Ephesians chapter 3. We're beginning
a new chapter in this book. I want to read all of it to you.
Ephesians chapter 3, beginning in verse 1. Where this calls,
I, Paul, the apostle... I'm sorry, that's the way it
began in chapter 1. Paul, the apostle. Here he says, Paul,
the prisoner. I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,
If ye 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, wherein, when ye
read, ye 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 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 gospels. Wherefore,
I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God
given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me
who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given.
that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches
of Christ, and to make all men see what is the fellowship of
the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in
God, who created all things by Christ Jesus, Jesus Christ, to
the intent that now and to the principalities and powers and
heavenly places that be known by the church the manifold wisdom
of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in
Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with
confidence by the faith of Him. Wherefore, I desire that ye think
not of my tribulation for you, which is your glory. For this
cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would
grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened
with might by his Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell
in your hearts by faith, that ye, being rooted and grounded
in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and length and depth and height, and to know the love of Christ,
which passeth knowledge, that you might be filled with all
the fullness of God. Now unto Him that is able to
do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or thank, according
to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the
church by Jesus Christ throughout all ages, A world without end. Amen. I'm anxious to study this
chapter with you. But I just want to look at two
things this afternoon that the Apostle Paul mentions here in
this chapter. First, I want us to look at what a praying man this was. You notice as I begin there in
verse 14, Paul begins to pray again for these people. You remember
in chapter 1, verses 16, remember that prayer there that he prayed
for them. He said, I pray for you that you may know Him, and
that you may know what's the hope of His calling, and so on.
And then over here in the 6th chapter, look there to the right
in the 6th chapter, in verse 18, he says this about prayer. pray in all ways, with all prayer
and supplication in the Spirit, and watch in thereto with all
perseverance and supplication for all things. And pray for
me also, he said, that utterance might be given to me, that I
may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of Christ."
So, what I want us to see, first of all, is this apostle, and
not only him, but the church, All the other apostles in the
church, they were praying people. They prayed all the time. They prayed. You remember when
the Lord Jesus told them not to depart from Jerusalem until
the Holy Spirit came? And the Scripture says that those
120, the apostles and there were the other brethren and the sisters,
they were there in that upper room. They were with one accord
and continued in prayer. They were a praying group of
people. But it didn't stop after the
Holy Spirit came. You look through the book of
Acts, and we talk about the book of Acts, and it's titled, The
Acts of the Apostles. But I'll tell you one act they
did almost continually, and that was praying. You remember when
James and John were threatened with the Sanhedrin? And they
said, if you speak in His name anymore, we're going to stop
you. We're going to do harm. We're going to stamp out His
name. We're tired of hearing that name. Don't you speak in
His name. And they went back to the church
and assembled all the church together. And the Scripture says
this. And you find this attitude in
these early apostles in the church. When they got in trouble, this
is what they did. They came back and said, here's
the way they threatened us. And if it's left up to them,
they're going to stop us, because who are we? So it was said they
lifted up their voice in one accord and said, Lord, Thou art
God. And they began to pray. When
Peter and John was going up to the temple, they went up, the
Scripture says, at the hour of prayer. And you come over to
the sixth chapter of the book of Acts, you remember, Why the
apostle says we can't take care of the widows? We don't have
time to take the money and distribute it to the needy widows? And the
reason was, they said, we've got to pray. We're going to continue
to pray. So they chose them out, those
deacons, and what did they do before they ordained them as
deacons? They laid their hands on them and prayed. They were
a praying group of people. In the twelfth chapter, when
they had put Peter in jail and was going to kill him, it said
the church made prayer for him without ceasing to God. No wonder
James said, the effectual, firm prayer of a righteous man availeth
much. It is profitable to pray. The
early church was a prayer of people. The Lord Jesus spake
the parable to this end, that men ought to always pray and
not to faint. You know, I guess I could say
this. If a man professes to be saved, and he's not a praying
man, he's made a false profession. Because Christians pray. And
brothers and sisters, I would say this about us or any local
church. If we've lost the attitude and
spirit of prayer, we may well be a church, but we're a backslidden
church. The Lord Jesus said, My house,
My church shall be called a house of prayer. Whatever else takes
place there. I would even say this, that praying
takes precedence over everything else. Over singing, even over
preaching. What's preaching if we don't
have an attitude of prayer? And I would say that the best
evidence that the Lord is ready to bless And that He is blessed
is that He's first and foremost given to us the attitude of prayer. That's why the early church was
blessed. That's why converts were added
to them. Because they prayed. They prayed. I love that passage. I think it's over in Zechariah,
maybe the 13th chapter, the 12th chapter, where He says, I will
pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem
the Spirit of grace and supplication. Grace and supplication. And they
shall look upon me whom they have feared. I don't know if
there's any salvation apart from calling on the Lord. Do you?
It begins with prayer. And we continue to pray. We pray. But I want you to notice something
else about the way this man here prayed. It's amazing. And I hope I'm not misunderstood
that you would think that I'm talking about irreverence in
prayer. I'm not talking about that at
all. But look how freely this man prayed. Here he was just
writing about him being an apostle, and then in verse 14, he says,
I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't say, as soon as I
get through writing this epistle, I'm going to pray. He just begins
to pray. I know he's writing it down,
but you can't help but see, he just starts to pray. He tells
them what he's praying for. Then he breaks out into thanksgiving
and prays to the Lord. And he even says amen at the
end of it. See how freely he went into the Lord, went to the
Lord in prayer? That's a holy familiarity with
the Lord in him. That he felt so at ease in His
presence that he could go to Him in prayer. Spurgeon used to say that one
of the greatest blessings to him about prayer was he could
pray any word, any time. We have the problem today talking
about keeping prayer out of school. It's really ridiculous when you
think about it, ain't it? You can't keep prayer out of
any place. Because we commune with the Lord in our hearts,
and it ought to be so freely. So free. Okay, get back here now in verses
1-12. We'll be looking at this in the
weeks ahead. But I want to look mainly here in verse 1, but I want to
look first in verse 13, because I think verse 13 is the key to
understanding what the Apostle Paul is going to write about
here, beginning in verse 1. And here he says in verse 13,
and let me paraphrase this to you. Let me read it like this.
In verse 13. He says it like this, I ask you
not to lose heart, not to be faint or to become despondent
through fear at what I'm suffering in your behalf, but rather glory
in this, for it's for your good, and it's the will of God. Now
let me read that to you again. I've got it wrote down here.
So I asked you not to lose heart, not to faint or become despondent
through fear at what I am suffering on your behalf. Rather, glory
in it is for your good, and it's God's will." Now why does he
even say that? And I think this is why this
is the key verse to understanding verse 1 and what the Apostle
Paul was writing about here. This verse tells us this. They
were concerned, probably even confused, as to why Paul was
suffering the way he was suffering. He was a great apostle. He was
a clear preacher of the gospel. But he had suffered all these
tribulations. And they were confused about that. Why is he suffering? Well, he comes here now and writes
to them and tells them why that he was a prisoner and why he
had lost his liberty and was a prisoner in Rome. First of all, he tells them here
the nature of his tribulations. In verse 1, he says, I called
the prisoner. I am a prisoner. That's the nature
of his tribulation. He was a prisoner. He was in
bondage. He tells them again in chapter
6, in verse 20, He tells them that he is an ambassador in bonds. You begin in chapter 23 of Acts
sometime, and you read, and there's the place where Paul was arrested.
And that's the first time we find this phrase linked to him,
Paul the prisoner. If you follow him beginning at
the 23rd chapter of Acts, all the way through the 28th chapter
of Acts, he's referred to as Paul the prisoner. We don't know. He went off the scene by telling
the Jews that he was in this chain. They kept him under guard. At least one soldier always guarded
him. And he always wore a chain. He
was always bound with his chain. And he was right into Philemon. And he addresses himself to Philemon
as Paul the Aged. And he says, now a prisoner of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now some people think, possibly,
nobody knows this, all this is speculation. Some people think
that Paul was released a while from prison. somewhere after
Acts chapter 28, and went out preaching again, and then he
was rearrested, and then finally died under the Emperor Nero. We don't know that for sure.
We just know this probably somewhere in his middle age, he was arrested,
he became a prisoner, and he was still a prisoner in his old
age. And he writes to Timothy, and
he was in prison, and says, bring me a coat. I'm now ready to be
altered. I'm ready to be poured out. But
you'll notice here in verse 1 also that he doesn't address himself
as a prisoner of wrong. I never read any place that Paul
ever said, I'm a prisoner of wrong. He never says that. That
I'm aware of, that I remember. But he says it like this, Paul,
a prisoner of Jesus, Christ, the prisoner of Jesus Christ.
He says, I am a prisoner. That's the nature of my tribulation.
But he said, I'm not a prisoner of Rome. I'm a prisoner of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now why does he say that? This
is so important. He says it for three reasons.
Number one, he says he's a prisoner of Jesus Christ other than a
prisoner of Rome because he knows It's the Lord's will for him
to be a prisoner. The Lord had already told him,
Paul, you've testified of Me at Jerusalem, and it's My will
that you testify of Me at Rome. You know, if it wasn't for the
Lord's will, Paul wouldn't have been a prisoner. He knows that. See, he believes in what you
and I call the sovereign providence of the Lord. He believes what
you and I profess to believe, that all things work together
for good to them that love God, to those who are called according
to His purpose. So He says, yes, I'm a prisoner,
but I'm a prisoner at the will of my Lord. So I'm His prisoner. I'm His prisoner. Wouldn't that
help us a lot, brothers and sisters, if we realized that in all our
tribulation? When we're sick, when we suffer
persecution, Wouldn't it be wonderful? Whatever else we may say about
it, wouldn't it be wonderful if we say, this is from the Lord?
This is from the Lord. I'm His and this is from His.
Whatever reason He intends it, to correct me, to humble me,
to teach me, to bless me, it's His will. It's from Him. Well,
that's what Paul says. I'm His presence. I'm here at
His will. I'm his prisoner. I'm his slave.
But secondly, he could say, I'm a prisoner of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was for the sake of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a prisoner for the furtherance
of the gospel. Now you would think, you would
think, if Paul would get out of prison, how far the gospel
would spread. But you notice he said his imprisonment
had fallen out even further, to the furthest of the gospel?
What does he mean by that? Well, I'll tell you one thing
he means. He means by his being in prison, there was people hearing
the gospel from him that he'd have never got to preach to if
he wasn't in jail. Onasimus. No, it wasn't Onasimus. What was the slave's name that
he preached to? I forgot his name. A Lehman slave? Was that his name? He'd have
never preached to him if he hadn't been in jail. Caesar's household
heard him because he was in jail. That's why he said, I am dear
all things for the elect's sake, that they may obtain this salvation
that's in Jesus Christ the Lord. Why is Paul a prisoner? To preach the gospel to people.
And you know he's a prisoner because he's preaching the gospel
to people. Listen to what he said in 2 Timothy
2, verse 8 and 9. Remember that Jesus Christ was
raised from the dead according to my gospel, wherein, and because
of this, I suffer trouble as an evildoer, even unto bonds,
but the gospel is not bound. Therefore, I endear all things.
In Acts, when the Lord first called the Apostle Paul, The
Lord told Ananas to go to him and lay hands on him. Because
he said, I will show him what great things he must suffer for
my sake. Why is Paul suffering these tribulations? For the gospel sake. And because
he's a preacher of the gospel. You know I'm so happy for this.
And there's a lot of saints that are so happy when they read the
tribulations Paul had. suffering for the Lord Jesus
Christ. What if you and I, throughout all the New Testament, read what
an easy time these early Christians had? What if nobody ever opposed
them? What if nobody ever threatened
them? What if they just had it easy? That would scare me to
death, and it would you too. What would those dear folks in
Fox's Book of Martyrs have thought? When they were thrown into boiling
oil for the sake of Christ, when they were stretched limb from
limb, or when they were thrown on the horns of beasts, or the
houses broken up and the goods confiscated, what would they
have thought if they had read the New Testament and couldn't
find where anybody suffered for the sake of Christ and for the
cause of the Gospel? Well, these dear men would have
despaired. Paul suffered. And he said, this is why I'm
a prisoner of Jesus Christ. It's not because I've robbed
anybody. It's not because I've done harm to anybody. But it's
because I've preached the Gospel. I've been faithful to the Gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's why I'm a prisoner
of the Lord Jesus. That's it. But he doesn't stop there. And
here's what he says in verse 1. I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus
Christ for you Gentiles." Now here he gets very personal with
us. Paul said, I know some of you are about to faint. You are
confused as to why I am suffering. You look at those apostles even
up in Jerusalem, and they seem to have at least a degree of
freedom. But here I am, I am suffering. I am in prison. I am in chains. But I want you
to know and understand, it's not only because I preach the
gospel of Christ, but to be more specific, it's because I preach
it to you. Ain't that a wonderful? Oh, such words of love from this
great apostle. I'm here in prison, and I'm even
the prisoner of Christ, because I preach the gospel to you Gentiles. Look over here in the 22nd chapter
of the book of Acts. Here in the 22nd chapter, this
is where the apostle Paul is about to be taken into custody
by Rome. And this is the very, very place
where the captain comes down and gets him. They're about to
pull him to pieces. The captain comes down to get
him. He was there in the temple. And he asked the captain, he
said, can I speak to these people? And the captain let him speak
to those Jews. Paul stood there on the stairway.
and preached to these Jews about how the Lord had stopped him
there on the Damascus road and converted him and told him, you
know, that you're going to be a witness for me and so on. And
they listened to him. They said, well, this man has
seen a vision and we want to know what he's seen. And they
listened to him while he preached until he got to this point. He
got to a certain point, and boy, that did them in. They were full
of rage and began to cast up dust and said, ìAway with this
sorry man!î What was it that got them so upset? What was it
that made them want to kill this apostle? Well, look what he said
in verse 21. Hereís what the Lord Jesus told
him. Hereís what he said. ìChrist
appeared to me and said, ìPaul, depart, for I will send thee
from hence, from these Jews, from Jerusalem unto the Gentiles. And they gave him audience unto
this word. And then lifted up their voices
and said, Away with this fellow. It's not fit that he should live
any longer. Let's kill him. What was it that
made them so mad? He said, The Lord sent me to
be an apostle of the Gentiles. And they said, You're a sorry
man. You're a sorry dog. You ain't fit to live. We would
have listened to you if you had just preached Christ. Maybe we
would have listened and given you an audience. But when you
start talking about going to those dead dog Gentiles, you
are not fit to live. We are going to kill you. And
they would have if this captain had not been taken into custody. You know, you start thinking
about who this man was. You know the Lord had to convince
Peter to go down and preach to the Gentiles. Peter wasn't near
as strict as Paul was. Paul was one of, if not the strictest,
religious person in his day. Peter wasn't a Pharisee, but
Paul was. And he said, I lived a Pharisee.
I mean, he hated some of his own brethren that didn't live
up to his standards. The Lord said it was fellows
like him, and maybe even him. that the Lord was talking about
when He said the Pharisee went up to the temple to pray and
said, Lord, I thank You that I'm not like that publican. He's a Jew, but he's no good.
He's not like I am. But I tell you, when it comes
to the Gentiles, He hated them. He despised them. He didn't think
there was any hope for them at all. They were dogs. And here's
this man that the Lord Jesus saved on the Damascus road, filled him with His Spirit, and
sent Him to preach to the Gentiles. And He says, you dear Gentile
brothers and sisters, don't be concerned that I'm suffering. Yes, I'm suffering because I'm
preaching to you, but He says, I love it. I'm resolved to it. It's my Lord's will. And to think
that you're being converted under my ministry, I'm glorying it
and I want you to glory in it. Ain't that wonderful? I mean,
if he'd have just preached to the Jews, that would have been
something. Here was this self-righteous Pharisee being converted and
preaching to the Jews. That wasn't good enough. Oh,
you go to those dead dog Gentiles. He's an apostle of the Gentiles,
and that's why He suffered. Brothers and sisters, ain't that
wonderful? Don't that just fill your heart with love for this
great man? Don't it just make you jealous
for His words? For His epistles? I tell you, there's a lot of
Scriptures that you and I would never understand in the Old Testament.
if it hadn't been for the writings of our Apostle. We interpret
those Scriptures in the light of our Apostle. The Lord saved
him and opened his heart and said, Paul, you go now and tell
the Gentiles, I'm their light. I'm their light. My tribulation, he said. My tribulation. You're worried about my tribulation,
in verse 13. But he says it's for your sakes.
And I glory in it. And I want you to glory in it. I'm an apostle of the Gentiles.
Look over here in another couple of places with me. Look in Acts
chapter 13. This is one of my favorite chapters,
I think, in all the book of Acts. Because it has to do with this
very thing of Paul turning to the Gentiles. You know the context. He's come here to Antioch and
Pisidia. And he's preaching in the synagogue
of the Jews. And he's preaching Christ to
them. Forgiveness of sins. Justification
by the grace and the merits of Christ. Look what he says in
verse 38. Be it known unto you, men and brethren, that through
this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and
all that believe in him are justified." You can't be justified by the
Law of Moses. You can't keep it. It condemns you. It just
stirs up sin. But you can be justified by believing
in the Lord Jesus Christ for it. Have all your sins forgiven
by believing in Him. And then he warns them in verse
40. And they're ready to leave. The
media is breaking up. And look what happens in verse
42. And when the Jews were gone out
of the synagogue, they weren't too disturbed about it. They
were indifferent to it, but they weren't too upset. The Gentiles
begged Him that these words might be preached to them the next
Sabbath? I can almost see Him standing
there, Him and Barnabas, and up comes these Gentiles to Him.
And they're a little bit hesitant about approaching Him, because
He's this great apostle. Christ has called him. They knew
he wasn't just a mere man. He had this wonderful gospel,
this wonderful message, but he was preaching it to the Jews.
So they were a little bit hesitant about coming up to him, but finally
they come up and they said, Dear sir, we beg you, would you be
allowed to preach these same words to us next week? If you've
got them wrote down, or that's your outline, or whatever, could
you just pull the same outline out and tell us what you've just
told them? Are you allowed to do that? Are
you allowed to preach to us? Well, look what happened. Verse
44. The next Sabbath day came almost the whole city together
to hear the Word of God. Boy, all these Gentiles, they
got the Word out. All these Gentiles just poured
in to hear it. But when the Jews... saw the
multitude. They were filled with envy and
spake against those things which were spoken by Paul, contradicting
and blaspheming. Then Paul and Barnabas waxed
bold and said, It was necessary that the Word of God should first
have been spoken to you. But seeing you put it from you,
and you judge yourself unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn
to the Gentiles." For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying,
I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest
be for salvation to the ends of the earth. And look in verse
48. And when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad. And they glorified the word of
the Lord. And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed.
And the word of the Lord was published throughout all the
regions. But the Jews stirred up the devout and honorable women,
and the chief men of the city, and raise persecutions against
Paul and Barnabas, and expel them out of their coasts." See
why he suffered? It was for the gospel, but it
was more than that. They were willing to leave him
alone and let him preach as long as he was preaching to the Jews.
But when He turned to us Gentiles, you see, and He said, forgiveness
is preached to them through Christ. Oh, they said, we can't abide
this. We'll kill you if we can. And if we can't do that, we'll
see that you're put in chains and in prison. Look at another
passage in chapter 26 of the book of Acts. Here's where the Lord had called
Paul on the road to Damascus, and he's relating just a little
bit more details than what the Lord told him. And the Lord tells him there
in verse 16, when he said, I'm Jesus whom you persecuted, in
verse 15, but arise, stand upon your feet, for I have appeared
unto thee for this purpose. to make thee a minister and witness
both of these things which you've seen, and of those things in
which I will appear unto thee, delivering thee from the people,
and from the Gentiles, from those ungodly Gentiles, those who will
hate you, delivering you from them, unto whom now I send thee."
I'm sending you to the Gentiles. For what reason? And brethren,
look at this. To open their eyes. to turn them
from darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God, that
they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among
all them that are sanctified by faith that is in me." That's his message to the Gentiles.
And it was to the Gentiles. Aren't you so happy for that?
Don't that show how much God must love us? How much the Lord
Jesus Christ must love us that He raised up this man, saved
him, filled his heart with truth, and then sent him to us. See,
we didn't have anybody, did we? We didn't have anybody. Those
other fellows were sent to the Jews. The Lord raised us up in
an apostle. And oh, He said, yes, I'm suffering
because of it. And I know you're concerned about
me. But don't be, he said. Don't be. Glory in this, because
it's God's will. It's God's will. Oh, brothers
and sisters, if this man suffered like this for our sake, if he
was so willing to bear that chain and be under guard and rejoice
in it, just to preach the gospel to us, You and I would almost be inexcusable
if we withhold the Gospel from anybody, wouldn't we? If this
man was so willing to suffer so for us, let us be willing to wear ourselves out in the
service of our Lord, to preach the Gospel to others. Don't faint
at my tribulation for you, he said. What a worthy cause he was working
in. To preach the riches of Christ.
That's a worthy cause, ain't it? We should be willing to. We should glory if we're suffering
for that. Don't worry. Don't be disturbed. Don't fear
about what I'm suffering. I'm involved in this worthy cause
of preaching Christ. God bless you to your hearts.