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For
this reason (the reason being that with the
coming of the Son of God and the Jewish Messiah,
Jews and Gentiles come together and form a unified
new humanity, a humanity that has been reconciled
to God, and reconciled to each other, full of
peace and love and unity with the ancient division
between Jew and Gentile gone, a humanity that
will live forever, )
For
this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Messiah Yeshua
for the sake of you Gentiles. Paul had been
arrested and was in prison in Rome. It inspires
me that even while the Rabbi from Tarsus was in
jail he was doing something for the Lord. He was
praying, witnessing, writing letters to teach
and encourage and correct. That tells us that
there is almost always something that we can do
to serve the Lord, no matter where we are, no
matter what our circumstances are. We have more
freedom than Paul. What are we doing to serve
the Lord?
For
this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Messiah Yeshua
for the sake of you Gentiles - Paul is the
apostle, the man that God specifically sent as
His representative to the non-Jews. This Jewish
man was chosen by God, prepared and equipped by
God, and sent by God to accomplish a great task
among the nations of the world. Even though he
was a prisoner of men, and despised by the powers
of the world, he was honored by God. Isn’t
is comforting knowing that though the rich and
powerful and influential and successful people
may look down on us, the glorious Creator loves
us and values us so very highly?
Note again
that Gentiles who believe in Messiah are still
Gentiles. They are not Jews. They are not Messianic
Jews. They are still part of the family and people
and nation from which they came.
The apostle
to the nations goes on, giving them more information
about his ministry: If indeed you have heard
of the stewardship of God's grace which was given
to me for you. Paul was appointed by the
King of the universe to be a steward, which is
an administrator. Paul was like a very high-level
manager who was entrusted by the Lord to give
the grace of God to others.
The grace
of God includes the precious truths about God
and Messiah and salvation and eternal life; truths
about the right way to understand the Scriptures;
truths about the way to lead a good life; truths
about how Messiah’s Holy Community was to
function.
Part of
the ability to properly manage the grace of God
that was being given to the Gentiles was having
the all the latest relevant information. Because,
with the coming of the Son of God into this world,
God was doing something radically new. This was
a new situation, and new information, new truth
was crucial. And God gave that by means of special
revelation to His high-level manager, Paul:
that
by revelation there was made known to me the
mystery, as I wrote before in brief (it seems
that the Rabbi is referring to a previous letter
he had written to the Ephesians). By referring
to this, when you read you can understand my
insight into the mystery of Messiah, which in
other generations was not made known to the
sons of men, as it has now been revealed to
His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit.
Here is
how new revelation that reveals new truth operates:
Truth comes from Messiah, and it is clearly communicated
to prophets or apostles (who are almost always
Jewish people), and they communicate those truths
to the rest of humanity. New important revelation
almost never comes directly to ordinary human
beings.
When the
apostle Paul uses the term “mystery,”
he is not referring to something strange or something
that can not be understood. His use of mystery
means something that was not previously understood,
but has now been made known.
And here
is the mystery, this new information that had
been revealed to Gamliel’s greatest disciple:
to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs
and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers
of the promise in Messiah Yeshua through the Gospel.
In other
generations, in the ages before the coming of
the Son of God, human beings did not understand
that the Messiah would come into this world, die
and come back to life and ascend back to Heaven,
and be at the right hand of God; and that only
a remnant of Israel would recognize who the Messiah
is, and follow Him; and that the message about
Messiah would also be proclaimed to the nations,
and that a remnant from those nations would believe
in Messiah; and that the Spirit of Messiah would
be given to the faithful remnant of Israel and
the saved remnant from the nations, and that together
they would come together and form a new humanity,
a humanity who live in the middle of dead humanity.
These things were not understood. No one knew
and was expecting this to happen in this way.
But God clearly revealed this things to this great
Rabbi, so that he could teach the rest of us these
important truths.
Paul describes
the Mystery of Jews and Gentiles coming together
in three ways:
The
Gentiles are fellow heirs. Gentile Believers
are not aliens, not strangers, not foreigners,
not second class citizens, but part of the mishpacha
- the family that belongs to God. Like the Jewish
saints, they are beloved sons and daughters, with
all the great status and position and wealth and
power and honor and rights and privileges and
blessings and rewards and amazing inheritance
that go with being a child of the King of the
universe! They will have their share in the New
Jerusalem along with the sons of Abraham, Isaac
and Jacob.
The
Gentiles are fellow members of the body.
There is a new body, a new community of human
beings. This new community belongs to Messiah,
with Yeshua as the head of the community, God
the Father the Father of us all, the Spirit of
God living in us all, uniting us to the Father
and to the Son and to each other. Gentiles are
part of this new community; and for the body to
function properly, each part must be used and
work with all the other parts of the body. That
means that Jewish and Gentile Believers must understand
each other, appreciate each other, love each other
and work together, serving the Lord. We are to
be like a strong and healthy body with all its
parts functioning properly.
The
Gentiles are fellow partakers of the promise in
Messiah Yeshua through the Gospel. Even though
Yeshua is the greatest Jew of all - the best son
of Israel, our greatest Rabbi, the Son of David
and the King of the Jews, and the Messiah of Israel
who came for the lost sheep of the House of Israel,
He is also the Savior of the world. The Gospel
- the Good News, with its promises of being reconciled
to the God of Israel, and the receiving of the
Spirit of Messiah, and salvation, and everlasting
life, was offered to the Chosen people, it is
also equally offered to the other nations. And,
when an individual from any nation hears the Good
News, and understands it, and believes that Yeshua
is the Savior, and that person says yes to Yeshua,
and makes a commitment to Yeshua to follow Him,
then all the promises of the Good News are given
to that individual, and he becomes just as much
a partaker in those promises as the Jewish saints!
Do you
really know that you share in the promise? Do
you know the Good News? Do you understand it?
Do you believe it? Are you following King Yeshua?
Is He your Lord and Savior? Do you hear His voice
speaking to you? Do you have His Spirit leading
you, guiding you, directing you, whispering to
you: “do this, don’t do that. Go here.
Speak to that person there? Surrender your goals,
your agenda, your priorities, and embrace My goals,
agenda and priorities. You need to lay down your
life and sacrifice more of your time and energy
to accomplish what I know needs to be done.”
Do you have that inner witness that you really
are a child of God, even though at times you fail
and sin and make mistakes? But, at the core of
your being, in spite of the weakness of your flesh,
in spite of getting entangled in the sins that
so easily entangle you, is the desire of your
heart to rise up, turn away from your sins, and
do a better job of being obedient and serving
the Lord?
Because
the Lord had revealed these things to the great
mind of this great man, Rabbi Paul understood
this mystery; and understanding it helped him
be a good administrator of the Good News - 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.
Paul previously
told us that he was a steward, an administrator
of God’s grace. Now he tells us that he
was made a minister, and minister and administrator
mean the same thing. A minister is a servant of
God who works in the area of spiritual work. He
is an administrator of spiritual things, a manager
of the things of the Spirit.
It was
God’s grace and power at work in the life
of Paul that made him a minister of the Gospel.
A man does not make himself a minister. He does
not appoint himself to be a minister. He does
not proclaim himself to be a minister. A minister
is made by God. God’s grace, His unmerited
favor, is given to that man, so that he is equipped
morally, intellectually and spiritually to do
the spiritual work he is being asked by God to
do. It is the power of God at work in the life
of a man that enables him to teach and preach
and help and serve in an effective way.
And, the
grace and power of God were very much evident
in the life of Paul. Even though I believe that
Saul of Tarsus was one of the very greatest men
who ever lived - tremendous scholar; one of the
greatest teachers of the Word of God, fluent in
Hebrew and Greek; a prophet, an apostle, a courageous
evangelist; and author of much of the New Testament,
the great sage from Tarsus did not feel that he
was a great man.
He describes
himself as the very least of all saints.
To the end of his life, Paul remembered the terrible
sins he committed before he came to an understanding
of the Messiahship of Yeshua - actively and terribly
persecuting the true Jews, the Messianic Jewish
saints. Throughout his life Paul was always humbled
by the grace of the Compassionate God, who not
only forgive his crimes, but also advanced him
to the high position of apostle to the nations
of the world! If this great man felt this kind
of humility, thinking about his failings, his
failings before he was a believer, then how much
more humble should the rest of us be!
Paul summarizes
his amazing ministry, one of the greatest ministries
and most productive labors of all time, with two
thoughts: To me, the very least of all saints
this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles
the unfathomable riches of Messiah, and to bring
to light what is the administration of the mystery.
It was
Paul’s sacred responsibility to go and tell
the nations the unfathomable riches of Israel’s
Messiah. Because of Messiah, who He is, and what
He has done and will do, there is a pile of riches
so varied, so abundant, so vast, so deep, that
we can’t get to the bottom of it! Messiah
is a treasure of wealth so profound, so great,
that we can’t search out all of the riches
He makes available to those who are joined to
Him. He is the source of spiritual riches and
physical riches; riches in this life and eternal
wealth in the life to come. He enables a richness
of good relationships between human beings, between
human beings and the angels, human beings and
the Tri-Une God, human beings and the other creatures;
riches of friendship, and family and love and
grace and mercy and forgiveness and atonement
and life and adventure and meaning and wisdom
and understanding and art and beauty and science
and literature and music, and intellectual stimulation,
and all the wonders of this creation, and the
creation to come - the all have Yeshua of Nazareth
as their Source!
It was
also Paul’s job to bring to light the administration
of the mystery - the mystery being that the Messiah
would come into this world, die and come back
to life and ascend back to Heaven, and sit at
the right hand of God; and that the remnant Messianic
Jews and Gentiles among the nations would be saved,
and receive the precious Holy Spirit, and how
together they form a new humanity. Paul understood
this mystery and how it needed to be worked out,
administered and put into practice. This is why
we must read the works of Paul, know Paul, and
trust Paul. Those who dislike Paul and his writings
are seriously deficient in their understanding.
Paul administered
this mystery by teaching the following: Under
the New Covenant, and in this new humanity of
Jews and Gentiles, Gentiles did not have to keep
all of the commandments that were directed to
Israel under the Sinai covenant. The community
of Believers were to have godly, humble leaders.
They were to love one another, and reach out with
love and the message of salvation to the Jew first,
and also to the Gentiles.
... the
mystery which for ages has been hidden in God
who created all things; the all-wise Creator,
who made all things, understands the best way
to deal with all things, including all of humanity,
Israel and the nations, and you and me; and it
was His decision not to reveal this mystery until
the Messiah came and died and rose again, and
the message about Him began being declared to
the Gentiles. Then, the infinitely wise God revealed
these things to us.
The revealing
of this mystery was essential to the healthy growth
of Messiah’s Holy Community of Jews and
Gentiles, the Church, the Called Out Ones, the
Body of Messiah, but it also was designed to impact
the other sons of God - the angels. ... So
that the manifold wisdom of God might 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 Messiah Yeshua our Lord.
Angels
are real. They are older than us. They precede
us. They are intelligent. They are wise. They
were with God before we were created. There is
a lot of history between God and the angels, things
we don’t understand. And, God, the angels
and us are all involved with one another. There
are things going on with human beings, and particularly
with the Messianic community of Believers, that
are part of God’s dealings with the angels
- the good angels and the fallen angels. What
is going on among Messianic Jews and Gentile Christians,
forming this saved new humanity that is reconciled
to the Creator, purchased with the blood of the
Messiah, indwelt by the Spirit, reveals to these
powerful and ancient and intelligent spiritual
beings many different aspects of the wisdom of
God. Deep and profound things are happening to
us and with us and through us, things that impact
us, and the history of the world, and the course
of the World-To-Come, but also those powerful
beings in the heavenly places.
That should
encourage us to take these things very seriously,
and give them the proper attention that they deserve.
May God, through His grace and power, enable each
one of us to do so!
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