Sermon Transcript Tone Analysis

Alright, Ephesians chapter 3. We have some extra Bibles, anybody need a Bible, if you didn't bring one.

John has some

Lance.

I remember last week.

There you go.

Anyone else? Alright if you'll turn to Ephesians chapter 3?

We'll go to verse 13.

Ephesians 3 starting verse 1.

For this reason, I Paul the prisoner of Jesus Christ, 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 in brief.

By referring to this when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ.

Which another generation 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 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 authorities In the 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.

and so, if you've been with us the past few weeks you've seen, in chapters 1 & 2, How Godward Paul is. how God focused Paul is.

And that is countercultural.

it flies in the face of everything that we were taught or the things that are preach to us often times in the TV and media, and sometimes, even televangelists and things.

And that is that, that this, this existence, this reality is inherently about me.

There was a book released a few years ago called generation me.

And the sociologist wrote about how the Millennials that's me.

Born in 1980, I believe and after are all about themselves.

I need this.

I need that.

It's a Burger King, kind of culture, have it your way.

and I think you may or may not agree with me, but I think as the internet connectivity grows and we have dishwashers that connect to the internet and we have fridges that can order milk for you.

You won't ever have to get off the couch, you can just do everything from the couch, even your pastor could come to your house and preach in your face if you want.

You know?

Like, you don't have to go anywhere, you don't have to do anything.

you can pick things that you like , get rid of things you don't like, people You like, you don't like.

it's all about you, right?

And what's dangerous is that seeps into faith and so you build your faith, or your build your understanding of God based on your preferences.

We are making God in our image in a sense.

And so to Read Paul's words here in chapters 1 and 2. And continuing chapter 3, is almost to climb the mountain and to breathe The fresh air. to see Truth for what it is, or to see reality for what it really is.

What is this world?

What's the purpose of reality?

Why am I here?

It's not so people can all focus on me.

Right.

It's not so people can all go, there goes Josh, let's go see what, Let's see, what his opinion is, right?

That's not that's not that's not the purpose of reality.

It's not why I'm here.

I was put here for a reason.

What is that reason?

Paul handles that beautifully in chapters 1 and 2 and here he continues his radical, God focusedness, there in verse one right off the bat "for this reason, I Paul the prisoner of Christ Jesus."

Anyone ever call himself a prisoner of Christ?

Not very often don't we ?

We say, Christ set us free from prison, Maybe.

But consider yourself as a prisoner of Christ Jesus?

just that phrase alone flies in the face of a lot of what we hear in church doesn't it?

"Jesus came to set you free and to be the man, you're supposed to be." Yes.

But by becoming a prisoner of him.

That doesn't mean he's Shackles You to the wall and he throws bread at you and water occasionally.

It means that he's Shackles you to himself that he put you in himself and he puts himself in You by his spirit and you become his and by becoming his you truly live.

that's what God made you to be, to be his, his means of glorifying himself.

And that's not going to happen Apart from Christ.

Because apart from Christ, we follow the ways of the world And we glorify ourselves.

We say I'm the most interesting thing in this room.

And you say, no, I'm the most interesting thing in this room.

Then we all just started competing,

But Paul says, I set myself aside.

And I put Christ as the focus.

he is the ultimate.

so much so that I am his prisoner, I am his prisoner, I am his slave, he uses the word slave sometimes in Romans 6.

I am his and what a wonderful Master he is and then Paul interrupts himself and says " for this reason I Paul the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of Gentiles.

And then he is like he has to explain what he just meant, what he just said, for the sake of the Gentiles.

What do I mean by that?

So in verse 2 is his Like 11 verse digression.

Paul does that.

he kind of goes on little rants.

They're good ones though.

Verse 2 " If indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace, which was given to me for you, that is the Gentiles.

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.

Notice in verse 2 He says, this mystery that I'm going to give you It's a stewardship of God's grace.

So Paul is continuing this God theme.

He doesn't say God's great Let's talk about me now or God's great Now, let's talk about this mission that God gave me and how I'm doing it.

Paul says, this thing that God gave me this mystery that God has revealed to me, it's out of Grace.

It was given to me for you.

Paul's not saying I have this clever message.

I'm this special person.

Paul's saying, this is God's grace, that was entrusted to me for you.

And that it was given to him in verse 3 by revelation.

God revealed to Paul the mystery which was hidden in ages past.

What is that mystery?

verse 6.

That Gentiles, are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise, in Christ Jesus, Through The Gospel.

We talked about this last week, the Gentiles and the Jews were hostile to each other.

A Gentile is essentially someone who's not Jewish.

And they were hostile to each other.

The Jews remember they call them " oh they're uncircumcised, I don't want to mess with the uncircumcised.

they're they're pagans, they're dirty unwashed masses" but God in Christ is reconciling the two groups into a new man.

Remember that?

The new man is Christ Jesus and it is only by virtue of their being in Christ that they are created or that they are brought together.