Ephesians Part 2

Ephesians 2:11–22 stands at the heart of Paul’s vision for the ekklesia. Having just declared that salvation comes by grace through faith and not through human boasting, Paul now addresses one of the greatest questions facing the first-century community of believers: How can Jews and Gentiles truly become one people in Messiah without erasing the covenantal story of Israel? Give a listen!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:17

Welcome to the Messiah in Life podcast, hosted by Bishop Justin D. Elwell of Restoration Fellowship International and Messiah Congregation, recorded at our congregational home in Washington Mills, New York. In this study through Paul's epistle to the Ephesians, we invite you to rediscover the beauty of God's covenant purposes revealed in Messiah Jesus. Together, we will explore the theological and covenantal foundations of Paul's letter. It's called Unity, Holiness, Redemption, and Covenant Identity for both Jew and Gentile in Messiah. This is more than a theological study. It is an invitation to see the story of Scripture as one unified testimony of the Lord's faithfulness from Israel to the nations, all brought together in Messiah. Thank you for joining us as we seek to live Messiah in everyday life. And now to Bishop Justin.

SPEAKER_03 1:24

For this reason, because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, the Lord Yeshua, and your love toward all the saints. But the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His, underlying His glorious inheritance in the saints? And what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might, that He worked in Christ and Messiah when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at the right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is named. Not only in this age, but also in the one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fits, fills all in all. This is God's word. So the Apostle Paul has given us one doxological statement from uh verse three to verse fourteen, that one long sentence. We would call it today a Faulknarian sentence, but one long doxology praising the Lord for what he has done and what he is doing. And then he shifts that attention, he shifts to our response and the reality of our response and what that will look like in our lives. So when we think about the the the epistle to the Ephesians, there's two views, traditionalist view and kind of a circulated letter view, two common scholarly views. What that means is because it lacks the personal um greetings that is so familiar with Paul's writing, he usually greets people in particular areas. One view is that after Paul had you know spent a couple of years, this is one of his longest uh mission fields as he's building the congregation there, um, that this is kind of a theological overview, that he is leaving them kind of a shorthand of the gospel. This is my direction, my instruction to you. This is kind of how do we package this in a way that you can approach it? The second view is that it is was circulated. It was intended to be circulated and not specifically um addressing any one aspect of the community, but it would be circulated here and there, uh, even beyond Ephesus. So we turn from this doxology. If we read back in verse 14, who is the guarantee? Let me go to verse 13. In him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, believed in him who were sealed. Talked about the sealing of the Holy Spirit with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of his glory. Now, here we have our inheritance, but in just a few lines, we'll have his inheritance. That is an important idea to uh hold on to just for a few moments. So the deposit, it's a guarantee. We know that because the Holy Spirit has sealed us and he's now indwelling us, he's both dwelling in the people because we are the tabernacle of the Lord now. He is dwelling in us, but he is also walking beside us. He is our paracleitos, the one who comes alongside of. He is helping us, he is instructing us, he is glorifying the Lord, he is reminding us of all that the Messiah has said, and he's glorifying the Son, because through the Son, now we are able to have a relationship with the Father. So, how do we approach that? Well, we approach the Father through the Son by the Spirit, okay, the Spirit of God. And as I've said this many times before, every impetus that we have to pray, to seek the Lord comes from the Lord first. Because he first loved us, we love him. So everything originates from the Father, but then through the Spirit, we respond to that love. We respond to his desire. It's not that we're generating this desire for the Lord, because in our sinful nature, in our sinful man, we are our own God. We are our own greatest idol. Whether that is to an overinflated, we talked about this this morning, talking about pride in the men's group, um, overinflated sense of self or ego, or to the opposite of that. We are so filled with shame that our shame becomes an idol, that our shame becomes an obstacle to working or walking with the spirit or walking with the Lord. So, however that is working in your life, the desire for him does not originate with you. It's the wooing, the prevening grace of the Lord that is working and drawing you to himself. So Paul now turns to our theology should necessarily, and this turns to what Paul is about to do here, thanksgiving and prayer, our theology should necessarily result in prayer. Prayer is not just, oh my Lord, I've been a bad boy today, please forgive me. It's it is a conversation with the Lord. It is a going before him in relationship with him. And if you know anything about your relationship, let's say you have a healthy relationship with your spouse, you can sit in the same room, not say a word, but still be in communion and communicating with the other. You don't necessarily need to use words in order for the other to know where you are. So Paul is turning now to prayer because our theology should direct us to prayer. Our understanding of who the Lord is should direct us to pray. And again, that's a response of him desiring. He wants you to talk to him, he wants you to pour your heart out. He doesn't want you to withhold anything from him because he knows it anyway. So why are you doing that? Don't do that. That's just horrible. People say, but I sometimes I just want to scream, then scream. Do you think that he's up there with going, ah la la, I can't hear you? You know? No, he wants you to reach out wherever you are. Now, what all what scripturally would I base this on? Psalm 1 to Psalm 150. That would be my proof text. Read it in the Psalms, it's there. So prayer is prayer is a lifestyle. Prayer is, uh David so beautifully said, Anitafila, I am prayer. He didn't say I'm in prayer. He said, I am prayer. In other words, not only is his life one of worship, which our life should be as well, his life is one of prayer. He's constantly talking to the Lord. My conversation with the Lord generally, you know, over throughout the whole day. Lord, I don't know how you're going to get me out of this mess, you know, or whatever it might be. Um, involving him in every part of the conversation. Or the uh day, I should say. So he says this for this reason I do not cease. Well, what reason? Because of who we are in the Lord. We're now sealed with the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit being the guarantor or the guarantee of our inheritance, that we are awaiting. We're awaiting that day when, in the twinkling of an eye, those who are alive will be transformed. Because I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and the Lord Yeshua and your love toward all the saints. That is a very powerful and important statement that Paul makes. Um he's heard of two things your faith, your amuna, your faithfulness. Amunna is not just faith. Um in Greek and Hebrew, most often you read faith as a verb because it's action. Faith is not a noun. In English, we is a per it's a thing, right? It's something that we, you know, it's identifying something. Uh, you know, we go to the supermarket to buy our box of faith. No, but this is living, you know, it's a living faith, it's active, it's faithfulness, not just a uh an identification. So we have emuna and then we have Ahava. These are covenant markers. Paul continually um uses the language of covenant, specifically covenant that is consistent with that of Israel. So he takes the language because why? As he's going to expand throughout this, Israel is not just this one people group nation anymore. It is broadly expanded, okay, into this commonwealth to which all people in the Messiah are brought. So he'll use this language that is consistent with all covenant language that we find in Scripture. So in Jewish thought, faith is not just belief. Again, it's faithfulness. You don't have to be perfect. You know, we're not going to achieve a level of perfection in this life. We're not, we're in the one who is perfect. What is the goal of the believer today? To be faithful. Not perfect, be faithful. Let your yes be yes or your no be no. Be faithful. And faithfulness today, look at the look how easy it is in most states to get divorced. You don't have to be faithful anymore. Faithful, faithful is in the in the valleys and on the summits, right? So I think in New York we have no fault divorce now. It was a few, maybe a decade ago, that they brought that in. Um, we just don't like each other. We're over it. We'd rather go do something else now. But faithfulness is endurance, it's connected to endurance. So love isn't just sentimentality. And it's not the covenant love, it's not uh eros, it's not erotic love, it's not felia as in the brotherly love in the fullest. It's it's a hava, which is of course a covenant loyalty expressed in action. So it is, again, it's the language of action, it's the demonstration of the inclination of our heart. We're inclined to love the Lord. We love the Lord. How do we demonstrate that we love the Lord? Again, this vertical love that we have is demonstrated horizontally to our fellow man. Otherwise, this just remains theoretical. It has to show itself somewhere. So this love directed towards all saints. Now, part of the underlying issue that we see here in Ephesians, as well as in Romans, is that because you have two oppositional communities, the Jewish world and the Gentile world coming together, that doesn't always create the most uh peaceable cohabitation. But what is he saying? He's recognizing, even with the tensions here in Ephesus, there is a love for all the saints, not just the saints like us, but a love for all of the saints. So this is it's such an important idea. Um when we think about he's not just talking about the the super saints, he's not talking about just the saints that you love, you that you admire, that you get along with. He's talking about even the crabby ones, even the ones that you kind of oh, they're over there. I'm gonna sit down the hall over there. Everyone. So and this is cross-cultural as well. It's not just within our American milieu, it is a cross-cultural expression of the love of God. We love the saints no matter where they are. Why? Because we're all one body. We don't have, you know, this right hand isn't Jewish, this left hand isn't Chinese, my head isn't uh Russian, you know. It's one body. And if one part of the body is hurting, all the part of the body is hurting. If one part is rejoicing, we're all rejoicing. It's just the nature of our connectedness. So a love toward all of the saints. So this community that is that has this, again, it's Jew and Gentile coming together as one new humanity. That's the heart of this uh of this book. The tensions that are there, this is an admission that Paul has heard that is no small thing. He's recognizing that even with the tension, even with some theology we're still trying to figure out, there is a love for each other. We're, you know, we're never going to sort out every theological nuance that we might have, every preference that we might have. But for the cause of the gospel, we love each other. And that's a that is something that we absolutely must do. Um because it is a witness that the Father has sent the Son in John 17. So, how do we show the world that Messiah is the one sent? Bless you. We love each other, we do what is contrary to nature. We love those that we're not directly dependent on, that we're not related to. We love people that are at times, as we like to say, unlovable. Right? Why? Because we were unlovable. We were unpleasant. See how I'm speaking in past tense? Right? I have a hope. I have a hope. Glory to God. So people praying, and and here's the heart of this sentence. They're praying in spite of the tension. They're not, they don't cease praying because right now this is difficult. I'm too tense, I'm too stressed, I'm too worried to pray. No, that is what you are expected to do. Prayer is not the last resort, it's the first response. Right? So this love signals that something real has happened. How do we know that something genuinely supernatural has happened in us? When we can love people who are completely different from us, who aggravated us, who maybe uh hurt us deeply, then you know that something supernatural is entered into your life and is changing you. If you're still walking around with spite and hatred over that people group, this person, this thing, if that is still your dominant experience internally, there needs to that needs to be addressed. So it's beginning, it's uh it's beginning to, or I should say, the dividing line between Jewish and Gentile, slave-free, male, female, all of that is beginning to give away in this lived practice. So the the God of our Lord, Messiah Yeshua, the Father of glory, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him. That is quite a beautiful prayer, really is. So when we look at what Paul is saying here, it's not more information. I forgot a lot of the information that I read and, you know, had to read in seminary. It's a lot. You're, you know, you have years upon years worth of reading and expectation. I mean, my first systematic theology book, I think, was, you know, 1,500 pages. Almost every line is highlighted or circled. Something is in, and I look back, I'm like, well, why did I underline that? I don't know. Why didn't I do that? Did I read this? I don't remember reading it, but it's in there somewhere. It just doesn't. So it's not more knowledge in the sense of um accumulated knowledge, it's a relational knowledge. That's what Paul is directing us to. And it's a it's an apocalyptic. I we hear that word apocalyptic and we we use it in the Hollywood sense. The apocalypse is upon us. Well, glory, hallelujah! Apocalypsis is simply the revelation of Christ. That's all it is. So it is that revelatory language of who he is, a revelation of who he is in our heart, in our mind, in our lives. We live because of the revelation of Messiah. That revelation is the heart of our lives. Everything we do, we're here, we said this at the men's group this morning that what is the likelihood that on a Wednesday afternoon at almost 1.30 in the afternoon, that any of us apart from Messiah would be here together today. Right? But why are we here? Because of the revelation of Yeshua. So it's he's he's leading us to this understanding of a spirit-enabled perception of reality, to see the world as the Lord sees it, to see the reality of the fallen nature of creation, of the world, but also to see the beauty of it, to see the beauty that is even sometimes hidden or tucked away under layers of hurt and pain and sin and whatever else it might be, to see the dignity in the human other that maybe they don't even see. That's to see the world as he sees it. That's to he didn't send his son here because it was uh a a pristine and sterile environment. I only send the king of glory into a perfect habitable space. He sent the Messiah into a sin-filled mess for you, for me. But to see the world as he sees it, that's what Paul is praying will happen. And of course, ultimately that sets our hope, you know, as he talks about in Timothy, that we will love his appearing, that we are anticipating his appearing. I don't care if it's tomorrow or a hundred years from now. I don't care as far as time is concerned. I love his appearing, I want to see his appearing, I want to experience that moment. That's the beautiful thing. Uh, not you know, tonight what but when when we all go up to meet him in the air, you know, as much as I love y'all, I'm looking at him, not you. You know what I mean? Um hallelujah! My faith has been made sight. Glory to God. Um, and I'm not taking any questions on the way up. Just I'm not, is this it? No, no, it's not. So the language uh this language of um of wisdom and revelation, of course, you it's very prophetic. You can look back into the prophets, and we have the wisdom which is chukmah, a divine insight, uh, being able to apply um divine revelation, divine insight, morality, uh Divine ethic and so on. We see that, of course, in Proverbs, we see that in Isaiah. You know, you can look through all of that to find the wisdom of the Lord. And Revelation, of course, is recognizing the redemptive history of how the Lord has worked throughout history. So the knowledge of Him, again, this is not as Paul um, as Paul uh reveals this here. The Father of glory may give you the spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him. Again, that's not just here is the book you need to read, and the footnotes are will be will be helpful. This is relational, it's not abstract. Knowledge, yada, is very personal. It's a very it's either a deep understanding of the subject that's at hand, or in the in the um matter of relationship, it is it speaks of the relationship between husband and wife. It speaks of the relationship of two people who um who literally breathe, you know, you're so close that you're breathing in each other's air. So to know someone in that way is to know them deeply. That's what Paul is praying for all of us. That he would uh we would know him relationally, not just abstractly. So to know the one, to know the Lord as the one who acted and is acting in Messiah, he's still acting through Messiah. The messianic plan, the great commission is still going out to all the world. We still have thousands of people groups that have not heard the gospel. We still have a huge mission field. We don't think about it, but there are a lot of people groups that have not heard the gospel. There are still those that are uh oppositional to the gospel. So the mission field is enormous. That's why we try to make use of every type of media that we can in the hopes that, I mean, this podcast will be heard. Uh, we have listeners in Papua New Guinea. Uh it would take me probably two minutes to figure out. I I kind of remember where Papua New Guinea is. We have listeners in South Africa, we have listeners in Australia, New Zealand. I mean, think about that. I mean, uh, I listen, I listened to that comedian, um, what's his name, Nate Bagazzi? So funny. He talks about flying to Australia. 500 miles an hour, 16 hours, and we barely made it, you know. Um, it's a long way off. Listeners in Australia love to come visit anyway. Maybe when I retire. No. There's a lot of things that will hurt you there. But I stralia's calling, and I must go. Amen. So having the eyes of your heart enlightened. This is profoundly Hebraic. It really is. The heart, the lev. Um, lev uh is just it's a beautiful concept and idea. Um you look at the heart of the Torah, the ethical uh readings of Leviticus, um, how we have interpersonal relationships and so on. But it's not just emotional, it's the center of the heart, it's the center of uh thought, will, perception, all of that is envisioned in Lev. So we don't have this great divide between heart and mind. Rather than being bifurcated, it's one. Okay. So what you're thinking about is directing your feelings, we might say. Um it's all kind of looked at as being in one um place. So he's praying for this integrated transformation of understanding, of what what are we learning for? Are we learning just to just for the sake of knowledge, you know, of useless facts, or are we desiring to grow deeper into our relationship with the Lord? And when the eyes of the heart are enlightened, open eyes or enlightened eyes is to have a charitable disposition, is to see things charitable. You're not, you don't have an evil eye, but rather it's to see things as the Lord would see them, even with the sin, even with the decay, all of that, because we know there's a greater plan at work than what we are seeing in front of us. What we see in front of us is, of course, temporary, but it's all being impacted by his plan. So how do we view, you know, how do we view people that are perhaps wrestling with some type of sin, no matter what that sin might be? How do we view them? How do we see them? How do we appreciate them? Are we doing so charitably, even knowing that they might have a long way, they'll be born again, but they've got a long way in a road to recovery. Do we still see them as he sees them? That's the that's seeing things from a kingdom perspective, right? So this is, you know, he's hoping that we see, we begin to see, and we lose we lose track of the pettiness, the constant bickering. I mean, I I am so close to just saying I'm shutting down my website, I'm shutting down my podcast, I'm shutting, because I can't take the constant bickering of social media. It is non-stop. I mean, if if someone says I like pumpkins, well, everybody knows that eggplants are better. Why are you so stupid? I mean, it's like anything people could argue over, they've found to argue over. And then, of course, the theological arguments are, and I know that there are anybody that knows me knows that I like precision and and and and what I you know when I'm teaching and so on on specific subjects and teaching the word of God. But sometimes we uh elevate the theology above the Lord Himself, we'd elevate the doctrine above the Lord Himself. We need to uh stop doing that, obviously. So Paul then articulates three things that he wants them to know the hope of his calling, or the hope of the Lord's calling in us, that you may know what is this hope to which you were called, what he has called you. Again, in the in the beginning of this chapter, he Paul says, verse 4, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, again, chose us. He's writing to Jew and Gentile here. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world. That's a that is a doctrine of assurance that, as I said, Gentiles were not an add-on to the plan of God. So those who have set their faith in the Messiah, who've come from the nations, do not have to wonder if they have a place in the household of God. Before the foundation of the world, what is this indicating? It's in where was the lamb slain? He was slain from the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us for adoption as to himself, as sons through Yeshua, Messiah, according to the purpose of his will. So here he wants us to understand the hope to which we are called, to which he has called us. That's the primary one. So again, calling is covenant language. The Lord called Abraham, and he said, go out to yourself, leave your land. So Abraham was called. Abraham responded in faith. This is exactly we'll read this in chapter two. We'll study this next week. Abraham's calling follows exactly uh Paul's articulation of salvation. For by grace you have been saved through faith. Why Abraham? Because he was wonderful and super uh super, and and at 75 he was just, you know, the pitcher of good health and everything. Nah, by grace, it was the Lord's grace. So we'll talk about that next week. But calling is covenant language. It's calling, calling is covenant language. Israel was called not simply to be saved, but to be people through whom God's purposes were revealed. That is the heart of your life as born-again believers walking on this earth to bring forth the purposes of the Lord, that he would use you to bring forth his purpose. That's why you're here. We're not here just on a, you know, slight uh, you know, we're in a holding pattern until glory arrives. You know, we're just gonna circle the airport for a while and hope that eventually they land this tin can. No, the the purposes of the Lord will be revealed through your life, through my life, and so on. So in Messiah, this is called this calling is shared. But the purpose of our calling is connected to hope. It's connected to hope. So it's shared among a unified people: Jews, Gentiles, one people, one people from every tribe, every tongue, every nation, every people group, that he glorifies himself through them. It's not just one people or culture, it's every people and culture. And I've shared it before how uh ministering in Kenya uh was one of the years that I was there, and because of the missionaries that uh the praise the Lord brought the gospel to Kenya in their 50s and 60s, um they all were wearing three-piece business suits. You know, that's what you wore. And of course, the tradition became that if you were a preacher, you wore a business suit, you know, you wore a suit. You didn't preach the gospel if you weren't in a suit, you know. And then here's this fat American guy getting up and, you know, he's wearing a, you know, t-shirt and jeans or whatever I was wearing at the time. Uh and one thing I expressed was a hope that they would begin to preach in their tribal attire. And one very important bishop took me up on that. The next day, the first day he preached in his suit like he always did. But the next day he came in his traditional attire. And he preached fire. I mean, it was straight up fire. But what that does is it shows the dignity of their culture. Now, what is opposed to the gospel, you don't continue. But if it's not opposed to the gospel, you continue to honor it, and that connects you to your people. That connects you to the people around you. So the hope is not vague. The hope that we have is not vague, the hope that we've been called to is not vague. It's rooted in the faithfulness of the Lord to his promises. And every promise of the Lord is yes and amen, as uh it says in 2 Corinthians 1, in Messiah. So, point number two that he wants us to understand the riches of his inheritance in the saints. Chapter one, earlier in chapter 1, he talks about our inheritance. What's the Lord's inheritance? So here is the language. Well, hold on that thought, you're half right. Here's the language that is striking. It's not it's not speaking solely of our inheritance now, but it's speaking of his inheritance in the saints. Did you know you're the Lord's inheritance? Isn't that beautiful? What does that say about you that you don't say about you? How does he view you precious? Imagine, you know, your grandmother's pearl necklace, your grandmother's diamond ring from her wedding, or something that's precious to the family. It's an heirloom. And how how much we honor that object. But now, how does the Lord see you as his inheritance and how special and precious you are to him? Of course, in the Hebrew scriptures, Israel is repeatedly called the Lord's inheritance. Deuteronomy 32, 9, specifically. So Paul draws. Again, this is Paul drawing on the language of covenant that has been specifically reserved for Israel, but now he's expanding it to the full knowledge of the one new man in Messiah that is Jew and Gentile. So is there some distinction between Jew and Gentile in the kingdom of God? No. The same language it applied to Israel and the Jewish people is now applied to those who are in Messiah as one new humanity. So he draws this and he's expanding it, as I said, the people of Messiah, Jew and Gentile together, who are now what? The dwelling place of the living God and treasured possession of him. You are his treasure, you are his inheritance. Again, as much as you think, know you want him, he wants you that much more. And remember, he he gives us all of these ways of understanding it. I love that uh John 17. Messiah says they were yours. Well, who was the they? Us. But you gave them to me. So now, how do you see yourself? You're a gift to the Lamb.

SPEAKER_01 36:33

That's who you are. Who am I? Well, I'm this miserable, wretched piece of refuse that needs to be put in the recycling bin of history. Woe with me.

SPEAKER_03 36:47

That's not what the Lord says. So, who are you going to believe? Well, you you you some you might be inclined to believe yourself, but certainly he's not inclined to believe you. And that's a blasphemy. You Gary just hit it. You do not want to grieve the Holy Spirit. Where is the Holy Spirit? Right in here. Abiding in here, and right alongside of. So when you're going, the Holy Spirit is saying, Hey, he died for you. Hey, he loves you. Hey, smarten up. That's a manner expression, excuse me. So it but again, this isn't replacement, and that's what I think needs to be heard today. It's not replacement, it's expansion. Expansion through incorporation. All of us in this uh corporate body. Number three, the greatness of his power, the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe. This power, it's not an abstract force, it's the very power that raised Messiah from the dead. That's what's in you. So here's how I how I explain it to people. You're either using resurrection power to walk in your identity and messiah, or you're trying to resurrect your old man. So when we're doing the woe is me, woe is me, I'm I I I you see how I'm familiar with it. I'll leave here driving out, woe is me, woe is me. Or we walk in the power that the Lord has not given to us, put in us. Put in us. It's resurrection power. So it's the same divine, it's the koach, it's the dunamis. Please don't, just because dynamite comes from dunamis, doesn't mean they're equivalent meanings. But it's the dunamis, the creative, the um strength that God used, or it's the koach, the power that acted in Israel's history. It's now revealed, and it's climactically revealed in the Messiah. There's no greater revelation of the Lord's power. I don't care how you look out at the universe, how you look up at the sun, the moon, the stars, I don't care how the Lord spoke that into being, but there's no greater power than the resurrection. How has he shown his power over everything? The resurrection. But, you know, going into the science world, but you know, you have the the big bang and it's expanding the universe, but it's actually I don't know, I can't do it today. I'm not out in that headspace. But yeah, I and I don't make to mean to make light of it, but yeah, it's amazing. I, you know, I love to sit, I I could sit out and look at the stars. I don't have any light pollution at my house. Please the Lord for that. But I could sit out and look at the stars all night, provided I could stay awake all night, but I could do it all night. I never get tired of it. It is, absolutely, and it's also a visible, you know, visible uh promise. I love the uh oh part of the song from um oh why am I forgetting his name? Uh anyway, I'll move along. He says, you know, sometimes I think of uh of Abraham, how one star um the Lord lit for me, or something like that. I mean, it's a beautiful song. I don't know if we do that one. I don't think we do. Um, I'm gonna remember that name in a moment, but anyway, I'll move along. I'm only 35, and it could take me a while to get there. Oh, have mercy, Lord. Um moving on. So he worked the Messiah when he raised him from the dead. This is what he's transitioning us into, speaking all of the promises, the thing he wants, the things he wants us to understand, raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand, the father's right hand. So here Paul is anchoring everything in a central claim. God has enthroned Messiah. So this is, you know, again, this is very specifically Jewish uh apocalyptic uh language, Jewish royal language, messianic expectation, specifically from Psalm 110. The right hand, that's the place of authority. It's the place of authority. Um it's the place uh, you know, it's it's the strength of you know, bin-yomin, the strength of my right hand. Um, so it's a place of authority, it's the place by which we reach out, it's the place by which we uh command authority and so on. Then enthronement, of course, is divine vindication. So Messiah's resurrection wasn't just a miracle uh in a sense that we would use it, it's a public declaration that he is king, but also that he is high priest, because we go back to Aaron's rod when it budded. Okay. So, what is the sign of God's high priest? The staff that came back to life. So resurrection is the sign of the Lord's appointed and anointed high priest. So in the Levitical pattern, Aaron and his sons. In the messianic frame, it's Messiah, who is the great high priest. And all of us who are sons and daughters of the house are in the priesthood of Melchizedek, and we are priests unto the Lord. Above, far above, not just above, far above, as he continues, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the one to come. That is spiritual and natural language. Okay, so far above. And again, this is second, this is classic Second Temple era worldview. There's nothing really revelatory if you understand the literature and the history. It this was the worldview of the Jewish people, and he's just he's incorporating into this and tying it to Messiah. So spiritual powers and earthly powers were intertwined. They're not seeing as separate, right? As much as it might pain us, we pray for our government, we pray for their salvation, we pray for wisdom, we pray. May the Lord bless and keep the Tsar far away from me. Anyway, um of you know the reference, some of you don't. Anyway. So he's declaring that Messiah is his authority, is surpasses all. And this was a very Rebellious, uh, we might even say um an instigating statement because he's saying that he's greater than Imperial Rome, he's greater than the spiritual forces. Of course, we know that when the gospel began to spread in Ephesus, those who worshipped um Artemis had something to say about it. And I wonder what Paul would be writing today. Anyway, we'll move along. And then, of course, cosmic structures. So he's above imperial, the imperial system, the spiritual forces, and the cosmic structures. Everything that we see, he's above. Seen and sin. Oh, yeah, it would be absolutely. Absolutely. It's controversial here in the United States, it's controversial everywhere. And these were all working in Ephesus because they were under Roman occupation, they had a great deal of demonic activity within Ephesus, and of course they worshiped, did not her stones fall from the sky, you know. So you have all of that in play. So for the average person who's just coming to faith and like, well, where does Jesus, you know, where does Jesus line up with all of this other stuff? Well, he's greater, not just a little bit, but he's far above. One of the things that pastors in India will do, I've been told, is that um step by step, my wife told me is the song I'm looking for. That is, I think that's the song I was thinking of. Yeah. And step by step, he'll leave me, and I'll follow him all in my days. We don't do that one, we do the other one. Anyway, um, I forgot what I was talking about. Oh, so in India, as I understand it, when families are born again, quite often when the father comes to faith, we see the biblical pattern, families will follow. But one of the things that they will do is pastors will go to do home visitation. And I've seen this when I've done some of the visitation with them, that you know, you'll have various deities and then Jesus at the end. So you'll still have traditional Hindu gods represented, idols that are there, and then some representative representation of Jesus. So that's disciple. You you know, he is not one of the many. He is over all, so that's discipleship that needs to happen. So they pay attention to that. So this is what you would read if you were discipling them in that sense. You would say, no, he is far above all of this. So this is a direct challenge to both the pagan and imperial claims of ultimate authority. I gotta speed this up a little bit. And he's put all things in subjection, under subjection, and subjection to it under his feet. Echo Psalm 8, of course. Um, and that's a text about humanity's intended rulership, how humanity was uh designed to lead, but then of course the fall. So Messiah is the faithful one, he is the faithful and true who has not um been uh sinful, rebellious, and so on. So Messiah succeeds where Adam and Israel both failed. So he embodies faithful obedience, but he also embodies righteous dominion. He rules over all. So then he gave him as head over all things to the church. The term head, of course, isn't just uh indication of hierarchy, it conveys the source, authority, and life. I just wrote about I think I just wrote about authority, pastoral authority. Thank you. I'm trying, I can't remember what I wrote this morning, much less yesterday. Pastoral authority isn't um me ruling your life. It's not, it is a type of care. So I wrote an article primarily for pastors, but um other people might find it of value as well. So when we think about um authority, when we think about the source, everything we do comes from Messiah, right? We're here because of Messiah. So the ecclesia is not an independent entity. We are, even though we are envisioned as the body of Christ, the bride of Christ, we are in no wise separated from him. We're always connected to him. The ecclesia is not independent, we're not autonomous, it's a messiah-centered community, uh, deriving its identity and vitality or its power from him. And that, again, is the heart of it. When we focus primarily on Messiah and who he is, uh, this is where our identity comes from. It's not from our denomination, it's not from the uniqueness of our congregation, it is from him entirely. And all of us living and working in that together, when one of us is down, another one uh builds us up, and so on, because our identity is coming from him, not our history, not what we're ashamed of, and so on. Uh, bringing us to kind of a close, which in his body which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. What is your Christology? What do you believe about Christ? Who is he? Is he little or is he big? Right? So I, you know, we we kind of jokingly say that in my line of thought, I hold to a nosebleed Christology. It's so high it makes my nose bleed. So who is he? He fills all in all. Right? And that would take me weeks to unpack uh with any sort of clarity. But this is Paul, one of Paula's most profound statements, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all. Think about who you are again. Think about who you are in him and where you think or what your testimony about yourself is. Right? Not fun, but again, it doesn't matter what we think or feel about ourselves when that is conflicting with what scripture says about us in him. But again, we have to be repentant, we have to be in fellowship, we have to be seeking him. So the this image, the the image of the body reflects interdependence, right? As much as I don't want to think about it, um my head is not independent of my knees. My mouth is not independent of my knees. And I'll say I'll tell you why. Quite often, if I if there's an infection or something in here, it goes right to my knee. If you've got fake knees, you know that that's a danger. You gotta pop the old antibiotics pronto. Because it goes from here to there. That shows that it's dependent or independent, not independent, it's uh interdependent. Right? Of course, my knees help carry this enormous noggin around too. So hey, you try to buy me a hat. My wife bought me a beautiful hat for hiking this year for my favorite backpack company. Yeah, I'm a nerd. I have a favorite backpack company. And I had to buy extenders for it so it'd fit my cranium. So hey, I'm honest. Unity within diversity. So interdependence, all saints caught up with the Godhead. That's who we're we are caught up with and in the Godhead. Think about that. Think about that. That's awesome. Unity within diversity. Thank aren't you happy you don't have to dress like me? Yes, because you know, I'm a fashionista and I like to look good and you know. Hey, wait a minute. I'm beginning to discern something here. And of course, yes, I'm slow, I'm slow. Corporate identity, corporate identity, who we are in him, who we are in him together, who we are in him within the broader global congregation of the Lord. So from a messianic Jewish perspective, it's critical that we understand that Jew and Gentile are not parallel communities. This was a big thing in the Messianic Jewish world back uh what it like 20 years ago. It's a good book, but um, and I understand the purpose of it, but it it did not, I don't think it spoke to the heart of Paul's message here. It's not a bilateral ecclesiology. There's not one congregation for Jews and one congregation for Gentiles and Messiah. It's one body. And I know that's offensive in some Messenic Jewish circles, but everybody just needs to get over themselves. So it's one body, not two. There's not a Gentile bride and a Jewish bride. It's one. All the saints. The fullness, this is of course, can there's so much discussion about this in the literature, it's kind of um amazing. Um within a Jewish framework, we might say, a historic Jewish framework, it's the idea of God's presence filling his tabernacle, filling his temple, the presence of the Lord filling. And of course, if you read the Talmudic uh literature just before the destruction, the presence is said to have marched out to part of the temple. Um, but of course, the fullness never returned to the second temple because the ark never returned to the second temple. But the Talmud says that the gates that ordinarily took 40 men to open open by themselves, they opened continuously, until one night the sound of marching feet, as if an army was leaving, departed the temple, and the temple was destroyed shortly thereafter. So his presence filling. Where is his temple now? This building is beautiful, it is and is wonderful as all y'all keep it clean and not up to my standard, Bub, but we're getting there. That's that's an inside joke between Bub Judy and I. Um this isn't the temple. If something was to happen to this building, glory to God, we're insured, and we would move somewhere else. Or we'd rebuild right here. I don't know what we'd do. It's not my decision. But this isn't the temple. This is the place where bits and pieces of the temple come and abide together in fullness. It's beautiful. That's how that works. So, but please don't do anything to our building. It's this place has been, I don't even want to say it's been a labor of love. It's been a it's been a labor of deep consternation for the last 14 years or whatever it's been that uh I've been in this place. They only let me out occasionally, Lily. More tears followed by blood. The sweats, even though a lot, it's not as much. Anyway, I'm gonna move on. So it's filling the temple. The temple is, of course, no longer confined to a building or a structure. The people of the Messiah are the dwelling place of the living God. So the fullness of his presence is the manifested, is manifested in the unified body. And so the temple theology is transformed, it's expanded, all of us together. So quick pastoral kind of reflection on this. Um, Paul's prayer is not superficial, it's not surface level, it's it's an incredible encouragement to bring us to this deep relationship with the Lord. Um, he longs uh for the community to see who they are. That's a that's always a pastoral prayer, is for the people of God to see who they are and what he has done in your life and my life. We praise him for that. So uh several things come to uh bear. The people of God are not simply receipt uh recipients of blessing. Oh, the Lord just wants to bless you. That's all after effect, that's not primary. First and foremost, we are his inheritance and his dwelling place. Everything else follows that, right? So the resurrection of Messiah is not a past, it's just not a past event in history. It's the present source of power shaping our identity and our unity. Who we are and why we are doing it. So unity between Jew and Gentile is not optional. Now think about how divided the body of Christ is today, even with messianic Jews. It's absolutely remarkable because there has not been a properly developed ecclesiology that included Jewish believers living as Jews. Hasn't existed until the last 20 years. So tell trust me on this. It takes generations for theological perspectives to shift. It takes a long time. The body of Christ is slow on the uptake on many things. So the division that we see today, the anti-Semitism that we see today over Columbia University, there was a flag raised, I think, uh, over one of the schools, um, named in honor of the Jewish uh philanthropist who gave the money to build it, with schwastikas on it. Columbia University here in the United States, Ivy League as Ivy League can be, this is the heart of the quote intelligentsia in training. And we have that ideology. But of course, that's where the the ideology, anti-Semitism, if you look historically, you look back in in Nazi Germany, pre-Nazi Germany, the idea uh of anti-Semitism, it wasn't out in the countryside. It wasn't, it was fostered in the universities. That's exactly what we're seeing here today. Helen Sperling was right when she said to me, everything that was in pre uh uh pre-World War II Germany and Poland is here. And that was 10 years, she passed away 10 years ago. She told me that's a a month before, two months before she passed away. Everything is here. She's seeing it. And I was, and you know what I told her? No, Helen, no, it's not. You don't understand, Helen. Yeah, you don't understand, Helen. Oh, I've learned to eat those words. She was if you don't if you don't know Helen, she was a Holocaust survivor, deeply very dear to us. She spoke here. I think we were the last public place she spoke before she passed away. I first met her in sixth grade. We weren't in sixth grade together. Uh when I was in sixth grade.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:37

How to clarify, she was she was she was a couple years ahead of me.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:48

Yep. Yep, she came up to New Hartford. Yeah. Yeah, so she um, you know, she would come to school, and uh I I saw her every year between sixth grade and graduation. And every time, I don't know how it was, I was always put directly in front of her. And she she was one of those people that sees through you. Yeah, one of those. So I and I had no place to hide, you know. But I went from this nice, clean-cut looking kid to a long-haired, freaky people by that time. But that was the thing, you know, she started speaking in schools because anti-Semitism faced by her daughter in the 1970s in public school in Unica. So it's always been here, but now it's being intellectually supported in the universities, which if I was in charge of the Department of Education, you have anti-Semitism on your campus, you're losing all federal funding until you clean it up. Place closed.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:52

Let the court deal with the lawsuits. Uh, just to bring this to a close and we'll open for questions. Um we shift from Paul's proclamation, the doxology, and the opening to perception, how we understand ourselves in light of all of this. So Paul prays for this mixed community that is now one. Once divided by covenantal boundaries that are now uh coming together, they recognize their shared hope of calling, the power of their identity as the Lord's inheritance. Put that on your refrigerator, please, folks. So that when you wake up in the morning a grumpy bumpy over how, you know, things in life have to just remember who you are. So the power of the Lord at work among us through Messiah's exaltation, and how he is bringing all of the nations into covenant life, and how he will redeem humanity. All of this is the groundwork for what we're going to read over the next several weeks and months. So we will turn for those who are here in person, we'll turn to questions. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:09

Amen. Thank you for studying with us, and until our next episode, may the Lord bless and keep you all in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.