The Church Revealed (Part 2)
Bible Study Time 7-15-07
Bible Study Time 7-15-07
During the time period covered by the book of Acts, the Apostle Paul was given tremendous insight into the plan and purpose of God concerning the New Covenant. The other apostles gave no indication that they were aware of the prophecies concerning the New Covenant. Their message to the nation of Israel was simply that God had raised Jesus Christ from the dead, and that if they would repent and be baptized, Jesus Christ would return to the earth to establish the kingdom.
They did not seem to understand that all of the blessings of the kingdom were connected to and dependent upon the New Covenant. Now these men were not just too ignorant to understand the New Covenant. It was simply God’s plan to reveal the mystery concerning the New Covenant to another apostle. Indeed, this mystery was to be revealed to and through the Apostle Paul.
God could have revealed the truth of the New Covenant to Peter just as easily. After all, God did reveal to Peter that the gift of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy. But it was according to God’s sovereign plan that the message of the New Covenant should be revealed through the Apostle Paul.
The Apostle Paul got saved about eight years after the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost. Then Paul spent three years in Arabia and three years in his home town of Tarsus before he was called to serve the Lord with Barnabas in Antioch of Syria.
By the time Paul got to Antioch, God had shown him many great truths from the Old Testament which had been hidden in the scriptures all through the ages, and Paul was no doubt ready and in fact eager to reveal these truths to the world. He wanted to tell the world about Jeremiah’s prophesy, which says:
Jeremiah 31:31-34 (NKJ)
31 "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah--
32 "not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD.
33 "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
34 "No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
Then four verses later in this same chapter, Jeremiah says:
Jeremiah 31:38,40 (NKJ)
38 "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, that the city shall be built for the LORD from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.
40 "And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the Brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be holy to the LORD. It shall not be plucked up or thrown down anymore forever."
From these verses, Paul could see that the New Covenant would bring forth an everlasting kingdom which would be based in the rebuilt city of Jerusalem. But he could also see that before Jerusalem is rebuilt there was to be a time of great tribulation. This had to be because the whole valley that is to be dedicated to the Lord is to be full of dead bodies and ashes before it is dedicated to the Lord.
Paul could see that according to the New Covenant the salvation of God would go out to the Gentiles. Well, certainly this also had to be the case. Would it make any sense that only the saved Jews would go into the kingdom? Of course not, the kingdom was going to be a time when the righteousness of God would be revealed to the Gentiles, and it will be a time when all of the Gentile nations will bring their offerings to Jerusalem as they worship the Lord.
Armed with a full understanding of the New Covenant, Paul went with Barnabas to Antioch of Syria, and this just happened to be a church which was full of many believing Gentiles. Paul was able here in this church to put his new found knowledge of the New Covenant to good use. He was able to explain the fact that it had always been God’s plan to save the Gentiles so that they could enjoy the blessings of the kingdom.
Paul was also able to explain to them that the Law of Moses, which had created such a wall of separation between the Jews and the Gentiles, had never been able to save anyone. The only saved Jews since the time of Abraham were those Jews who had come to God in faith even as Abraham did. Paul explained that according to the New Covenant, Jews and Gentiles alike are saved by simple faith in Jesus Christ, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
This was essentially Paul’s message all the way through the Acts-period. However, when Paul was taken to Rome as a prisoner of the Roman government, he shared with the Jews of that city his knowledge concerning the New Covenant. When they refused to humble themselves before God and dedicate their hearts to Jesus Christ, Paul pronounced judgment upon the Jews of that generation.
From that time forward, as Paul wrote Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, he never mentioned the New Covenant again. He never mentioned Abraham or any of the Jewish patriarchs. He never mentioned the city of Jerusalem.
With this abrupt change in theology after the events of Acts 28, it’s no wonder that so many liberal Bible scholars have concluded that Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians were written by an imposter. They say there’s no way that the same man who wrote Paul’s Acts-period epistles could have also written Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians.
But this difference between Paul’s Acts-period epistles and his prison epistles can be easily explained by the internal evidence of these epistles. Why were Paul’s prison epistles so different from his earlier epistles? Paul put it this way in Ephesians, Chapter 3, saying:
Ephesians 3:8 (NKJ)
8 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
The word unsearchable literally means untraceable. The truth of God’s program for today can not be found in the scriptures until you get to Paul’s epistles. You can search through every word of the Old Testament Scriptures. You can search through the gospels and the early part of Acts, and you will never find even a hint about God’s program for today.
The Old Testament scriptures reveal the death, burial and resurrection of the Messiah, followed by a period of great tribulation, and then the everlasting kingdom of the Messiah. This was the premise of all the Jews who lived during the time of Christ and during the Acts period. Therefore, everything that related to the coming of the Messiah and the kingdom was said to be in the last days.
So Paul was the one whom God called to reveal the untraceable riches of Christ:
Ephesians 3:9 (NKJ)
9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ;
This word fellowship really means stewardship. So this mystery concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ was given to Paul as a stewardship, and it was Paul’s responsibility to share that truth with all men everywhere so that:
Ephesians 3:10 (NKJ)
10 . . . the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places,
None of the angles in heaven, whether angles of God or the fallen angels of Satan, none of them knew anything about the plan of God for this period of time in which we live today. This truth was a mystery which had been hidden in God since the beginning of the ages.
We today, as members of the Church which is the Body of Christ, have no claim upon this world or any of the affairs of this world. We may be able to accomplish some good things and maybe even some great things as we go through this life, but for the most part, our ministry today is to reveal the wisdom of God to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. When they see the resurrection power of Jesus Christ in us, they also see the manifold wisdom of God.
Paul revealed that the devil is, at this point, the prince of the power of the air who is the god of this world. His influence will grow stronger and stronger as time goes on until his power culminates in the person of the antichrist during the great tribulation period.
But in spite of Satan’s power over this world, believers today are not subject to his power. Our citizenship is in heaven from which we look for the Savior who shall change our vile bodies that they may be like unto His glorious body.
God has raised us up to sit with Christ in the heavenlies and we are therefore citizens of heaven. As such we have certain benefits and privileges. We have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places.
We enjoy all of the spiritual blessings of the Old Covenant Law. We enjoy all of the spiritual blessings associated with the New Covenant. And we enjoy all of the spiritual blessings that go beyond either of Israel’s covenants. One of the greatest blessings that we enjoy today, which belongs exclusively to us today, is a full understanding of God’s plan and purpose for the ages.
Paul’s revelation concerning the Church of our present age, completes the word of God. There is nothing else hidden in the mind of God which will be revealed at a later time. What a blessing it is to have access to this knowledge.
The believers of past ages were unable to put all the pieces together when it came to the coming of the Messiah, the death, burial and resurrection of the Messiah, the tribulation period, and the establishing of the kingdom. They did not have any idea that the resurrected Christ would be rejected, and that God would set aside His covenant program with the Jews for a certain period of time. They did not have all the pieces of the puzzle, so to speak.
By contrast, we today have been given the completed word of God, and God wants us to understand His plan and purpose for the ages. In Ephesians, Chapter 1, Paul said:
Ephesians 1:7-9 (NKJ)
7 In (Christ) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace
8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,
There is no doubt about it. God wants all men to understand the complete plan and purpose of God which has been revealed in the Bible. As we know, there were many things about the New Covenant which were written in the Bible but were written in such a way that those facts were very obscure.
Even with the Lord’s disciples, we read in Luke, Chapter 18, that when Jesus told them about His upcoming death, burial and resurrection, those facts were still hidden from the disciples. But today we know that it is God’s will for us to understand all of His plan purpose for the ages. We have the completed word of God, and Paul said that God has now made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself.
Then Paul said that he was praying for all believers that they might be given the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ that the eyes of our understanding might be enlightened. It gives God great pleasure when we grow in our understanding of His great plan and purpose for the ages
Well, I see that our time is gone for this morning. It’s been a pleasure studying with you, and I’ll look forward to studying with you again next week at this same time.
Church links:
They did not seem to understand that all of the blessings of the kingdom were connected to and dependent upon the New Covenant. Now these men were not just too ignorant to understand the New Covenant. It was simply God’s plan to reveal the mystery concerning the New Covenant to another apostle. Indeed, this mystery was to be revealed to and through the Apostle Paul.
God could have revealed the truth of the New Covenant to Peter just as easily. After all, God did reveal to Peter that the gift of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost was the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy. But it was according to God’s sovereign plan that the message of the New Covenant should be revealed through the Apostle Paul.
The Apostle Paul got saved about eight years after the Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost. Then Paul spent three years in Arabia and three years in his home town of Tarsus before he was called to serve the Lord with Barnabas in Antioch of Syria.
By the time Paul got to Antioch, God had shown him many great truths from the Old Testament which had been hidden in the scriptures all through the ages, and Paul was no doubt ready and in fact eager to reveal these truths to the world. He wanted to tell the world about Jeremiah’s prophesy, which says:
Jeremiah 31:31-34 (NKJ)
31 "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah--
32 "not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD.
33 "But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.
34 "No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD,' for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more."
Then four verses later in this same chapter, Jeremiah says:
Jeremiah 31:38,40 (NKJ)
38 "Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, that the city shall be built for the LORD from the Tower of Hananel to the Corner Gate.
40 "And the whole valley of the dead bodies and of the ashes, and all the fields as far as the Brook Kidron, to the corner of the Horse Gate toward the east, shall be holy to the LORD. It shall not be plucked up or thrown down anymore forever."
From these verses, Paul could see that the New Covenant would bring forth an everlasting kingdom which would be based in the rebuilt city of Jerusalem. But he could also see that before Jerusalem is rebuilt there was to be a time of great tribulation. This had to be because the whole valley that is to be dedicated to the Lord is to be full of dead bodies and ashes before it is dedicated to the Lord.
Paul could see that according to the New Covenant the salvation of God would go out to the Gentiles. Well, certainly this also had to be the case. Would it make any sense that only the saved Jews would go into the kingdom? Of course not, the kingdom was going to be a time when the righteousness of God would be revealed to the Gentiles, and it will be a time when all of the Gentile nations will bring their offerings to Jerusalem as they worship the Lord.
Armed with a full understanding of the New Covenant, Paul went with Barnabas to Antioch of Syria, and this just happened to be a church which was full of many believing Gentiles. Paul was able here in this church to put his new found knowledge of the New Covenant to good use. He was able to explain the fact that it had always been God’s plan to save the Gentiles so that they could enjoy the blessings of the kingdom.
Paul was also able to explain to them that the Law of Moses, which had created such a wall of separation between the Jews and the Gentiles, had never been able to save anyone. The only saved Jews since the time of Abraham were those Jews who had come to God in faith even as Abraham did. Paul explained that according to the New Covenant, Jews and Gentiles alike are saved by simple faith in Jesus Christ, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God; for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
This was essentially Paul’s message all the way through the Acts-period. However, when Paul was taken to Rome as a prisoner of the Roman government, he shared with the Jews of that city his knowledge concerning the New Covenant. When they refused to humble themselves before God and dedicate their hearts to Jesus Christ, Paul pronounced judgment upon the Jews of that generation.
From that time forward, as Paul wrote Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians, he never mentioned the New Covenant again. He never mentioned Abraham or any of the Jewish patriarchs. He never mentioned the city of Jerusalem.
With this abrupt change in theology after the events of Acts 28, it’s no wonder that so many liberal Bible scholars have concluded that Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians were written by an imposter. They say there’s no way that the same man who wrote Paul’s Acts-period epistles could have also written Ephesians, Philippians and Colossians.
But this difference between Paul’s Acts-period epistles and his prison epistles can be easily explained by the internal evidence of these epistles. Why were Paul’s prison epistles so different from his earlier epistles? Paul put it this way in Ephesians, Chapter 3, saying:
Ephesians 3:8 (NKJ)
8 To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
The word unsearchable literally means untraceable. The truth of God’s program for today can not be found in the scriptures until you get to Paul’s epistles. You can search through every word of the Old Testament Scriptures. You can search through the gospels and the early part of Acts, and you will never find even a hint about God’s program for today.
The Old Testament scriptures reveal the death, burial and resurrection of the Messiah, followed by a period of great tribulation, and then the everlasting kingdom of the Messiah. This was the premise of all the Jews who lived during the time of Christ and during the Acts period. Therefore, everything that related to the coming of the Messiah and the kingdom was said to be in the last days.
So Paul was the one whom God called to reveal the untraceable riches of Christ:
Ephesians 3:9 (NKJ)
9 and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ;
This word fellowship really means stewardship. So this mystery concerning the Church which is the Body of Christ was given to Paul as a stewardship, and it was Paul’s responsibility to share that truth with all men everywhere so that:
Ephesians 3:10 (NKJ)
10 . . . the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places,
None of the angles in heaven, whether angles of God or the fallen angels of Satan, none of them knew anything about the plan of God for this period of time in which we live today. This truth was a mystery which had been hidden in God since the beginning of the ages.
We today, as members of the Church which is the Body of Christ, have no claim upon this world or any of the affairs of this world. We may be able to accomplish some good things and maybe even some great things as we go through this life, but for the most part, our ministry today is to reveal the wisdom of God to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. When they see the resurrection power of Jesus Christ in us, they also see the manifold wisdom of God.
Paul revealed that the devil is, at this point, the prince of the power of the air who is the god of this world. His influence will grow stronger and stronger as time goes on until his power culminates in the person of the antichrist during the great tribulation period.
But in spite of Satan’s power over this world, believers today are not subject to his power. Our citizenship is in heaven from which we look for the Savior who shall change our vile bodies that they may be like unto His glorious body.
God has raised us up to sit with Christ in the heavenlies and we are therefore citizens of heaven. As such we have certain benefits and privileges. We have been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places.
We enjoy all of the spiritual blessings of the Old Covenant Law. We enjoy all of the spiritual blessings associated with the New Covenant. And we enjoy all of the spiritual blessings that go beyond either of Israel’s covenants. One of the greatest blessings that we enjoy today, which belongs exclusively to us today, is a full understanding of God’s plan and purpose for the ages.
Paul’s revelation concerning the Church of our present age, completes the word of God. There is nothing else hidden in the mind of God which will be revealed at a later time. What a blessing it is to have access to this knowledge.
The believers of past ages were unable to put all the pieces together when it came to the coming of the Messiah, the death, burial and resurrection of the Messiah, the tribulation period, and the establishing of the kingdom. They did not have any idea that the resurrected Christ would be rejected, and that God would set aside His covenant program with the Jews for a certain period of time. They did not have all the pieces of the puzzle, so to speak.
By contrast, we today have been given the completed word of God, and God wants us to understand His plan and purpose for the ages. In Ephesians, Chapter 1, Paul said:
Ephesians 1:7-9 (NKJ)
7 In (Christ) we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace
8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence,
9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,
There is no doubt about it. God wants all men to understand the complete plan and purpose of God which has been revealed in the Bible. As we know, there were many things about the New Covenant which were written in the Bible but were written in such a way that those facts were very obscure.
Even with the Lord’s disciples, we read in Luke, Chapter 18, that when Jesus told them about His upcoming death, burial and resurrection, those facts were still hidden from the disciples. But today we know that it is God’s will for us to understand all of His plan purpose for the ages. We have the completed word of God, and Paul said that God has now made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself.
Then Paul said that he was praying for all believers that they might be given the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Christ that the eyes of our understanding might be enlightened. It gives God great pleasure when we grow in our understanding of His great plan and purpose for the ages
Well, I see that our time is gone for this morning. It’s been a pleasure studying with you, and I’ll look forward to studying with you again next week at this same time.
Church links:
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