Our minds cannot contain the infinite glory of God. Yet since He has made us in His image, we can know the Lord truly through His revelation. From his sermon series in the book of Ephesians, today R.C. Sproul considers the role of the church in spreading the knowledge of God. Get R.C. Sproul’s commentary on the book of Ephesians for your donation of any amount: https://gift.renewingyourmind.org/3616/ephesians-commentary Meet Today’s Teacher: R.C. Sproul (1939–2017) was known for his ability to winsomely and clearly communicate deep, practical truths from God’s Word. He was founder of Ligonier Ministries, first minister of preaching and teaching at Saint Andrew’s Chapel, first president of Reformation Bible College, and executive editor of Tabletalk magazine. Meet the Host: Nathan W. Bingham is vice president of ministry engagement for Ligonier Ministries, executive producer and host of Renewing Your Mind, host of the Ask Ligonier podcast, and a graduate of Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne, Australia. Nathan joined Ligonier in 2012 and lives in Central Florida with his wife and four children. Renewing Your Mind is a donor-supported outreach of Ligonier Ministries. Explore all of our podcasts: https://www.ligonier.org/podcasts
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The knowledge of God is so high that the most brilliant of scholars hardly ever scratches the surface of our understanding of who God is.
Who is God? What are the unsearchable riches of Christ that Paul mentions in Ephesians chapter 3? That's what R.C. Sproul will consider on this Sunday edition of Renewing Your Mind. We have spent the last few weeks in Ephesians chapter 2, and R.C. Sproul has unpacked the bad news of our condition outside of Christ and the good news of the unity Christians have in Christ.
Well, today we'll conclude this series as R.C. Sproul teaches from chapter 3. If you'd like to study Ephesians further, today is your final opportunity to request the hardcover edition of R.C. Sproul's expositional commentary when you give a gift of any amount at renewingyourmind.org. This offer does end at midnight, and it won't be repeated next Sunday.
Well, if you have your Bibles with you, turn to Ephesians chapter 3. Here's Dr. Sproul.
At the beginning of chapter 3 here, Paul continues his exposition of the theme to which he gave great attention already in chapter 2, which had to do with the revelation of this mysterion or mystery that once had been concealed but now has been revealed. And that theme, though, for many ways, lay dormant throughout Old Testament days, at least. It was not front and center.
But with the advent of Christ and his work of redemption, now that which had been hidden to some degree, is now openly proclaimed and is of vital importance for the understanding of the makeup of the church. We know that one of the most significant controversies of the early Christian church of the first century was the question of what part do Gentiles play in this new covenant community.
And Paul is now declaring to the Ephesian church of this great mystery that has now been revealed of the full inclusion of Gentiles in the church. And so Paul says, for this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles. He says that he was a prisoner of Christ Jesus. He could have said, here, I'm a prisoner of Caesar in Rome.
But Paul had a higher imprisonment in view, that his ultimate captor was Christ, to whom Paul declared that he was a bondservant and prisoner. He said, which he has given to me for you." Again, Paul is referring to the singular ministry that by the grace of God he was given to be not merely an apostle, but to be the apostle to the Gentiles.
That was his priority and his primary mission and why he was the first great missionary of Christendom in the first century, taking the gospel to the Gentiles.
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