In this enlightening episode of Classic Christianity Radio, Bob George delves into the depths of the book of Ephesians, exploring the profound mystery that was once hidden in God’s heart and is now revealed to humanity. Learn how the early church grappled with the unification of Jews and Gentiles into one body through the gospel and how this truth remains relevant for us today. Bob emphasizes the importance of understanding the church as an organism that brings glory to God, rather than as an organization bound by man-made traditions.
Welcome to Classic Christianity Radio with Bob George. Bob’s clear, timeless teachings on the complete forgiveness and unconditional love of Jesus Christ will transform your life as you learn about God’s amazing grace. Let’s join Bob as he teaches us from God’s Word.
SPEAKER 02 :
Well, let’s turn to the book of Ephesians. We’re going to pick up in a moment in chapter 4, but before we do, we’re going to do just a brief review. We’ve been talking about this mystery called in the Greek language the mysterion, the mystery that was held in the heart of God until such time that he was ready to reveal that to mankind, and he did so through the prophets and through the apostle Paul. We’re talking about up in verse 6 of chapter 3 that this mystery is that through the gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body and sharers together in the promise of Jesus Christ. A gentleman came up to me a little early in the service and asked what our membership was here. And I explained to him, we don’t have a membership here because, and the reason we don’t, there’s a reason for that, is because we who are in Christ Jesus are members of the body of Christ. We were made members not because we joined, but because we’ve been joined to him and he joined himself to us. Christ’s church is not an assembly. Christ’s church are born-again believers who assemble. And so we have to understand the truth of that, that it is not an organization. It’s an organism where he is the head and we are the parts of the body. It’s an organism. It is a function here on this earth for the purpose of bringing glory and bringing salvation to the lost. So it started off where the gospel first went to the Jew. The gospel first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. And so as years progressed, and as far as we know in the New Testament, at least recorded, the first Gentile believer was Cornelius. And that was almost 18 years after the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ Jesus. So the early formation of the ecclesia, and remember what I’m talking about, guys, the ecclesia, or the church, is born-again people. So who was the ecclesia? Born-again Jews. That’s where it started. Born-again Jews. People steeped in legalism, steeped in tradition, who all of a sudden had a new message. It was a message that was brought to them by Christ Jesus. And it was a message of grace. That all of these forms and all of these traditions were merely a foreshadowing leading up to the coming of Christ Jesus. All of the traditions were a preamble to Christ Jesus’ coming. And when Christ Jesus came… He eliminated all of this so-called garbage that was there because it had no meaning to it. It was just tradition. And we have the same thing going on today in our tradition, traditions that overstep the Word of God. And the same thing was true back then, that God did not intend all of those things to happen. Man just makes them happen. And then suddenly the church was formed. And then it was to the Jew, and then after Cornelius, that gospel began going out to the Gentile world. Now to the Jew, it was an impossible thing for them to comprehend that we, heathenistic Gentiles, who worshiped idols and all kinds of things, could come to Christ the same way that these religious Jews came to Christ. That was unthinkable to them. That we here, we have tried to be righteous, and you say I’m not, and the Jews who haven’t tried are. And they did not understand that. Are you trying to tell me that we are not righteous in the sight of God? We who have obeyed the laws or tried to obey the laws and had our traditions and all these type of things and then these heathenistic Gentiles who haven’t tried to do anything have obtained it and said, yeah, that’s what it’s saying. Why? Well, because it was by faith. They came to Christ by faith and you’re still working on it. And you stumbled over the stumbling stone. Now, guys, today… we have to come to realize that today is the same thing going on in our so-called Christian circles that took place back then. There are many people who try to delineate the fact that the Bible is written only to the Jew or only to the Gentile. That is nonsense. The early Christians, it was written to the Jews because they were the ones that the gospel went to. But then the Gentiles came on the scene. We say, yeah, but the Gentiles never had the law. I know, but we stole it. And so what we have today is no different than what the Jew had back then prior to coming to Christ, steeped in legalism. He never intended the Gentile world to be involved in legalism. We put ourselves in that mess. And so what is applicable back then is absolutely applicable today. So this word of God, you don’t have to sit around and try to delineate, well, that’s just written to Jews and it’s to the Gentile. It’s written to y’all. And if the shoe fits, wear it. So let’s not get on with this division that people get into of dividing the Word of God by saying, well, don’t pay attention to this. That’s written to Jews. Listen, where it’s applicable to us today is it was to them back there. And so let’s get rid of that kind of nonsense. And to realize that this book is a book to the world. And so it’s applicable. If it’s applicable to you, wear the shoe. If it isn’t, ignore it. Are we together on that? Now, he was saying here that I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. And although I am the least of God’s people, this grace was given to me to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which was kept secret. in ages past kept hidden in God who created all things. So he’s saying to us here, and although he says I’m the least of all God’s people, that’s a statement of humility, isn’t it? That this grace that was given to me to preach the message to the Gentiles, Now, again, it wasn’t that if Paul saw a Jew, I’m not going to preach the gospel to you because I’m there to preach the Gentiles. It meant that he was sent specifically to preach this gospel and to get this message into the Gentile world. And it’s amazing to me how God picked the most Jew of Jews to go to the Gentiles. And who you would think would go would be old Peter, right? to go to the Gentiles. No, he sent him to the intellectual Jew. The fisherman sent to the intellectual and sent the intellectual out to the heathenistic Gentile. Why? I believe it’s totally because there was no way to be counting on me and my experience and my knowledge for my success and work. It’s going to have to be God alone. And so he says that he was there to preach and to make plain the administration of this ministry. In other words, how do you put it into effect, which is what we’re going to be studying in just a moment here. His intent was that now through the church, and the church is now, was strictly to the Jew. The church is now Jew and Gentile. Both have been made into one body. Through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms according to his eternal purpose, which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. And in him and through faith in him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence. I ask you now, don’t be discouraged because of my sufferings for you. Now let’s go down to chapter 4. As a prisoner of the Lord then… He’s going to tell the body of Christ now made up of born-again Jews and born-again Gentiles. This whole book, guys, it isn’t one of these things where it has one meaning over here and another meaning here. This whole book is written to show Jews and Gentiles how to live together, how to worship together, and how to recognize that there’s only one God together. This whole book is directed for that one purpose. Why? There was division in the body. There was the Jew that said, what do you know, Gentiles? You used to worship demons. And who do you think you are, Jew, that you’ve got all the money and God too? And so there was division. And so with that division, this book is there to admonish us how to get along. As a prisoner of the Lord then, Paul says, I urge you therefore to live a life worthy of the calling that you’ve received. Be completely humble and gentle. Be patient, bearing with one another in love. Do you think that was a necessity between the Jew and Gentile? Between the legalist who’s trying to understand grace and the Gentile who’s grateful for it but doesn’t understand it? Make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit. He’s saying to them through the bond of peace. He’s explaining to them, guys, there’s not a Gentile body and a Jew body. He said you have been made into one new body. Not a Jew body, not a Gentile body. So don’t have a Gentile church and a Jew church. That isn’t what I came to do. I came for the two of you to have unity with one another. I didn’t come for you to have division. I came to have unity. And he’s explaining that to us. There’s one body. There’s only one spirit. Just as you were called to one hope when you were called, one Lord, one faith, One baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all for you all. Now that you all is added. Now what is he saying there, folks? He’s saying quit dividing yourself. Do we divide ourselves today? Absolutely. Absolutely. You got people, they get Jew churches and Gentile churches. You say, I thought we were under a new covenant. I thought all of that old covenant was the foreshadowing of the reality that’s found in Christ. What are we worshiping at the foot of the formalities for? And the shadows. All those are shadows. The holiday seasons of the Jews were pointing to Jesus. Have they pointed you to Jesus or are you still just worshiping the holidays?
SPEAKER 01 :
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SPEAKER 02 :
I mean, do we celebrate Christmas because we like Christmas, or are we celebrating the birth of Jesus? Or are we celebrating the coming of Santa Claus? Well, it depends on where you are. But I mean, if you… What Paul, if he was writing that today, he’d say, you only got one celebration. But don’t worship at the foot of the celebration. Worship at the foot of who you’re celebrating. And that’s Christ. And we would rather worship at the celebration than we would to worship the Son of God. Now, he says here… that to each one of us, now he’s going to show us how the church has been put together. First of all, Jews and Gentiles. So let’s just say this whole congregation is made up of both Jews and Gentiles who are born-again believers. And I have to emphasize, guys, his church is born-again believers. So if you’re here today and you’re not born again you’re not in christ church that’s why we don’t have a membership because i don’t want you a member here if you’re not a member there and if you’re a member there what do you need to be a member here for and so you’ve been you’re probably a member of a pretty probably a little better church in this one it’s called jesus church so he’s saying to us Here’s what happened. First of all, Jews and Gentiles. Now, and we’ll read this in a moment, I’m going to give to the church gifts, and those gifts are men. And so you’re going to see that it was him who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastor teachers. Now, guys, that is not a spiritual gift. Those men are spiritual gifts. Billy Graham is a gift from God to the body of Christ as an evangelist. I don’t think there’s any question about that. And there are numerous people like that. There are gifts. It’s not that I have the spiritual gift of evangelism. I hear some people say, well, I’d like to share, but I don’t have the spiritual gift of evangelism. Nobody does. Nobody does. If you’re an evangelist, you are the gift. You’re the gift to the body. If you are a prophet, you are a gift to the body. God named you, trained you, and made you a gift to the body. A pastor teacher is supposed to be a gift to the body of Christ. if he has literally been sent by God. Unfortunately, we have pastor teachers who are career. They went to cemetery and got a degree. And so, therefore, they’re a pastor teacher because they went to school and got a degree instead of being a pastor teacher that God trained and sent to be a pastor teacher. People will say, well, do you have to go to seminary to be a pastor teacher? No, you’d probably be better off if you didn’t. It’s like Chuck Swindoll said, it took him four years to get through seminary and 30 years to get over it. The issue is it depends on what seminary you go to, first of all, because you’re going to go to the Baptist seminary, or you’re going to go to the Methodist seminary, you’re going to go to the Presbyterian seminary, you’re going to go to the Catholic seminary, you’re going to go to Jehovah’s Witness, you’re going to go to the Mormon, because wherever you go, that’s what they’re going to teach you. And I got news for you guys, they all can’t be right. but they’re all in disagreement with each other. And so it gets down to the point of how are you going to know what’s truth? We talked about that last week. You are going to have to know what’s truth by being born again and allowing the Spirit of God who lives in you to reveal the meaning of the Word of God to you, not to the masses, to you individually. If you’re truly born again and you have approached this Word of God with an attitude of Lord Jesus, if you don’t reveal what this means… I’m not going to know. Oh, I can come up with my own theories, but I am not going to know what it means, what you wrote it to mean, unless you reveal it to me. You’re the one who wrote it. You’re the one who has to reveal to me what it means. Now, guys, that shouldn’t be much of a complex thing to us. Have you ever noticed how on television the president or somebody will get up and speak? And then after they speak, commentators will come in and tell you what he meant. We say, do I not have the ability to understand what he means? Probably not. We’re being lied to about nine times out of ten. But even the commentary, even the people doing the comments don’t know what it means. They’re just telling you what they think it means. So it’s the same thing here. You can read this book. And if you’re reading it lost or from a perspective, as an example, that I don’t believe this word of God is true. I believe there is truth in it, but it’s kind of fairy tales. I don’t think there was an Adam and Eve. And I think it was just fairy tales. And I’m not sure Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. Well, then you’re going to approach the Word of God and interpret the Word of God totally different, are you not, than someone who knows this Bible is 100% true, not the translation, not translated, don’t have to be a King Jameser, not the translation, but the original manuscripts. Those original manuscripts that were copied tenaciously, copied. We have hundreds of copies of those original manuscripts. in comparison to any other history of antiquity, any other historical event at all, compared to the Bible, is nil. And so that’s what is inerrant. Translations are made off of that. They’re not inerrant, but they are translations. Some are good, maybe some are not so good. But the issue is that you’ve got the Word of God in your hands. Now, if I have the word of God in my hands and I approach that with this is the word of God, this is true. I even believe the maps are inerrant. If it is true, then I’m going to interpret the word of God totally different than someone who is approaching with the idea that may be true and may not be. So you wonder why you’ve got 800 and some denominations going around the world, thousands through the world, and 800 and some here in this country? Because of interpretation of the Word of God. Where do all those interpretations come? Leaning on your own understanding, not depending on Him to reveal the meaning of the Word of God to you, and it’s all over the place. So, it said that to each one of these people, in verse 7, the grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. And this is why it says, when he ascended on high, he led captives to his train, and he gave gifts to men. Now, what does he ascended mean, except that he also descended to the lower earthly regions? And he who descended is the very one who ascended higher up. Then all the heavens in order to fill the whole universe. Now there again it was he who gave some to be apostles. We just talked about this. He gave some to be prophets. These are all men who are gifts. Not a gift to the man. The man is the gift. Are we together on these? And then some to be evangelists. And some to be pastor teachers. What is the purpose of all of these men? To prepare God’s people for works of service. Now, what did Jesus say was the work of the Lord? When they ask you, what’s the work of the Lord, Lord? Believe in me. What’s the job of the evangelist? To convince people to what? Believe in Jesus for salvation. What was the work of the prophet? Same thing. What should it be the work of a pastor teacher? Teaching the congregation to walk by faith in Christ Jesus. Teaching them what God said is what works is, is believing in him. Teaching people to quit being mass followers. And recognize that Jesus lives in you. And he wants to lead you. And he doesn’t care where he leads him. I’m leading you. And the same thing that he told to Peter. What does it matter to you what I do with John if he lives forever? I’m telling you to follow me. So it isn’t what are we doing? The issue is what are you doing with the gift that God gave you? It’s individual. You know, many times in a sermon you see somebody. Did you hear that, honey? You know what? The Lord probably said, hey, I’m not talking to her. I’m talking to you. Talking to you. This is a personal relationship, guys. It’s a vital personal relationship between you and Jesus Christ. Now, between you and Jesus Christ, between you and Jesus Christ, between you and Jesus Christ, and we all come together, and it’s the ecclesia meeting, the church meeting. You don’t come to church. You are the church. Are we together? Okay. So the reason there is to prepare God’s people for the works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach a unity of In the faith. A unity in the faith. And in the knowledge. Of the son of God. So he wants there to be a unity in the faith. As a result of our knowledge of the son of God. Unity. That means Jew and Gentile alike are both believing the same thing. There’s not a Jew gospel. There’s not a Gentile gospel. Now, guys, I want to just emphasize this. There are people who believe that you could never understand the New Testament apart from the Old Testament. Do you think that’s true? Or do you think that you will never understand the Old Testament apart from the New Testament? Who came to explain what the Old Testament meant? Jesus. Jesus. You think the Old Testament people knew when they were saying, I believe in the coming Messiah? Obviously, they didn’t know who it was when he got here. They killed him. But they knew somebody was coming. They still do to this day. In Orthodox Judaism, there still is a belief that the Messiah is coming. But they believe that when he comes, he’s going to free Israel. And until I see somebody do that, don’t tell me about this Messiah. I don’t want to hear about the suffering Messiah. I’m interested in the reigning Messiah. To this very day, that’s exactly what they’ll tell you. He wants a unity. That’s not truth. The truth is the Messiah came. His name was Jesus. And there’ll be no man who will ever walk on the earth that can duplicate the works of Jesus. How much more loving is the Messiah that they think is going to come, is going to have to be than Jesus? How many more miracles is he going to have to do than Jesus did? How many more truths is he going to have to tell than Jesus did? This, Jesus, is the Messiah. Get a unity in that. When do you have a unity? When the Jew believes that. When the Gentile believes that it’s not a Jew message, not a Gentile message. It’s a church message. The true church. Now, he says that we reach this unity and then become mature. He does not want us to remain a babe. Hebrews says by this time you ought to be teaching, but you’re still immature. You’re still a babe, still sucking on milk instead of going to solid food. And we ought to be reaching out. We’ve absorbed enough. It’s time to start reaching out to someone else. That’s what he’s going to be talking about. I’ve given you these gifts. Now I want you to use them. He wants you to become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. The whole measure. When that occurs, he says, we will no longer be infants tossed back and forth by the waves of Blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Does that make sense? What is he saying that we’re going to have? And what is he saying we do have? Well, you got every wind of doctrine. You got every, it said some 800 of them right here in this country that we know of.
SPEAKER 01 :
Thank you so much for tuning in to Classic Christianity with Bob George. We hope you’ve enjoyed today’s program. We truly hope that today’s message has inspired you to walk a life of faith in the Lord. Find more information online at bobgeorge.net. There you’ll also find available CDs, DVDs and Bible studies available for purchase. It’s through your help that we are able to spread the good word of Jesus Christ. Until next time, walk in faith, be good to one another and praise the Lord. Amen.
