Ephesians (Program #69) -Experiencing the Riches of Christ

Ephesians Chapter 3 is a remarkable Chapter in all of Scripture. For it tells us that the immeasurable, unsearchable and unlimited Christ has now become so close, so intimate and so personal to us that He is actually making His home in our hearts.

This Chapter also tells us that this one is unsearchably rich. In fact it’s by our experiencing Him in this unsearchable riches that bit by bit, day by day, He is able to spread Himself into all the regions of all our inner being. This is the Christ that Paul presents to us in the book of Ephesians. And it is the very Christ that Paul himself experienced and described in many of his other epistles. We will consider the unsearchable riches of Christ on our program today.

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Ephesians (Program #66) – Christ in God’s Economy, Taking Christ as our Person

Many books in the New Testament speak of the mysteries of God. First of all, Colossians tells us that God is a mystery but that Christ is the mystery of God. But then Christ also is a mystery. And so Ephesians tells us that the mystery of Christ is the Church.  Well, you may say what’s so mysterious about the Church?  The Church in reality is where the immeasurable Christ far above all, can still be so small and so intimate that He can dwell within us. Even makes His home in our hearts. Now this is mysterious.  For as the apostle Paul himself put it, “this mystery is great, but I speak concerning Christ and the Church.“

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Ephesians (Program #59) – Conclusion

Many great apostles contributed to the New Testament: John, James, Peter and Matthew as well as others. But the bulk of the New testament came through the apostle Paul.

The epistles of Paul in many ways formed the kernel of the New Testament. And it was through Paul also that the Church was spread through out much of the civilized world during New Testament time.

Yet at the end of this book, perhaps his highest work, Ephesians, this great apostle commissioned with the divine revelation in a very touching and intimate conclusion to his letter to the Church in Ephesus shows how much he valued not his own strength or vision or gift but taking his place as a living member in full coordination with the Body. And he asked for their prayers and petitions concerning him.  A very touching fellowship.

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2 Corinthians (Program #47) – Paul’s Vindication of His Apostolic Authority (2)

In the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, he was very bold and at times quite strong in dealing with the many problems that had risen in the church there.  Due to this, he was quite concerned about how the believers in Corinth received his word of loving discipline.  But upon hearing their open and repented heart, he began 2 Corinthians with nine very tender,intimate and pleasant chapters.  But following this, his tone once again become severe.  For in the final four chapters of the book, he is forced to make a defense, even a vindication of his apostleship.  Why did Paul, the clarion of the New Testament economy need to lower himself in such a way before this church which he himself established?   The answer may surprises but it will most definitely enlighten us.

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2 Corinthians (Program #46) – Paul’s Vindication of His Apostolic Authority (1)

The last section of 2 Corinthians beginning at chapter 10, marks a strong contrast to the first nine chapters of this book.  The apostle Paul throughout most of the book was pleasant, intimate and very tender  with the Corinthians believers.  But in this final segment, he is forced to vindicate his own apostolic authority, because both he himself personally as well as his ministry and work had been severely undermined by other so call Christian workers who had come in to distract, damage  and confuse the Corinthians.  Just how does Paul approach this delicate and difficult situation?  Actually seeing the apostle dealing with such a problem is a marvelous window for all of us to see what it is to be a person one with  and living Christ.

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2 Corinthians (Program #40) – The Minister’s of the New Covenant (13)

2 Corinthians chapter seven is very unique in the New Testament. It’s hard to find even a thread of teaching or doctrine in this chapter. But rather we are allowed into Paul’s heart to touch the deep and intimate feelings that he has regarding the believers in Corinth.

7: 3…”you are in our hearts...”
7:4… “I am filled with comfort, I overflow with joy in all our affliction.”

This is the apostle, fully restoring and fully reconciling those whom he had previously rebuke for their many failures and sins in his first epistle to the Corinthian church.

Although we may only see his tender emotional feelings been expressed here. Under all is his strong desire for the church in Corinth even all the believers and the entire body of Christ to be brought up to the standard that he revealed in another of his epistle, Ephesians. Ephesians 4:16

16 “..all the Body, being joined together and being knit together through every joint of the rich supply and through the operation in the measure of each one part, causes the growth of the Body unto the building up of itself in love.”

To see this link between 2 Corinthians 7 and God’s eternal purpose in Ephesians is rare glimpse into the depth of the riches in God’s word.

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2 Corinthians (Program #8) – The Ministers of the New Covenant (1)

All believers have their favorite verses, verses that just seem to minister particularly to us in our situation. But one verse that deserves to be on every list is 2 Corinthians 3:18, listen to the apostle Paul in this marvelous verse,

18 “But we all with unveiled face, beholding and reflecting like a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as from the Lord Spirit.”

Why is this verse so particularly important? Because it brings us face to face with the Lord Jesus in an intimate and personal way. But also in a way where by we are infused, transfused even transformed by Christ Himself as the very life giving Spirit.

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Mark (Program #1) – The Slave-Savior’s Auxiliary Acts for the Gospel Service (1) & (2)

The gospel of Mark is not a book concerning the great doctrines of the Christian faith.  Much more it is a book of many cases that illustrate the reality of the gospel being carried out even lived out by the Slave Savior Jesus.

Early on in the book on the third chapter there is an account of the Lord instructing His followers to prepare a boat so that He can escaped the large crowd, the pressing throng that had come out to Galilee to see this One who was performing miracles and healing the sick.  It was because of the pressing of this large crowd had become a frustration to the real seeking ones who did not desire to be part of great new religious movement but rather longed for a simple, intimate touch with the Lord Jesus Himself.

Chapter 5 shows us such an intimate encounter, “When she heard the things concerning Jesus, she came up in the crowd behind Him and touched His garment, And immediately Jesus, realizing in Himself that power had gone out of Him, turned around in the crowd and said, Who touched My garments?“

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Jeremiah (Program #8) – Israel’s Sin against Jehovah, Jehovah’s Punishment upon Israel (1)

The Lord told the prophet Jeremiah that He held two things against Israel above all else. First, they had forsaken Him, the fountain of living waters. And second, they had hewn out for themselves broken cisterns incapable of holding water. The context of this passage is in chapter 2 of Jeremiah. And in a way can be considered the conversation between a distraught husband and an unfaithful wife. Listen to this sweet and intimate way that Jehovah began His word to Israel, “I remember concerning you the kindness of your youth, The love of your bridal days, When you followed after Me in the wilderness, In a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness to Jehovah, The firstfruit of His increase;” (Jeremiah 2:2b-3a) As we consider these two great sins before Jehovah, sins that did not only plague Israel but also that we ourselves have to be constantly aware of.

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Song of Songs (Program #10) – The Four Stages of Spiritual Experience in Song of Songs

To enter into the real intrinsic significance of the Song of Songs, we have to first understand that this lovely, short, poetic love story is actually a detailed portrait of the lover of Christ’s personal and intimate experience of Him. The full experience of the believer is shown in the four stages in the book of Song of Songs beginning with pursuing Him, then experiencing the cross and dying to the self, followed by living in ascension and becoming a new creation, and finally responding to the highest call to Christian life – to pass through the veil of the flesh, to dwell in God Himself and allow Him to dwell in us. If we have a clear view of these four stages, we will not only fully understand this book, but we will have priceless understanding that will sustain us through our whole Christian life.

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