the realm of the heavenly places. These are not earthly rulers and authorities, as some commentators try and say. So he's not talking about them. Then who is he talking about? He's talking about angels. Angels. The angelic rulers and authorities. God is displaying his wisdom to angels.

19:30Now that's fascinating to me and interesting because I tend to think of God primarily revealing himself to humanity, right, to us, so that we might see him for who he is and come to him and be saved by him. But he doesn't say that here. Paul says that the intended purpose of God to display his wisdom was so that the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places could see and know about God's wisdom. Now, it's uncertain here whether Paul is referring to holy angels or fallen angels, or maybe both, maybe all angels. We don't really know. Some commentators lean towards saying that they're holy angels, and I think they can make a good argument of that by citing texts like 1 Peter, which tell us that the angels are actually looking into what God is doing in salvation. 1 Peter 1, 12 says that. But I also think you can make a very strong case that Paul is referring to fallen angels here, angels that have joined Satan in their rebellion against the wisdom of God. Turn over just a couple pages to Ephesians 6. Paul uses this term again, this term rulers and Authorities.

21:03Ephesians 6, specifically, and you're familiar with this verse, verse 12. He says, We do not wrestle against flesh and blood. Our battle is not here on earth against humans, against the human rulers and authorities. Who is it against? It's against the rulers and against the authorities and against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Again, you see it there, rulers and authorities, same phrase. So again, I lean towards Paul saying that God is putting his wisdom on display through the church so that these fallen angels, these angels that are in rebellion against God, might see and know the wisdom of God.

21:59But either way, right, either way, either way you go, whether they're holy angels or fallen angels or all angels, it is clear that these are the ones for whom God is putting his wisdom on display for. That's who he intends to show his wisdom to. Lastly, notice that all of this, all of this, was in accordance with the eternal purpose. Do you see that? The beginning of the next verse? All of this is in accordance with God's eternal purpose, literally, in agreement with or in conformity to the plan for the ages. If you were to give a literal rendering of that, the eternal purpose is God's plan for the ages. Now, that's significant to note because it tells us that the church, which displays God's wisdom, was not an afterthought.

23:01The church was not a plan B, it was not a response to Israel rejecting their Messiah. It was God's plan for the ages. From eternity past, God purposed that the church would come into existence and that it would be the main stage where all of the angelic hosts could see the manifold wisdom of God on display. That is what God purposed in the church. He purposed to make his wisdom known. That was the purpose. And so now I want to ask: how did God bring all of this about?

23:44How did God accomplish this purpose? And verse 11 answers this for us by identifying the person of God's plan. Who was the person of God's plan? Notice in verse 11, this. Was in accordance with the eternal purpose which he carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord. He says, that is God. God says he carried out his plan. He carried it out. He made a plan. He purposed to do the plan. And then he carried out that plan in the person of Jesus Christ. How did he do that? In what ways was the eternal purpose of displaying God's wisdom carried out in the person of Christ?

24:40I think the answer can be seen in the three titles that Paul gives here in our text. Paul uses three words to identify Christ. You see him there, Christ, Jesus, our Lord. Let me see if I can connect this to the purpose of God and the person of God, Jesus. The first title that Paul mentions is the title Christ. You see that there. This is a reference to his identity as the promised Messiah, the Christ, the anointed one. God's wisdom can be seen in God's promise to send a Messiah. Do you remember going back all the way to Genesis, the beginning of Genesis? Genesis 1 and 2.

25:32What is recorded there? Creation. Yes, creation. God acting and creating, using that manifold wisdom to take from all of the things and creating this beautiful world, this beautiful creation, a great expression of God's glory and God's wisdom and power. Those were chapters 1 and 2. And as you know, in chapter 3, Satan challenged God. And he challenged God's wisdom. He sought to make God a fool, and he did it by tempting God's own creation to do the same thing that Satan did, which was to rebel against the wisdom of God. Isn't that what Satan did? He rebelled. He said, No, I am greater than God. I want to be like God. I know better than God. And he exalted himself and exalted his own wisdom. And then he tempted God's own creation to do the same.

26:41And he succeeded in that. But my point in this is that even the moral failure of humanity was not outside of God's eternal plan and purpose. And we can see that even in God's response to Satan when he cursed. In Genesis 3, 14, the Lord said to the serpent, Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock, above all the beasts of the field. On your belly you shall go, and the dust you shall eat in all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring, and he shall literally crush your head, and you shall crush his heel or bruise his heel. You see, God from the very beginning informs Satan that his rebellion against the wisdom of God will not prevail. Because there is one that God has purposed to bring about. There is one coming that God has chosen to bring about in his timing, and this one, this Messiah, will crush him.

27:54And as we go through the course of Israel's history, we see this promise of a Messiah developed. We see it in Abraham, and Isaac, in Jacob, and David, and throughout the entire course of Israel's history, they are waiting for this promised Messiah. And so, for several thousand years of history, the people of God and really all of heaven were waiting for the promised Messiah to come. They were waiting to see if God would deliver on his promise.

28:31Or if he would be made a fool. And then, at the right time, at the time that God determined, the promised Messiah was born, born of a virgin in Bethlehem, exactly as was prophesied. And his name was Jesus. Jesus. He's Christ Jesus. That's the second title that Paul gives us back in Ephesians 3. Jesus was his name. That was his earthly name. The name he was given when he came to earth. And it reminds us of the fact that God came to earth in the person of Jesus Christ.

29:14John 1, verse 14, the word speaking of Jesus became flesh and dwelt among us in the person of Jesus Christ. And we saw his glory, the glory of the only begotten, the unique one from the Father, full of grace and truth. See, Jesus came to this earth to put God's glory and God's wisdom and his power on display. And Jesus' life and his ministry on earth testifies to that. We read through the Gospels, we read of Jesus even as a young boy, increasing in wisdom and stature and in. Favor with God. Luke chapter 2. Luke chapter 3, we see God declaring publicly before those, all that's watching, and certainly the angelic host, here is my Son. This is the one that I'm pleased in. This is the one that I have sent.

30:21And so Jesus declares that. He makes that known through his life. And as you might expect, As you might expect, Satan did not sit back and just watch it happen, right? And so you see Satan move again to challenge God, to challenge God's wisdom. And we see that in the temptation of Christ. He tempts him almost in the same ways, right? Don't rely on God. Don't rely on God's wisdom. Don't rely on God's word. Rely on your own wisdom. That was what Satan proposed to Christ. Only this time he failed. Jesus did not submit to the wisdom of Satan, but to of God. And he submitted himself completely to the Father's will, and he trusted in the wisdom of God. This was the testimony of Christ's life, and he trusted even to the point of death on a cross.

31:24Even the point of death on a cross. Even Christ's death. Was a part of God's plan and purpose to display his wisdom. Again, we see that in the person of Christ, in his life. He came preaching the message of God to the people that were waiting for the Messiah. He declared himself to them, I am the one you've been waiting for. And they rejected him. They rejected their Messiah. They hated him. They hated the message he proclaimed.

32:01And so they rejected him. And they ultimately executed him by a crucifixion on a cross in a public display of divine judgment. And I think at this moment in history, perhaps all of Jesus' followers and his disciples and the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places must have thought, perhaps God's plan and purpose has been thwarted or stopped. But that couldn't be further from the truth. Because again, even Jesus' death on the cross was according to God's eternal purpose. Listen to Acts chapter 2, verse 23. Peter is saying, Men of Israel, listen to these words. Jesus, the Nazarene, a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs. Which God performed through him in your midst. Just as you yourselves know, this man was delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God.

33:14And you nailed him to a cross by the hands of godless men, and you put him to death. But God raised him up again, putting an end to the agony of death. You see that? Even the death of Jesus was a part of God's plan in displaying God's wisdom. And this brings us back to the third title and Paul's point in Ephesians 3: that God's eternal purpose, his plan for the ages, has been carried out in the person of Christ Jesus, our Lord. Our Lord. That's the third title that Paul gives him, and we must have ingrained in our minds, Jesus Christ is the Lord. Listen to how Paul expresses this just a couple chapters earlier in chapter 1, verses 20 and 23.

34:13It says, speaking of this power which he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and he seated him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and Every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things, all of it, in subjection under his feet, and he gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body. The fullness of him fills all and all. Listen, it was through the death and burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ where he was declared to be Lord of the universe, Lord over all rulers and authorities, including the ones who have rebelled against the wisdom of God.

35:13It is through Jesus Christ our Lord that both Jew and Gentile can be reconciled to God and reconciled to each other and placed into this group of people called the church, this collection from every tribe and every tongue and every nation who have been called out of this world to be united to him and display the wisdom of God. So again, Jesus Christ our Lord has carried out the purpose, God's purpose, for the ages. So we've seen the purpose. We've seen the purpose, and with our time left this morning, I want to show you, and I want you to see two incredible privileges of Being a participant in God's eternal plan. What are the privileges of participating in God's plan?

36:08First, we need to notice who the participants in God's plans are. Notice in verse 12, it begins with the words, in whom? In whom. This points us back to Christ that we just mentioned, to the person of Christ. And it tells us that the participants in God's plan are the ones who are connected to Him. The ones who are connected to Christ. And notice also the change in pronouns. It says, in whom we, in whom we have.

36:43And for much of this passage in chapter 3, Paul has been referring to himself. You'll notice that in the preceding verses. Verse 1, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ. Verse 2, if you've heard of the grace that was given to me. Verse 3, of the revelation that was made known to me. Verse 4, it's my insight. Verse 7, I was made a minister. Verse 8, to me, the very least of all the saints, this grace was given. But now here, in verse 12, we see a change. It's we have.

37:21We have. It's not just Paul, who was a Jew and who was an apostle, but it was Paul and These Gentile Christians to whom he was writing. And so I think you could say it like this: A participant in God's eternal plan is anyone, both Jew and Gentile, apostle or not, who has been connected to Christ. That's who participates in God's plan. Listen, if you're here this morning, it doesn't matter what nation you're from, it doesn't matter what economic status you have or what position you hold in life. It doesn't matter what your past has been or how greatly you have sinned against God or spurned his wisdom. If you have submitted yourself to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, you are a participant and a part of God's plan for the ages. That's incredible news, that we can be a part of God's eternal purpose. Let that sink in for a moment. If you're in Christ, you are a part of God's plan for eternity. It's a great privilege to have.

38:39Second, notice the privileges that we possess as participants in God's plan. It says we have boldness and confident access. Boldness. I think many of us, when we hear the word boldness, we may equate it with bravery. Someone who's bold is someone who's brave. Maybe you think of someone in the military, right, who risks their life in boldness and bravery. But this word actually has more to do with freedom in speech, freedom in speaking, unreserved speech. And it conveys the idea of confidence to speak openly and plainly without fear.

39:30I don't have time to turn there this morning, but you can write it in your notes. An example of this would be Acts chapter 4, where you have Peter speaking before the rulers and authorities of his day. And it says that they were amazed at his confidence in how he declared the gospel or he declared the message of Christ. That's the idea here, to be able to confidently speak, to be able to boldly speak about Christ.

40:03And I think there could be a couple implications of this. Again, I think it means that we too ought to speak boldly, as Peter did, certainly as Paul did, even from prison. We see his boldness to proclaim the gospel. And so I think as participants in God's plan, we can be bold in that way. But I think it can also imply a boldness in speech. Before God in prayer. Did you know that you can come before God openly and freely if you are in Christ? You can have boldness before the throne of God and you can ask Him.

40:45Listen to Hebrews chapter 4. It says, Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we don't have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things and yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence, with boldness to the throne of grace, so that we might receive mercy and find grace in our time of need.

41:201 John 5, this is the confidence we have before him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us, and we know he hears us, we know that we have the request with which we have asked him. So, again, he's saying that those who are connected to Christ can be bold. We have this privilege of boldness and freely speaking with God and for God. And secondly, real quickly, we have a second privilege, and that is confident access. Now, we've already seen this in Ephesians 2:18. He's already mentioned this access that we have. It says that through Jesus, both Jew and Gentile have access to the Father.

42:12And it describes the right of entrance, the right to enter into the presence of God. We have that access. And Paul adds its confident access. There is no uncertainty about being able to come into the presence of the Father for those who are in Christ. We can be fully assured that we have the right to be in his presence because we are in Christ. That's what he says here in Ephesians 3. We have boldness and confident access. Therefore, let us draw near, as it says in Hebrews 10. Draw near with a sincere heart, full assurance of faith. Fully assured.

43:01Lastly, notice what secures these great privileges. Notice the last phrase in verse 12. It says, through faith in him. Through faith in him. This is the connecting point. This is what connects us to Christ. It was what connects us to the eternal plan of God, the eternal purposes of God. It is through faith in him. That's the emphasis. It's in him. That makes all this possible. You know, I've been taking Greek the last year in seminary, and that has certainly stretched my mind. And I don't claim to be a Greek scholar, but I did ask Thomas about this.

43:48And it can be also translated this way, even though many of the translations don't pick up on this. But if you were to translate it literally, it says, through faith of him. There's a slight nuance there, but I think both are true. It's through our faith in him, but it's also because of or through his faithfulness or his faith. His faithfulness. Do you see the nuance there? Because Christ was faithful, we can have faith in him. Because Christ is faithful, we can have boldness and confident access to the Father because he was faithful. And therefore we can trust him and we can come to him. And that confidence is secure in Christ through faith in him, through his faithfulness.

44:43Well, again, God had a purpose for the ages. That purpose was to display his manifold wisdom through the church, through all of you here this morning, through us. And he carried it about in the person. Of Christ, so that we might participate in this plan and have boldness to come and be with God the Father and be united to Him. And Paul wanted the Ephesians to understand this, and so he builds all of these things, right, all of these perspectives of being a prisoner of Christ and a steward of grace, a minister, a servant of the gospel, and a participant in God's plan. All of these things build up to this one conclusion in verse 13, and we've looked at it before, so I'll just say it briefly again.

45:35Therefore, right, here's the conclusion of all that he's been saying and all that he wants them to know. I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, because they're your glory. Don't lose heart at my tribulations, literally, the pressures that I'm enduring on your behalf right now. That's what Paul is saying. Don't lose heart at my imprisonment. Yes, I'm in prison, but don't let it discourage you. Why? Because they are your glory. My imprisonment means your glory. Paul understood that. He understood the circumstances of his life and the significance of his ministry as simply the unfolding of God's eternal plan.

46:23God's eternal plan to bring them into glory. He understood that, and so he was willing to participate in the sufferings. Of Christ, so that the Gentiles could participate in the glories of Christ. And this is what kept him going. This is what kept Paul ministering and serving the gospel in and out of prison, beating after beating, and ultimately death, giving his life for it, because he wanted to see the glory of Christ brought about in the people of Christ, and he wanted to see the manifold wisdom of God put on display for all the rulers and all the authorities and all of heaven to see it and to marvel at it and to ultimately praise him for it.

47:10Well, this was Paul's perspective on his life and his ministry. He was a participant of God's plan for the ages. And I asked you here this morning: is that how you view your life? Are you letting those realities shape how you live, how you view the circumstances? Some of you are going through some difficult times, I know. You're not in prison because you're here this morning, but it may feel like you're in prison, some of the things you're having to go through. And I'm just here to tell you that God is still on his throne, and he has a plan, and he has a purpose, and he's working it out, and it's been accomplished in the person of Christ. And if you will come to him this morning, I can assure you that you can have boldness and confidence. Confidence facing eternity, no matter what happens here in your life. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we marvel at your manifold wisdom that you have displayed for all of us to see.

48:17We marvel at what you have done through the person of Christ. And you have held him up as one to be praised, one to be worshipped, and one to ultimately bow our knee to because he is Lord of lords and king of kings. And I pray that everyone here this morning would not leave here without acknowledging that and bowing their lives to him, committing their lives in service to Christ and to the gospel. In Jesus' name, amen.