 I think it's audible now. If anyone of us could please pray, anyone, if one of us could just volunteer to pray, we will begin after that. If anyone on the screen could pray, we will begin. Could we have Anitha pray for us please? Anitha, if you could pray, we will get started. Go past them. Let's pray. Thank you for this beautiful giving us Lord. I surrender this class into your hand Lord. You lead us, guide us Lord and help us to understand whatever pastor is teaching us Lord. I surrender each one of us into your hand. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. Thank you. So today we will be beginning the epistle to the Ephesians. So we will first begin by looking a little bit at the background of the city of Ephesus, the ministry that Paul was doing there, the status of the church, what the church was doing in Ephesus. So we look at all of those background details so that then we will get a clearer picture of what this letter talks about. So to start off, the city of Ephesus was one of the main important cities of Asia Minor. This Asia Minor is a term that we find in the biblical context. So when it says Asia Minor, it's not referring to the Asia that we are familiar with today, you know, where you have the Asian countries, but rather it's referring to the region which is now occupied by Turkey. So that would be basically your Anatolian Peninsula. So that entire Anatolian Peninsula where you now have modern day Turkey situated, that area was called Asia Minor back then. So Ephesus was one of the most important cities of this Asia Minor, mainly because it was a seaport town. So which basically means that you would have ships coming from different countries over here, you know, bringing their goods and then from there they would travel onto the land to different places to sell their products in different nations. So which means Ephesus is like an entry point. So which means it can make a lot of money through taxes and all of that. So which is why Ephesus was considered a very important city and because of the employment opportunities, the trading opportunities which were available, people came and settled down over there from various places. As a result, the city became rather large in size. It was regarded as one of the greatest metropolises of that time. Now we in India, we're very familiar with these metro cities. These are the cities where you would have populations coming in from all over the country, you know, looking for job opportunities, looking to settle down over here. So a metro city will generally have a larger population than a normal city and so according to the populations of that time, Ephesus did have a large population. It had a population of 2,25,000 people is what we learn from historical records. Now, of course, our modern metros are much larger. You would basically have millions of people living in a metro. For instance, Bangalore has got 13 million people approximately. So yes, the ancient metros will not compare with our modern metros. But then at that time for Ephesus to support a population of 2,25,000 was quite a great feat because they would have to provide infrastructure for that many homes. They would have to be piped water available going into the city. You would need roadways, you know, all of that. So when you look in the context of the old and ancient times, Ephesus was doing rather well. So the first main attraction was that it was a seaport town, which would mean a lot of trading activity. The other important thing about the city of Ephesus was that this was the place where you had that famous temple of Diana which they had built. Now, it was their belief that the idol that Diana idol had fallen directly from the sky. It had been given to them by the gods. And so in honor of that statue, they built a very grand temple and it took 220 years for them to build that temple because they wanted to make it entirely of marble. And in fact, even the roadway, the pathway leading up to the temple was also paved in marble. So the entire construction lasted 220 years. So you had a lot of business activity centering around the temple as well because you would have the idol makers. You would have people who are catering to the pilgrims who come from so many places all over Asia Minor. So all of this led to a large metropolitan city with people of different cultures. It resulted in also economic divide because the rich would be very rich. You would have the merchants over there. You would have the accountants who are attending to the merchants and taking care of their economic activities. So you would have on the one side the rich and then you would have the lower income group coming in over there looking for jobs. So you would have the very rich and the very poor living coexisting in that place. Now, why are we looking at all these details because in the Deficient Church, this is the kind of demographic you would have seen. You would have seen wealthy believers who have come from good backgrounds. You would also see believers who have just come over there maybe looking for sustenance to that city and so financially they would be in a bad state. So you have a mixture of all of these different people from different races coming together to become part of this efficient church. So believers began to be formed from all of these different communities because we get to know that the ministry that was done by Paul and his associates over there was so powerful that the people associated with the Diana temple began to be afraid that they would completely go out of business that nobody would even bother to come to their temple anymore. So you can imagine the ministry over there was so powerful and so effective that you had believers being formed from all parts of this very diverse community that was living over there in that place. So when exactly did this ministry work begin? Now we are aware that when Paul was on his second missionary journey, he does briefly stop at Ephesus but he does not do much ministry work at that time because it's just a very short trip. But what he does is he leaves Akhila and Priscilla over there and then moves on to the next place. So it's basically Akhila and Priscilla who start off this efficient church. It is under their leadership, under their care that this church starts becoming something very big, very influential. So they are the ones, they are the leaders that this couple who build up this church in the initial stages. So at that time when Paul leaves Akhila and Priscilla, you know, he's on his way to Jerusalem. So he just stays there for a while. They take over the ministry at Ephesus and he moves on to Jerusalem and then we know at Jerusalem the first arrest takes place. So his first imprisonment at Rome happens after that. So in the meantime over here Akhila and Priscilla who are doing the ministry in Ephesus, they come across Apollos. So Apollos was a very fluent speaker. His communication skills were very good. And so whatever he had learned from John the Baptist, whatever little bit he knew, he began to preach that and he began to attract many followers because he was preaching with so much passion. But because he did not know Jesus as yet, he was not a believer as yet. So Akhila and Priscilla, they take him under their wings. They teach him about Jesus Christ, about the gospel. And so through their ministry, Apollos becomes a believer and they mentor him. He grows under their leadership in that place and then they send him to Corinth. So there in Corinth, he is very influential in the ministry and building up the church in Corinth. So this Ephesian church, right from the beginning, it becomes an evangelical church which is evangelizing the entire city. And it also becomes a missions church where it starts mentoring people in leadership and then sending them out to other places to start the work of God even in the other places. So on the third missionary journey when Paul again comes to Ephesus, at this time he spends three years because by then the church was probably getting well established. And so he felt that if he could stay there and really mentor an entire group of people, then they would be able to reach all the other places which he could not reach. So he spends an entire three years during his third missionary journey in this place. And so under him, there's a lot of further progress that takes place. We learn in Acts chapter 19 that for the first three months, he actually goes into the synagogue at Ephesus and begins to share the gospel there. But then at the end of three months, he's probably expelled from there. So after that, he starts meeting in a school of Tiranus. So it's some kind of hallway in which Tiranus and his followers were running their school. So Paul probably hires it part time. And that's basically where he spends the next two years preaching and ministering. So we get to know from Acts 19 that when the ministry was going on here, the people that they developed in the church, the leaders when they developed, they are able to go all across Asia. It's what we get to know in Acts chapter 19 verse 10. And it is generally believed that the seven churches which are mentioned in Revelation chapter 2 and 3, it is believed that those six churches apart from Ephesus which are mentioned in that seven churches list, it is probably missionaries from Ephesus who went out there and planted those other six churches. So this was a very influential church that God used in very amazing ways. Another thing that we see about this efficient church is that there were many unusual miracles that took place. Again, this is from Acts chapter 19. Initially when Paul and the few people with him, they come over there, you just have some followers of John the Baptist. So when the Gospel is shared with them, they turn to the Lord and in fact at that time when they are baptized in the water and they are coming out of the waters, that is when the Holy Spirit comes upon them and they start speaking in tongues. So from those small beginnings, you now have this church progressing to a level where unusual miracles are now becoming very common. For instance, we see in Acts chapter 19 that even pieces of cloth which had been prayed over, if those were given to sick people, the anointing of the Lord would heal the sick people. So we see all of this taking place at Ephesus. Another remarkable thing that we see about this church in Ephesus is that a lot of people who had been very deep into witchcraft and all these dark arts, such people also are brought to the Lord. In fact, they come to the Lord in such large numbers that when they burn all their old pagan scrolls and all those chants and all those black magic documents which they have, the amount that they burn is in fact very, very large. In Acts chapter 19 verse 19, we see that this is what it says over there, Acts 1919, a number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to 50,000 drachmas. A drachma is basically what a daily wage laborer would earn after having worked an entire day from morning to evening. If the laborer puts in his work, he basically gets one drachma at the end of the day. And now these scrolls which have been burnt, the dark art scrolls that have been burnt are worth 50,000 drachmas. These documents were considered important and valuable because they would have chants written on them. They would have all kinds of witchcraft procedures, details given on those which can be used to maybe influence the evil spirits into doing things for them and things like that. So the believers who have now turned away from all of these witchcraft practices and all of this black magic, they have now come to the Lord and they do not want to have anything to do with their past. So they take these documents which they have probably inherited from their ancestors or which they have purchased at a very high price. They take these and they don't just sell them to someone else. If they had done that, they would have made a lot of money. But no, they want to put an end to this practice altogether. They want to wipe out black magic from the city of Ephesus. And so in public, they burn these documents and so basically it's like almost they're burning money. It's something of great value that is being burnt. But now you look at the attitude of these believers, they don't even consider that important. I mean, in their eyes, these scrolls are just evil. They don't consider them in terms of monetary value. And so their commitment to God is so complete that they burn these scrolls with the desire to completely remove, wipe out sorcery from this city. So many of these sorcerers would have been quite rich because they would have made a lot of money over the years in their particular vocation. So now you have these people coming into the church. So you have the rich in the church. You also have the poorer communities in the church. Coming to some of the leaders who go out of this Ephesus, you have a lot of names mentioned in your notes. This is basically from Acts chapters 19 and 20 and also from Romans chapter 16. We get to know of leaders like Sopater of Viria, Aristarchus of Thessalonians, Gaius of Derby. All of these names that we're not very familiar with. But then we do know Timothy from Lystra. He too is somebody who is mentored and developed here in this Ephesian church. And then Paul sends him out to minister. So Timothy also was developed over here in Ephesus. Then you have Titus also. He also becomes a leader over here in the Ephesian church. So later we see Paul appointing Timothy as the leader here in the Ephesian church. So you have this youngster being made the pastor of a very influential church where you have a whole bunch of ministry leaders who have been prepared. And he's just a youngster among them. So you would have a lot of mature Christians who have been discipling the leaders and have been working with them. And now this young man is appointed above all of them as their shepherd. And so in the beginning stages Timothy would have found it quite challenging because the ones who are older, who have more experience, they would have not liked all the decisions which Timothy is taking as a young leader. So in the beginning he probably would have had a difficult time. And so you have Paul writing to him later two letters, encouraging him to be a good shepherd and a good leader. So we see all of that. So after Paul finishes his three years over here in this place, we see him, you know, he gets arrested a second time, the second Roman imprisonment happens. So during his second imprisonment, I think it's when he writes, let me just confirm when exactly he writes a letter to the efficient church. No, I think it's basically during the first imprisonment that he writes back to the efficient to encourage them. But later when he goes to his second imprisonment, at that time he writes to Timothy to encourage him in the Lord. So during his first imprisonment is when you have Paul writing to the Ephesians. He also writes to the Philippians and Colossians and the letter to Philemon are all written during his first imprisonment. Yeah. What else can we look at? That's it. I mean, there's a lot of details given about, you know, the different cities that were influenced by the ministry of Ephesus. For instance, he, I think Miletus, he goes to Miletus and he speaks to them over there and then elders are sent from Church of Ephesus to Miletus to minister. So basically we can say that the efficient church was a missions church. It was an evangelical church. It was a church that was moving powerfully in the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Now this is the kind of church that Paul is addressing. Yes, of course, he writes it before he comes over there for his three years in the beginning, you know, because after his imprisonment, he comes back and at that time you have him staying over there for three years. But it is to such a church that he is writing this letter. So let's get started. If we can have someone read out for us, Ephesians chapter one, maybe the first five verses. So if we could have someone read out Ephesians chapter one versus one to five. Ephesians chapter one versus one to five. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Redemption in Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before him in love. Having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will. Amen. Amen. Thank you. So we see that when Paul writes to this Ephesian church, which is moving towards great things, he starts off with these words. He says, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to God's holy people in Ephesus. So he knows that he is writing to them in his capacity as a postal leader and he's doing it because he is exercising his leadership by the will of God. You see when Paul first had come over there to Ephesus and you just had a few followers of John the Baptist in that place and then they preached to them and those people turned to the Lord during those humble beginnings. There was a lot of opposition. Amen. In fact, when he tries to go and preach in the synagogues, there's a lot of, there's a lot of opposition against him. In fact, he gets expelled from there, which is why he probably starts meeting in the school of tyrannous. So all of this is happening. And he very briefly refers to that in 1 Corinthians 16 verses eight to nine, you know, where he says, I will stay on at Ephesus until 20 goes because a great door for effective work has opened to me. And there are many who oppose me, he says. So an opportunity had opened up, a door had opened up by the will of God for him to do a great work over there in Ephesus. But at the same time, the opposition against him was also very great. And so Paul had to decide because of this opposition, am I just going to move on or am I going to, you know, take a stand and build up the church over here. So in those initial stages, you know, when he along with Akhila and Priscilla took this step of continuing in that city, even though there was much opposition, that birth precedes of something great. So if you are in ministry and if you are serving in a place where you don't see any results and the opposition is great, you may wonder, you know, is it, is it time for me to leave and go on. But if the Lord has placed you over there and you feel strongly in your heart that you're meant to be in that place, then like of Paul, you know, you should be able to say, you know, I'm an evangelist of Jesus Christ by the will of God, or I'm on a postal of Christ Jesus by the will of God, or I'm a prophet of Christ Jesus by the will of God. Whatever your ministry position is that the Lord has assigned to you, you would have to say, by the will of God, I am in this position in this place. And even though there's a position, you would need to take a stand because in Christ, through Christ, a great door for effective work has been opened to you spiritually. Now, whether you continue to work in that place or not is up to you, but the door has been divinely opened and great things will happen if you hold on. So a choice has to be made and Paul was willing to do that. So which is why when he's writing to them, he says, I know that I have been placed in this a postal shift by the will of Christ. With his help, this church began to be built up and so by that authority, he now writes to these holy people in Ephesus. He writes to them about the things which God has laid on his heart. So he says, in his very opening lines, he reminds them of the great status which they have. He says that these holy people of Ephesus have been blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. He is not writing this letter so much for correction because some of the letters are written to correct the people or to warn the people. This letter on the other hand is being written to encourage them to remind them of the great status that they have because you see this is the Ephesian church. You have people here from all kinds of Gentile communities. The number of Jewish believers in the congregation would probably lesser. So it's mainly the Gentile believers who are larger in number and they may not really understand the privileges which they have. They may still be under the impression that, oh, if you are a Jewish person, then God's favor is upon you. So he wants these Gentiles who are there in the congregation to understand and grasp the new status into which they have entered. And so he begins with these words and he reminds them and says that you are blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing. So it's not just the Jewish believers who are going to have blessings. Every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus is also made available to every believer. So all are holy people of Ephesus. It's not just the Jewish believers who are regarded as the holy people of Ephesus. So he talks to them about this privilege that they have and today we also have the same inheritance. We have been blessed in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing. So the blessings are available. But to what extent are we availing of them? To what extent are we benefiting from them? It's like a heavenly divine bank account where all the spiritual blessings for us are stored. I can say by name Deepika's divine bank account of spiritual blessings in Christ are available. It's all there in her name. I mean she can access it whenever she wants. But to what extent is she willing to access it? You see that would be up to her. So in the same way each of us, this is something that has been personally granted not just to the Jewish believers but to every single one of us who are Gentile believers as well. So how are we accessing these treasures? How do you access the treasures? You know our questions which we would need to think about. When it comes to the material world and we are talking about a physical bank account in a physical bank. What would we basically do? We would take the check to the cash counter over there at the bank and then we would cash in the check. That's basically what we would do. But when it comes to the divine counterpart of this example that we are using. What would be the checks in our hands? It would basically be the promises which have been given to us in the Old Testament, in the New Testament. These are all the spiritual blessings that have been granted to us. So we go by faith. We present them before the throne of God. That is the cash counter. We literally go before the throne of God like it says in Hebrews chapter 4. And we present those promises which he has given to us and say Lord this is what you have said to me. I have come here to claim what you have promised Lord. Grant it to me in my time of need. And the Lord gives us what we require. So this is how we gain access to those spiritual blessings. And it's a work of faith. Now we can just take any scripture in the Bible and stand upon it and claim it before the throne of God. But generally the ones that we are able to take with great confidence before the throne are the ones that God gives to us as his Reema word. The entire Bible is the logos, the spoken word of God. The entire Bible is the logos. But when we sit with those scriptures and with the logos and we meditate on it and even as the Holy Spirit ministers to us, he impresses certain verses on our hearts and those become the specific Reema words for our situations. For the things that we are facing. And so those Reema words can serve like very powerful checks. Because you know God has personally impressed that verse upon your heart. It has ministered to you. You have felt a surge of faith in your heart when you were meditating upon that particular verse. So now when you go and stand before the throne, you can claim that promise with great confidence. Because the Holy Spirit impressed that on your heart. So you can say Lord you spoke this to me. So therefore a lot I have come before your throne to claim it. So the reason that a lot of Christians are not able to enjoy the spiritual blessings is because at a time of need, they refer to those books that you have. 101 Bible promises. And then when you open the book, you'll have a list of promises. Let us say about finances, a list of promises about health. It is good that there are lists of verses like that in books. But then when you take those verses and you sit with that entire Bible passage in which that particular verse is there and you start meditating upon it. Then the Holy Spirit actually opens up that verse to you. Maybe through what is written in the overall context, that verse becomes more meaningful to you. Now it's the Holy Spirit who is ministering to you, giving you a Reema word through that particular passage. And then that because it builds up your faith, it builds up your confidence on the inside. Then when you go before the throne of God, you will go with confidence like it says in Hebrews chapter 4. And when you stand there and claim what is yours, it says over there what we require for our time of need, it will be granted to us. It will be given to us. So here Paul is reminding them that they are no longer some estranged Gentiles. They are the people of God and so they have these spiritual blessings which are freely available to them in Christ. So having reminded them of their status, he goes on to say in verses maybe if we could have from verse 4 up to verse 10, if someone could please read out for us. Okay, 4 and 5 we have already read. If you could also read verses 6 to 10, because we can look at all of those verses, verses 6 to 10. Efficient chapter 1, if someone could read out verses 6 to 10 please. Yeah, we have students on the screen but I don't know whether they logged in or not. They might have just switched on the thing and gone away. But if you are there, if you could please read out. The praise of the glory of his grace by which he made us accepted in the beloved. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence having made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven and which are on earth in him. So he's continuing to talk about the status which these believers have. So he says that we have been chosen in God before the creation of the world and then he says we have been predestined for adoption and he says that according to the pleasure and will of God he has freely given us the one that he loves. So all these things are mentioned. Maybe we can look at it step by step. Let's look at this verses 4 and 5 first where it talks about how we believers including the Gentiles have been chosen in him before the creation of the world. So even before there was a separate Jewish community and a Gentile community even before all these communities of the world were created even before the creation of the world at that time the Lord had already chosen those who would be his and so it says in verse 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship. So the Lord knew at that time who are the people who would make a commitment to him. So right at that time itself he decided he predestined that we would be declared as adopted children. Now there are some wrong teachings that are made regarding this whole predestination. We don't really need to get into the details of it but just to touch upon it in case anyone ever approaches you with a wrong doctrine regarding this matter. Here it says that we were chosen, we believers were chosen before the creation of the world. In the same way the Lamb of God was slain before the foundation of the world. So even before the world began the Lord knew what would happen in the future. He knew that Adam and Eve would sin, that they would fall, that they would need a sacrifice to cover their sins temporarily and then one day the Lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world he would come and then he would wash away all of those covered sins. The sins would no longer just be covered, they would be completely wiped out, they would be completely forgiven. So all the Old Testament believers would their sins would be completely washed and cleansed. So these things were all things that the Lord knew, God knew about it even before the foundation of the world. So knowing all the things that are going to take place in the future, he chose these believers who would be saying yes, he chose them and appointed them for sonship even before the world started. Now there are some people who bring up a wrong doctrine by turning this around and they say in the beginning God predestined certain people, some chosen specific people to be his children and the rest of them he predestined them for help. Now that does not make sense when if we say that certain people were chosen and destined to be believers and the rest were chosen and destined for help, that does not make sense because that is not what we see in the rest of scripture to use one example, maybe two examples. If we could have someone read out for us, verse Timothy chapter 2 verses 4 to 6 please. Verse Timothy chapter 2 verses 4 to 6 if someone could read out. All the way from 4 to 6. Okay. Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. Amen. Thank you. So here it says that God wanted all people to be saved. It doesn't say over here that God chose only some people to be saved. In the same way in verse 6 it says that when Jesus Christ came, he gave himself as a ransom for all people. It doesn't say that he, if God had already finished choosing only some specific people to be his adopted children, then when he sent Jesus Christ to the lamb that was slain before the foundation of the world, then he sent him into the world, he would have come as a ransom only for those specific people. But here it very clearly says that Christ Jesus when he came, gave himself as a ransom for all people, which is why in John 3 16, you know it says God so loved the world and it's referring to all of the people of the world. There's nobody that has been left unloved. But then the choice of course is for the people, if they choose to reject the love that he's extending, if they choose to reject the forgiveness that he's offering, and they refuse to place their belief in the Son of God in Jesus, then yes of course they would perish. But God loved all the world and the sacrifice that was being offered, was freely being offered to everyone. Now those who place their belief in this Jesus Christ, which is why it says in John 3 16, he gave his one and only son. So he gave him as a sacrifice. Whoever believes in him shall not perish. So now it's up to the people whether they want to place their belief in this sacrifice, in this Jesus Christ or not. So how do we understand this verse in where it says, yeah, Ephesians chapter 1 verse 5 where it says, he predestined us for adoption. The correct way to understand that would be in the context of Romans 8 29 and 30. It's quite important if someone could read out for us Romans 8 29 and 30. Romans 8 29 to 30. For whom he forewarned you, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called, whom he called these he also justified and whom he justified, these he also glorified. Amen. Yeah, if you look at the ordering of the words used over here, the first thing that God did was that he foreknew who would be the people who would make a commitment to him. So in his foreknowledge, knowing the future, knowing those who would make a commitment to him, those people he predestined to be confirmed to the image of his son, is what it says over here. So we have to take the efficient verse, chapter 1 verse 5 also in the same way. Who are the ones who are being predestined for adoption? They are all the people whom he foreknew. He knew that they would be making a commitment to him in the future when they are born. So having known that in his foreknowledge, he has predestined such people for adoption as sons. And so having predestined them, when the correct time came in their lifespan, he comes to them and calls them the same way like Paul. Paul on the road to Damascus, that was the correct appointed time for him to be approached but then at that time his heart was now ready to hear the truth. So God approaches him, calls to him on the road to Damascus and he responds. And once Paul responds, God justifies him. He washes away his sins, all the sinful things that he had done in arresting the Christians and throwing them into prison in keeping the law outwardly but on the inside having the sinful lifestyle. All of those things God forgave him, justified him. And one day like Paul says, he will also be glorified with Christ after the resurrection of the believers. So this is the order in which all these things are mentioned. So it all begins with the foreknowledge of Christ, with the foreknowledge of God as to who will be his... So we should understand Ephesians chapter 1 verse 5 in that context, in that correct context. So here he's telling the Ephesian believers because you have been predestined for adoption. You have been redeemed through his blood. You have been granted forgiveness. All of this has been done for you as part of something that he mentions in verse 9. He says, all this has been done to you because this has been the mystery of his will. That's the term that is used over there. This is the mystery of his will, which he purposed in Christ for all of you. So all along through the ages from before the creation of the world God had a purpose in mind. But he kept it hidden. He did not open it. He did not reveal it. He kept it a mystery. It was only made known to a few people in the Old Testament times. It was just spoken about very briefly in a few places in the Old Testament structures. But that mystery has now been openly revealed is what he is saying to these Ephesian believers. So why is he talking to them about this mystery of God's will which has now been openly given to all? This is basically the mystery about the Gentiles. Let's look at one passage which talks about the mystery of God's will. And then we will look at the details. 1 Peter chapter 1 verses 10 to 12. It talks about this mystery of God's will which was there through the ages. 1 Peter 1 10 to 12. If someone could read out. Of this salvation, the prophets have inquired and searched carefully who prophesied of the grace that would come to you. Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ was in them was indicating when he testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. It was 12. To them it was revealed that not to themselves but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven things which angels desire to look into. So it says here that the prophets of God because they had cried the Spirit of Christ inside them they sensed that these things would be happening in the future and they were very curious to know exactly how it would take place when it would take place what exactly it would be. So it says here that they searched intently with the greatest fear trying to find out the time and circumstances because the Spirit of Christ was telling them in their hearts that these things this mystery would one day happen and it says in verse 12 at the end of verse 12 even angels were longing to look into these things even they only caught glimpses of what God was planning. So this was a grand mystery that God planned from the beginning and now it has been finally opened up and this mystery is all about the Gentiles because the Gentiles might have been sitting over there thinking we are nothing we just know somebody who has been added to the church by an act of praise and mercy and this we are not very important and now Paul is telling them you know what you people are so special this is a mystery that God planned from the very beginning of the ages he kept it secret through the ages because he did not want the details to be revealed but now it has been made open it has been made known to you so when we come back from our break we will look at this great mystery that was hidden and how it applies especially to us you know believers who are from the Gentile community. Thank you.