The Revelation And The Revealing Of God’s Church

He told the Ephesian church they were as:

• A NATION

• A FAMILY

• A BUILDING

• AN ORGANISM

• A CHURCH

But as we move to chapter 3, he shows us the Lord’s church as a “Mystery”.

WHAT DID HE MEAN BY THAT? When Paul is speaking of a “mystery”, he is speaking of something that had not been revealed in the Old Testament but was currently being revealed in the New Testament.

Moffat translates the word “mystery” as, “Divine Secret!”

Illus: Many believe that September 11, 2001 was a turning point in this nation, when the twin towers in New York City and the Pentagon were attacked by a bunch of terrorists.

This was such a major thing in the history of America that it affected this country in every way imaginable.

Pentecost is such a time in the New Testament for the church.

WHAT HAPPENED? On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit started the church. Before Pentecost the church did not exist. In fact, nowhere in the Old Testament can you find the word church.

The Lord Himself acknowledged the church did not exist in the Old Testament. It was in the New Testament that the Lord Jesus said of His church, in Matthew 16:18, “…I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

The fact that in the Old Testament the church did not exist, does not keep some unlearned men and women from teaching that it did exist.

For example, there is a group today that teaches what is called “Covenant Theology”.

• They take all the promises made to Israel, and apply them to the church.

• What is unique about this group is that they take the BLESSINGS of Israel and apply them to the church, but do not apply the CURSES of Israel to the church.

• Listen, all the blessings and the curses of Israel apply to Israel, not to the church.

We are taking scripture out of context when we take the blessings of Israel and apply them to the church in the New Testament.

• The church age started at Pentecost and will end at the rapture.

• Revelation 2-3 tells about the seven different kinds of churches that would be represented during the church age. These seven periods (seven churches) represent the time from Pentecost until the rapture.

WHAT DID GOD HAVE IN MIND WHEN HE STARTED THE CHURCH? When God started the Church, He had an eternal purpose in His mind.

WHAT IS THE ETERNAL PURPOSE OF GOD? On Pentecost, God began to bring together a body of believers called the church, that would love him supremely.

THIS IS GOD’S ETERNAL PURPOSE FOR THE CHURCH.

Bringing together this body of believers to love him supremely is a TREMENDOUS TASK. But He is the one who said, “I will build my church.”

There are two things that make this job difficult:

(1) WE ARE CREATED FREE MORAL AGENTS

We can choose! If we were all robots, it would be no problem, but we mortals are free moral agents which means:

• We are not like the Sun that God tells to shine and it shines

• We are not like the Sun that God tells to set and it sets

We have the ability to CHOOSE. We can choose to obey or to disobey. To make matters worse -

(2) THE DEVIL HAS FILLED THE HEART OF MAN WITH EVIL

God is trying to bring all mankind into His church to love Him supremely, and the devil is doing everything he can do to cause division. He tries to divide:

• Race against race

• Nation against nation

• Social levels against social levels

• Children against their parents

• Religious groups against religious groups

• Political groups against political groups

BUT WITH ALL THIS CHAOS IN THE WORLD IN WHICH WE LIVE, GOD HAS AN ETERNAL PURPOSE THAT ONLY HE CAN ACHIEVE.

And make no mistake about it, HIS ETERNAL PURPOSE WILL BE ACHIEVED!

He did not say:

• I hope I can build my church

• I will try to build my church

He said, “I will build my church” and hell itself can not stop Him.

HOW WILL HE ACHIEVE HIS PURPOSE of bringing together a body of believers who love Him supremely? We need to look at two things, such as:

I. THE REVELATION

Look at verses 1-5, we read, “For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.”