The Mystery Of Redemption

Good morning everyone. We’ll continue our study from the book of Ephesians and we’ll turn our Bibles to Ephesians chapter 3 and we will read verses 1 till 13. I’m reading from the NASB version. Let’s read it together. Ephesians 3 verses 1 till 13. “For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles, if indeed you 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 to those 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 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, but 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 out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident faith in him. Therefore, I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are for your glory.” Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word. And we believe, God, that this word is from you. And Lord, it’s written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And we thank you, God, for preserving this word for our edification.

We pray, God, as we look into your word, Lord, may our hearts be enlightened, Lord, through this word, O Father. And we pray, God, that we would, Lord, submit to your teaching. Lord, we thank you, bless our time together, and we pray for the ministry of your Spirit in our midst. And may Christ be exalted in our hearts. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray. Amen. The title of this sermon is The Mystery of Redemption. In the previous chapters, we have seen that Paul mentioned the reign of Christ, that he is far above all rule and authority, and all things are under his subjection.

We see that in chapter 1. And the readers may have this question. If you observe the verse 1 here, readers may have a question. If Christ is now all authoritative, why was Paul in chains or why was Paul in prison? Paul may be in chains, but the gospel is not chained or gospel is not hindered. And Christ does indeed rule. And the mystery of the worldwide Christianity is now divinely revealed and effectively set into action.

Paul calls himself here as a prisoner of Christ Jesus. No, it is a matter of perspective. Our trials are for him or simply for our mistakes or for our sins. And here we see that Paul is suffering for his sake and for the sake of the people of God. And Paul was known as the apostle to the Gentiles. We read that in many places.

He was in prison, probably in Rome, when he wrote this epistle, along with other epistles like Colossians, Philippians and Philemon. Had Paul not been roaming around preaching the gospel to the Gentiles, he probably wouldn’t have ended up in a prison. We see that in verse 8, he says that, that “to me the very least of all saints this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles.”

So he is the apostle or the messenger to the Gentiles. The basic structure of Ephesians chapter 3 verses 1 to 13 consists of the opening to Paul’s intended discussion. He begins like this, “for this reason,” he intended a discussion there. And then immediately you see from verses 2 to 12, a digression from his point.

I’ll explain the digression in a while. And the reason for the digression and expression of Paul’s desire for the audience’s encouragement is seen in verse 13. And Paul resumes his point in verse 14. Again, if you look in your Bibles, it’s not here, but if you look in your Bibles, you see there that Paul begins verse 14 again the same way that he began verse 1.

Verses 2 to 13 are only a digression and this is an important digression. He explains why he suffers for the sake of the Gentiles. Proclamation of the revealed mystery to the nations outside of Israel was Paul’s task as an apostle of Christ. In the first verse, the phrase “for this reason,” it refers back to the God’s plan to unite the Gentiles and believing Jews, the believing Gentiles and the believing Jews into one new temple.

And even now the Gentiles are being built along with the Jews into the dwelling place of God. And Paul resumes his point in verse 14, repeating the phrase, “for this reason.” Some English versions have a long hyphen at the end of verse 1.

And you find that also in some of the Greek texts. And that hyphen is intentional, and it is immediately after the word Gentiles, and you see that immediately after that, construction of the sentence is broken off, and then you see that from verses 2 to 13 are like a parenthesis, a digression designed to explain why he is a prisoner for the sake of Gentiles, before he could tell them about his prayers for them.

So, verses 2 to 6, we see that the revelation of this mystery. And then from verses 7 to 12, we see the nature and the purpose of the mystery. And verse 13, we see an encouragement not to lose heart. 2 to 6. Redemption, revelation as a mystery. Now Paul assumes that the Ephesian believers knew that this stewardship of the gospel which was entrusted to apostle Paul. They understood that he was entrusted with that stewardship and the revelation was given to Paul also along with other apostles.

No, if you read Acts chapter 19, we read that Paul spent quite some time among the Ephesians, but several years passed, new members must have been added to the church and there must be more churches planted from the church. Maybe that's the reason he again explains this, the mystery of the gospel.

Paul uses the word mystery three times in these verses. In verse 3 he says that “by revelation there was made known to me the mystery.” Then again in verse 4 when you read, “you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ.” Again in verse 9, “to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages hidden in God.”

But the word mystery in English differs from the New Testament Greek. We must all understand that the Bible, the New Testament is written in the Greek language. And maybe this was the closest meaning or the closest word that gives that sense but not the exact sense. Because the English word mystery means something puzzling, something obscure, something impossible or difficult to understand. But in the New Testament Greek, it means something concealed until God reveals it.

No, you don't get that sense when you hear the word mystery. God has revealed the mysteries in the New Testament. Once which was concealed and it made it clear, it made it plain. A lot of the Old Testament prophecies which would not make sense are made clear when you read the New Testament passages.

The mystery Paul mentions here is unknown until God made it known. So as we are going through this passage, I want you to have the Greek meaning in your minds, not the English meaning. right so in verse 3 this mystery came to Paul by not some discovery but he says that it came by revelation this was a mystery revealed to him by God not by any human agency and Paul also mentions that he wrote about this mystery in brief in verse 3 right and no when did he write this when did he write well but he says that he wrote about this mystery in brief did he write another letter yeah so not necessarily is not talking about another letter so most interpreters, including some of the early church fathers, believe that the reference is actually to the material

on the gospel mystery, which Paul has just briefly mentioned in this Ephesian epistle itself in chapter 1 and chapter 2, where he mentions about the Gentiles. The word used here for wrote before means prographo, which means written material in before mentioned or written above in the same document.

So he is mentioning about the same document. So what is the mystery all about? If you look at verse 4, Paul says it is the mystery of Christ. But we must understand that it is not mainly about the person of Christ, but it is disclosed in the person and the work of Christ.

And Paul explains this mystery, which was once hidden to the saints of the old, to the people of the old covenant. But now it is made clear. And what is that mystery? That mystery is that the Gentiles were once treated as unclean dogs by the Jews. The Jews wouldn’t associate with the Gentiles. They were looked down. And now Paul says that those very Gentiles are fellow heirs along with the Jews and members of the same body with the Jews. And if you look at verse 6, they also partake of the same promise, same privileges.

And in verse 6, the phrase “partakers of promise” is a reminder of the previous mention of the Gentiles being strangers to the covenant of the promise, right? He mentions that in chapter 2 verse 12, once there were strangers to the covenant of the promise, but now they are the partakers. Of strangers, now partakers.

If you look at Ephesians chapter 2 verses 14 till 16, you see there Paul mentions that “For he himself is our peace, who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh the enmity which is a law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in himself he might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace.”

To whom was it unknown? This mystery. Look at verse 5. It says that to the saints in the previous generation, the saints of the old covenant. And we must also understand that this mystery as it was revealed in the new covenant was hidden in the old covenant. But there were hints in the old covenant, but the mysterious work of the cross which redeems all people into one new human race was not fully disclosed before Christ’s incarnation.

This truth was hidden from the old covenant saints. And then you see here, to whom was it revealed? Verse 5, the second part, Paul says, “It has now been revealed to his holy apostles and in the Spirit.” I want you to make a clear observation here.

He says that to the apostles and the prophets of the new covenant now. And verse 5 proves that the prophets mentioned in chapter 2 and also here are not the old covenant prophets. Because he clearly says it was not revealed to them of the other generations, but it was revealed to now. Revealed now. And because the revelation occurs now, so the Old Testament prophets fall under the category of the other generations. And we learn here that the revelation is through the agency of the Spirit of God.

The revelation in the Bible was always progressive. For example, God revealed to Abraham that all the families on earth would be blessed in him. But how this would be fulfilled was unclear until after Jesus came. It’s only in the new covenant you see those details of that covenant or that promise. Paul says in verse 2, this stewardship, the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you. Now Paul has given this stewardship. And what is stewardship?

Generally it means management of a household. A steward cares for someone else’s property. And in the gospel context, God commissioned it to preach. And in this context refers to the responsibility that God has given to Paul to preach the gospel to the Gentiles.

Whatever God has revealed to him, right? He must faithfully convey it. No altering the message. And Paul says in Galatians that, “if I or any other, even an angel from heaven, to you another gospel, let him be accursed.” They’re cursed. You see that? Today there are different gospels, so-called gospels in this world.

They are not faithful to this apostolic revelation. And Paul is the steward of this message. Do you know what the false gospel does? That you hear this on these televisions and a lot of this prosperity, new age, you know, preachers. It takes off the beauty and the essence of the true revealed gospel.

Any distortion of the gospel is not a gospel. There are many like that today. And do you realize now why Paul was so passionate about this gospel? And in writing to the Romans, he says that, he uses a personal pronoun, he says that “my gospel.” And he says that God will judge everyone according to my gospel.

Which means that the gospel which God revealed to him. So any distortion of the gospel is dangerous. It’s dangerous. And this unity and incorporation in Christ because of Christ’s work on the cross is the essence of the gospel. This gospel message is handed down to the church by the apostles once for all. Once for all. And the church for all the ages should also be the faithful stewards of this gospel. We need to fight and fight for this gospel, proclaim this gospel, defend the gospel, and we too should safeguard this message. Be passionate like Paul was passionate for the gospel.

Paul was divinely appointed to preach this news not to the Jews alone but to the Gentiles. God chose a Jew, gave him a message and sent him to the Gentiles. Right? The second point, the nature and the purpose of this mystery. Verses 7 till 12. Look at verse 7.

It says, Now Paul mentions that he became the minister or the one who executes that commission. The proper word used here is servant. The word for minister here is servant. Paul may have used this word for himself to express himself that expresses neither his importance nor personal renown.

Paul was enabled by God’s grace to be the minister of the gospel. And he was enabled by the powerful working of God’s Spirit in him. Yes, Paul worked hard, but ultimately the success was from God. Paul was duty-bound to proclaim the gospel as a gift of God’s grace. He served out of gratitude for the grace that he had received.

All gifted men are fallible. Only God and his word are infallible. Men may commit mistakes, God doesn’t. Look at verse 8, it says that, “To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given.” Now Paul considers himself to be the very least of all the saints. One of the greatest apostles considers himself as the least of all the saints.

Even after many travels for the sake of the gospel, many trials, many, many labors, even after working even much harder than other apostles, and after much progress in the work, he calls himself least. He calls himself unworthy. And in 1 Corinthians chapter 15 verse 9, he says that he calls himself as the least of all apostles. But here, he broadens the scope to all the saints. Not only among the apostles, but among all the saints.

The word translated here, very least, literally means less than the least. The least most. Do you think Paul was exaggerating? This was no false humility. This was Paul’s perspective of himself. This is how Paul really viewed himself in the light of God, his glory and the grace. He viewed himself as nothing, worthless, the most least.

If I say that you are the least of the saints, how do you feel? I think I shared this example sometime back. There was a lady who was praying in the church. In the church prayer meeting, she was praying. She was praying and there was another lady sitting beside her. This lady was praying, “Lord, I’m such a weak person.” The lady next to her said, “Yes, Lord.”

And then she said, “Lord, I’m a worm.” And the lady next to her said, “Yes, Lord.” “I’m this and that.” And the lady said, continue to say, “Yes, Lord, yes, Lord.” And after that, after the prayer, after the meeting, she went to that lady who said yes, “How dare you say yes?” No, we all try to be humble before God, but our true humility will come out when others speak to us. He truly considered himself as the very least among all the saints. And this was Paul’s accurate estimate of himself. And this is the humility created by the gospel. It’s because of the gospel. This is gospel humility.

This humility wouldn’t come naturally to us. If you are truly affected by the gospel, and if you truly live daily in the light of the gospel, you know, this humility would be inevitable. If you dream big about yourselves, if you think highly about yourselves, among others I’m the holiest man among all the GLC, and the most praying person, I’m the most reading person, you know, if you keep thinking about yourself like that, no, we wouldn’t be humble. As and when we encounter the gospel of Christ, the glory of God, daily, the view of ourselves will be realistic.

How about us? How about you? How easily are we prone to boast? Paul did not think, “How can I, a Jew, go to the Gentiles?” He didn’t in the law, spent years studying in the school of law and passionately fought for the law and passionately persecuted those who are not of the law. He didn’t say, “How can I go to the Gentiles?”

He saw his own unworthiness and was grateful to God for saving him. And when God commissioned him, he must have treated it as a privilege to serve the one and the only God in any manner he had called him. Would you be willing to go anywhere, do any task that God gives you?

Or do you reason that okay I come from such and such a noble background, I am so well qualified, well educated, have so many degrees. How can I go to those people and serve? Do you have such an attitude? We all should not lose this sense of incredible privilege to serve the purpose of the gospel. Pride and prejudice have no place in the kingdom of gospel. We cannot divide and rule and serve in the Church of God. All people are equal in the sight of God in value and in worth. That should be even be in our eyes. We should not categorize people based on their education, based

on their us wealth or beauty. No, that is evil in the sight of God, and God has destroyed that on the cross, and better we not entertain that in the church of God, otherwise we would come under the judgment of God. Let us not build which God has already broken it, destroyed it on the cross. And if we have such feelings in our hearts, let us deal with that in the presence of the gospel, in the presence of God, in the light of the gospel.

Let us deal with that once for all. And let us take this call as a privilege to serve all of his people. You and I should be willing to serve any people, which is the evidence that gospel is effective in our lives. We should be willing to serve all kinds of people regardless of their educational qualifications, of our educational qualifications. Our role may not be necessarily be preaching, we should be but we should embrace the privilege of serving in any capacity for the king. You may be a preacher, you may be a Sunday school teacher, or someone who shares the gospel, or only encourages other believers on a day to day basis. Whatever may be your service to the king, it is to be done with a sense of privilege. As sinners redeemed by God’s grace, there is no more tremendous honor than being called

to serve God. You sense that it is a great privilege to serve God in any way he calls you? Or you have any own personal demands before God? In verse 8, verses 8 and 9, Paul gives us two reasons for the grace God gave to preach to the Gentiles.

To preach, number one, to preach Christ’s unsearchable riches and to bring light to the mystery. And this is the essence of the gospel as well. Verse 8, “To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ.”

The unsearchable riches literally here means the unpraiseable, unfathomable riches of Christ. Something that is impossible to understand. Remember what Paul wrote to the Romans in Romans chapter 11 and verse 33. He said, “Oh, the depth of the riches both of wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and unfathomable his ways.”

That which is unsearchable is a boundless glorious wealth that belongs to Christ. The wealth of divine grace and glory unfolded in the gospel is summed up in Christ. Paul isn’t simply talking about the riches that belong to Christ. He says that Christ, but Christ himself is the riches.

You see there, he says that “unfathomable riches of Christ.” In the Greek construction there is a case called genitive case which talks about the possession. These riches are of Christ. Right? So it means that these riches the Christ himself is the richest. That’s the sense that we get from the original reading. And believers have Jesus.

And in him we are all blessed. In Christ and because of Christ, we saw that there is forgiveness for our sins. Otherwise, we all deserve to die because of our sins. You and I deserve to die because of our sins. We are the recipients of God’s anger. In Christ and only in Christ, these riches are available. In Christ, there is perfect righteousness available to us. Jesus Christ alone lived a perfect life and he went to the cross. He bore our sins. Our sins were laid on him. He suffered in our place, and he dealt with our sins once for all, satisfying the justice of God. And in Christ, and in Christ alone, because of his work, his righteousness

is available to us, and pardon is available to us for our sins. Christ, you and I are adopted into God’s family. Not as slaves, but as children and heirs with Christ. In Christ, we are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. He is seated at the right hand of the majesty in the heavenly places, is far above all rule, authority, power and dominion. All things are in subjection under his feet. He is king forever. Do you know this Christ? Do you know this Christ? I request you who are seated here, were seated here without Christ. We plead with you to come to Christ Jesus, believe in him, and repent of your sins.

He alone can cleanse you. He alone can clothe you with his righteousness. And Paul was called to preach this Christ. And his soul was thrilled. The least of all the saints enabled by God’s marvelous grace to preach the glorious king. And in the second place, he preached not only the unsearchable riches of Christ, but he preached the mystery. Verse 9. “And to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things.”

This is the expansion of the nature of Paul’s calling to proclaim the gospel, to bring light to the mystery, the unfolding plan of God. Now Paul’s point is that he has been called and empowered to enlighten and illuminate others concerning how God has chosen to accomplish his eternal purposes in Christ.

Note also that this mystery had been hidden in God. This is hidden in the heart of God. What is hidden in the heart of God? From when it was hidden in the heart of God? Even before he created anything. What was hidden in the heart of God? The mystery. What is that mystery? That there will be one single human race in Christ Jesus.

All tribes, all tongues united into one humanity in Christ Jesus. And this is in the heart, on the heart of God. This was hidden in the heart of God. And he revealed this mystery to his servant. And his servant proclaims. And this is the essence of the gospel.

This is the essence of the gospel. The unity of all people in Christ. This gospel divides all barriers — the rich, poor, educated, uneducated, civilized, uncivilized, every barrier it destroys. I remember once we went to one remote place. These places are called as the forest agency areas, you know. These are tribal people and we had to climb hills to go there. So we went and, uh, those people living in those tribes were not listening to us. They were not attentive to us to hear the gospel. So very discouraged we went to a nearest town, again walking. We walked, you know, from that village to this will

at least 10 kilometers only to take a bus. So as we reached that village, that small village, by the time we reached the village that the bus left. We had to stay back in that village that night. We requested one church there. We saw a church building, we saw, we went to the pastor and requested him that whether we could stay there, he—And we thought like, why don’t we utilize this time to preach the gospel, and we went to house to house.

And we told that we came here and we are staying there in that church building. To our surprise, and that was the first time I was encountering something like that. That was in 2008. I was encountering that for the first time. “Oh, that church? Oh, that is not our church, that is an SC church. No, we go to this BC church.” There are other caste churches also in this village, and there were many people like that, and I was really shocked to hear that, and I told them, you know, whatever you believed, please don’t call yourselves as Christians. This is not the gospel unites people. And if you’re, you know, we had to tell them strongly that you haven’t believed in the gospel, and we had to tell them the gospel, and churches today on the basis of status, caste, right?

And that’s very evident in marriages. Caste-based marriages, status-based marriages. That shows our mentality. That shows our mentality. We are not... That’s evil. That’s evil. That we are entertaining. So, we see here that this mystery is kept secret in the heart of God.

The creator of all things has a plan from the eternity past to unite all things, especially the Jews and the Gentiles into one humanity in Christ Jesus. And Paul spoke about the nature of this mystery and then he spoke about the purpose of this mystery. Verse 10.

You know this one hidden mystery has a purpose. A cosmic purpose in the makeup of the church. What’s that purpose? So that the manifold wisdom of God, verse 10, might now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.

God’s ultimate aim is that his own manifold wisdom, which he demonstrated in uniting the church of different races and bringing them into one humanity by the gospel of Christ Jesus, there is a purpose for that. And what is that purpose? That manifold wisdom might be made known through the church. The word manifold was used to describe everything from the intricate and richly diversified, multifaceted. And God’s saving wisdom is gloriously intricate in its design and its effect. And in this present context, you know, the New Testament scholar Peter O’Brien notes that this variety manifold wisdom has particular reference to God’s richly diverse ways of working which led to a multiracial, multicultural community being united as fellow members in the body of Christ.

To whom in particular does God want this made known? To whom? He says to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Who are these rulers and authorities in the heavenly places? That is the heavenly host. Could be the angelic beings. But in the context of the Ephesians, you read that in Ephesians chapter 6 also, he speaks about these rulers and authorities in the heavenly places in Ephesians chapter 6. It refers to the demonic spirits. Right?

In this way, these fallen angels, the host of the enemy, are provided with and also including the entire heavenly host, even the angels. We see that in 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 12 where the angels in heaven long to see into the salvation that God is accomplishing in the saints. So it is a testimony even to them.

So, in this way, God is providing a tangible reminder to them that their authority has been decisively broken, especially the satanic angels. And they, indeed all things, have been made subject to Christ. Note this here. The purpose of the church extends far beyond its internal ministries.

God intends for the church to serve a larger cosmic purpose in spreading his glory. God intends to accomplish this purpose through the church, not the nature, not the angels, but through the church. And it is through the very existence of this multiracial, transcultural community of believers, in which Jews and Gentiles are co-heirs of the promise that God makes known this wisdom.

It is the dwelling of this multicultural, multi-ethnic body in unity which displays the wisdom of God to these powers. Again, we must notice here that Paul never says that the church is given the task of preaching to the powers or binding the powers. Us, the church, is not given that task to fight with that, what do you call, the terminology, the territorial spirits. No, we don’t find that in the Bible, right? He simply says that the wisdom of God will be made known through the church. And it is also interesting to observe the grammar here

in the Greek. In verse, “might now be made known through the church” is in the passive voice. You know, what do you mean by passive voice? The church is not actively doing something to demonstrate to the powers, the way as the gospel is working and knitting together the people of God, right? As the gospel unity is maintained in the church in the fear of God, that itself is the demonstration or the display of that wisdom to the heavenly hosts. We did not do anything else. That gospel unity should be displayed.

But we see here that God is the one making the mystery and wisdom known to these powers. The very existence of the church on the foundation of the gospel is the witness. The church is the handiwork of God, a new creation in Christ Jesus.

And according to verse 11, this plan of God to bring Jews and Gentiles together as his people was all according to God's eternal purpose. This eternal plan which was in the heart of God is executed now in this age of the church. You visibly see that unity, that coming together of diverse people into one body. We see that now.

And there is a perfect manifestation of that, the perfect picture. We see that in the book of Revelations, as I mentioned even last week, that there is a host of saints from every tribe and tongue before the throne of God. And according to verse 12, because of our union with Christ, every believer, including the Gentiles forbidden in the old covenant, now have access through faith in Christ Jesus. We have the boldness as Gentiles to consider ourselves as the full kingdom citizens with confident access to the kingdom household of God. And this bold access with confidence belongs to every believer because it is by faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.

no longer inferior citizens of heaven, but relatively fully privileged citizens by Christ's mediation. The church has the ear of the sovereign King of creation, who listens with real interest and compassion to those who are now members of his family. Finally, Paul concludes with an exhortation not to be deserted.

Verse 13, “Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory.” Why would the Gentiles, no, have been tempted to lose heart over Paul’s sufferings? Since Paul’s imprisonment resulted from his ministry to the Gentiles, perhaps they felt somehow responsible for his arrest. If you remember the story in Acts chapter 21, the details are given there in verse 28. The book of Acts shows that Paul had been arrested for taking an Ephesian Gentile named Trophimus to Jerusalem.

was accused of bringing him into the temple. And probably they felt that because of that, he was imprisoned. The Gentile believers might have been discouraged by Paul’s imprisonment. He saw it as actually, but Paul saw it as actually contributing to their glory. How? His suffering provides a platform on which God’s grace in Christ can be more loudly and visibly proclaimed. It serves notice to the world that there is something in it, someone who is greater and more worthy than worldly and physical comfort.

Paul is showing how his imprisonment is not at all a sign of failure of the gospel or of Christ’s exaltation to all power. It is just the opposite. These sufferings are, he says, for your glory. Are your glory, says Paul. Because it is through the tribulations that the gospel has come.

And it is still spreading. Paul did not suffer because he was a criminal. But he says, for your sakes. Christ has especially honored the Gentiles by appointing an apostle for them who would willingly lay down his life for their sakes in imitation of Christ.

Before reporting on his prayers for the church, Paul wants to emphasize that the church, which comprises now both Jews and Gentiles as one people, is the focus of God’s plan. God is working towards that end. Paul is concerned in this long passage to assure his Gentile audience that the redemption is secure even though he is in prison. Because this plan is in the heart of God.

God has not abandoned his people nor Paul. Sufferings and death doesn’t mean that the plan has failed. No, he supports this by showing that this divine work had remained hidden from ages and is now being disclosed. The Old Testament saints received promises about Jesus, but it was revealed in the New Testament. And it is in the New Testament we see the fulfillment of those promises.

God's great purpose from all eternity which was hidden in his heart is to build his church. And God achieves this through the proclamation of the gospel. And when you take the gospel, there will be persecution. And all this should not dishearten us, but we should greatly rejoice because God's plan will not falter. You may die, I may die because of the gospel, but God's purpose will not falter. Paul died, many saints died over the ages, but you see that gospel still being proclaimed, church is being built. Though we are weak, we see that God is powerfully working. God is powerfully working. And this is the encouragement Paul gives to his people, not to lose heart. When you see persecution, when confronted with your weaknesses, we should not lose heart. We should look to the cross, and we find solace at the cross.

And there is forgiveness at the cross, and be convinced from the scriptures that God's great plan for the church in Christ Jesus will not falter, because this is the plan of God and he will preserve the church for his glory. Can God fail his plan?

Can anyone thwart God's purposes? Is there anyone strong enough to stand before God and challenge him and his purposes? God will surely fulfill all his purposes. The church is being built into a dwelling place of God. One day the church universal will appear beautiful, spotless, without any blemish by the work of the triune God. Because the triune God is at work.

Though now you may see weaknesses. But you see that one day, one day the church will appear beautiful and spotless, because of the work of Christ Jesus. So don't be discouraged. Press on in the work of God. Be faithful in all your responsibilities that God has given you. Be faithful to him and suffer for his glory.

Have the gospel estimate of yourselves that we are the least of all saints. We are the least of all saints. If someone calls you a worm, it because that's what we are. That's what we are, if you see ourselves in the light of the gospel and the glory of God. And also we must proclaim this gospel to all creatures. Be willing to go anywhere God sends.

Don't have prejudice. Go anywhere God sends. Do whatever the task that God gives. We should be willing to go anywhere for the sake of the gospel because He is worthy and the gospel is worthy to be heard by all people.