Unfathomable Riches of Christ - Every spiritual blessing
Vern Peterman · Feb 25, 2018
Unfathomable Riches of Christ, No. 07
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926198473716

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

As we continue through studying about our unfathomable riches in Christ, and I'm really excited is maybe too superficial a word, but really excited for the fact that we have the unfathomable riches of Christ to cover here for a year. Really excited that we have the Book of Romans as another elective where we're teaching a great deal about our position, and then also in the Ephesians elective that's downstairs, and there are paths where we are going to be this morning, but I'm also kind of tracking that, you know, what are they doing and how are they doing with it and that kind of thing. And I should also say we have a Thursday night study in which we're starting through Ephesians as well. And by the way, this is not accidental but rather intentional that all these studies are focusing similarly. Pardon? Well, I was just saying, we're all studying the same thing. I think it's the same. Yeah.

Well, and I think one of the things, too, is it's not precisely the same thing in the sense of being cookie cutter, but it's still looking at, you know, the same general thing from taking different perspectives on it. One of the things that we've said in this elective for about four Sundays in a row is that the identification truths are the front door to the unfathomable riches of Christ. And one of the reasons we say that is because, especially as you go through the book of Ephesians, the first chapter you start in there, here's Ephesians with about 36 times, if I'm recalling correctly off the top of my head, But there's not as much on the top of my head as there used to be. So anyway, if I'm correct, roughly about 36 times this in Christ, in whom, in the beloved, in him, right? So all those ways of saying we're in Christ keep getting spelled out.

So what we're going to take a look at here is Ephesians 1.3 as a kind of a summary statement that opens the door to other things that the Apostle Paul has as he spells out the every spiritual blessings. So, what we have here at the top of the page here, when the Apostle Paul wrote the book of Ephesians, he had been in Ephesus on both his second and third missionary journeys. He met with the elders from Ephesus, as recorded in Acts chapter 20. If the Lord wills, we will get there. So on his second and third missionary journeys he went to these places, he tells the elders from Ephesus that he spent three years teaching day and night.

So that's really intense. Now, so one of the things about the way things are expressed, how long was Christ in the tomb? Three days. Three days, but then if we count it by hours, how many hours? More like 48 hours. So the way that the Jews would count time is the whole or a part of any day was counted as a day. And so when he says, I was with you for three years, it doesn't mean he was with them for three years straight. For one thing, he separated his time between his first and second missionary journeys. But a part of a year counted as a day. whole year.

So the actual number works out to be more like around two. But then here it was in Rome, as he was writing this, under house arrest, writing about the fall of 60 AD. And he wrote to a church where believers were as much as eight years old in the Lord. Is that old in the Lord?

Back then it was. And I think that's something for us to ponder. You know, Paul wrote 1 and 2 Thessalonians just weeks after he had been there evangelizing. So these people were very, very young Christians. When the Apostle Paul, on his first missionary journey with Barnabas, went into the cities, you know, Lystra and Derbe and all those, and then went back and appointed elders, how old in the Lord were the elders? Weeks and months at best.

So anyway, so yeah, I think one of the things to realize is you've got a lot of young Christians, but one of the other things is you grow up fast. Persecution doesn't it? Yeah, and you're in an environment where there's not only persecution in a very direct sense, but you also have the worldview opposition. And I think a lot of Christians are kind of reeling about that now, as our culture can often drift off into a very non-Christian world.

So we had believers who were as much as eight years old in the Lord. Many of them were not. Probably as far as letters to the most mature churches. From the time of the letter going back to when they first became believers, one of the more mature churches was the church at Philippi. And they're the one that was said in the introduction to the letter to have elders and deacons. Anyway, fascinating. Okay, so you see here it says Paul's Journey to Rome is the title.

I kept looking around for reproducible, clear, and correct maps. I looked all over the place. Finally got a hold of this guy Mark Berry down in Australia. So that's what this is. I got permission from him. So it's fairly clear. Now the one thing that says Paul's Journey to Rome, sometimes you'll see it labeled as Paul's fourth? missionary journey. So anyway, however you wish to call it. So it shows him heading from Caesarea on the coast, which was a Roman port military colony, and then the route that Dr. Luke describes, which they made circuitous, dangerous, that they made on their way to Rome. Alright, so you got that.

So here's Ephesians 1.3, and without being silly, we'll read it slowly.

So, 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. So this Greek word that's translated blessed Here is used eight times in the New Testament, every time it's in reference to God. Isn't that interesting? That particular word is only used in reference to God. It's not bless this person or bless that one. Always in reference to God. And blessed be the God and Father is not a wish, but a declaration. He is blessed, not we wish blessings upon you.

And it says, and the God and Father refers to God who is the Father and speaks of the Father's eternal relationship to our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God. So what does this tell you as we're stepping into this? What is this telling us? God, who is the Father, And then he has an eternal relationship with Jesus Christ. Have God the Father and God the Son always had this eternal relationship in the past? Yes. It's always been there.

Can you imagine? What happens in our lives is we get born and find out who different people are. Spend some decades getting to know some people. and not so much others. Can you imagine knowing one another and not having that be a sort of a, well I'm starting from zero but I'm kind of catching up to that, but it's forever in the past? Always was? That's really kind of are almost hard for us to imagine. But that relationship between God the Father and God the Son was always there. There was always an uninhibited intimacy between them. Yes? When you said the word blessed, Yes, this specific Greek word, yeah.

Very good point. That is an excellent point because we use it for a lot of things. You asked such a good question. I'm going to make a quick rabbit trail and we'll see how many rabbits we catch, right? So anyway, so we'll make a quick rabbit trail, but what are the ways that we use the word blessed?

When somebody sneezes, you say, bless you. Yes, and why do we say that? It's basically some Middle Ages custom, where at that moment of sneezing, that they're somehow spiritually and otherwise vulnerable. And so you're putting a blessing on them to cover that vulnerability. So anyway, yeah, so that's one.

Somebody sneezes, you say, bless you. We don't say this because God's sneezing, right? So, and how else do we use God bless you? Well, when somebody does something nice for you, you say bless you. Yes, in other words, we'll say bless you as a sort of a way of expressing thanks, a thankfulness in a way. When somebody does something nice for you, you say you're a blessing to us. Yes, you're a blessing to us.

I can remember many, many years ago, Nancy and I were not even engaged, traveling north on US 101 around Nevada in California along the coastal area there. Going along, I saw this guy pushing his motorcycle. Looks like fun. So we stopped. A fellow named Tom Marks-Banks and I were there. And we stopped and said, need a hand with anything? He says, yeah, I've run out of gas. I said, well, why don't you park your cycle there and we'll help you go get some gas and bring it back.

So we did. So we took him over to the gas station and helped him get some gas and bring it back to his motorcycle. And so he was ready to get going. And just as we were finishing, with him there, dropping him off, make sure he was okay. He said, bless you. And Tom and I looked at each other and we said, he already has. Yeah. So yeah, so we use blessing in that way. Any other ways you can think of where we use this expression, you know, blessing, blessing, blessed, etc.? When you sneeze. Yeah, sneezing, yes.

Others? We're going to look at a distinction. There is a very sharp distinction between the way Paul uses it here versus the way the Jews used it. A very big distinction. So anyway, Marilyn asks a good question. We're going to return to it, actually, as we get down here, as long as we have time. So, next one.

The words of our Lord Jesus Christ tell us about four things. So one is the personal relationship of the believer to Christ, our Lord. And would it be wrong to say, my Lord? No, that would not be wrong either, because it is our Lord collectively and individually, my Lord. So both of those are really true. And he's covering it with our Lord. to refer specifically to the collective truth here.

Next one, the name of Jesus, his name, which means Savior. Kind of the anglicized form out of the Hebrew would be Joshua, more specifically pronounced Yeshua. But the idea is, no matter how you look at it, it means Savior. The next one, the Lordship of Christ, we use Our Lord again, and so that refers, that word prayer then, putting the focus on Our Lord, looks at His Lordship over us. And the next one, the title of Christ, who is the Anointed One.

In the book of Ephesians, starting in Ephesians 1.10, one of the best kept secrets in the book of Ephesians is that the word Christ has the definite article in front of it, starting in Ephesians 1.10 for a couple dozen times. So what does the Christ mean? How is that different from Christ? One is the refers to his specific and singularity. It was also looked upon as a title of the Messiah. The Messiah would be one of the things that it would point to. So we have that. Let's take a look at the top of page two.

So God the Father is credited for a series of spiritual blessings for the believer. He's referred to as who and he and his and similar words on down through the passage. So the things that the Father is credited with include a number of accomplishments and actions and expressions of His eternal character. Now, when we say accomplishments, what did God the Father accomplish for us? Life eternal, good. Anything else? Payment for our sins, right? So who paid for our sins? Did only Christ have something to do with that?

He and the Father. See, so that's one of the things is sometimes we need to take a look and see what is the Father credited with? And Ephesians 1 credits the Father with a great deal. And we'll also see this, that there's the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit all showing up in those verses. In fact, the combined Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are found eight times in the book of Ephesians. I'm trying to do that without dropping my paper here.

He is credited with certain actions. One, he has, what's the first action he has? Blessed us. With every spiritual blessing in every place. So that's an action, isn't it? Verse 4, even as he chose. So here's one of the things, not just what are the accomplishments, but also what are the actions.

So God the Father is not just sitting up there in some sort of place in heaven and wondering, what is this guy, or who is this guy? But rather, he gets things done and he takes action. And often times our thinking of the Father doesn't picture that, but that's what scripture says. God the Father takes action.

Then we have the things that the Father is credited with include a number of accomplishments, actions, and expressions of his eternal character. Can you think of some expressions of his eternal character that show up there in Ephesians, especially chapter 1? Pardon? Yes, the riches of his grace. And one of the ways to is to think of the multiple magnitudes of wealth in grace.

Have you ever seen a listing of the world's billionaires? By the way, have you ever seen a listing of the trillionaires? I've never seen it except for debts. You know, U.S. government and things like that, you know, you get trillionaires, but in terms of individuals, you get billionaires, and some of them have some pretty high numbers of billions, but you look at, boy, that guy is really wealthy, right? We would say in earthly terms. This is not just, he is rich in grace, but the riches, multiple magnitudes of wealth of grace, right? Alright, so here we get back to Marilyn's very good question.

Unlike with the nation of Israel who was blessed conditionally if they obeyed the law of Moses. So here's Moses. He's given them 613 laws and he's going over these things as they're getting ready to enter the Promised Land because he's not. So he's going over all these laws, all 613 of them. That's why Deuteronomy is the second giving of the law. So, after listing laws and laws and laws and more laws, and by the way, you've got to memorize them. Good luck with that. Anyway, so, laws and laws and laws and more laws, and he says, if you do these versus one through 14 of chapter 28. If you do these, you will be blessed.

Is it the same blessed as Ephesians 1.3? It's not. What's the difference? The one you have to work for. The law is entirely conditional. What happens if you don't carry out the law?

Curses. By the way, there's 14 verses of blessings. I wish to tell you there are not just 14 verses of curses. If you do the right thing, all 613 of them, then you get blessed. That's 14 verses. Starting with verse 15 to the end of the chapter, you know, several times the number of curses.

So good luck with that. Right? So, and the blessings and curses, are those in the heavenly places? No, not necessarily. In verses 1-14, in the land. Verses 15 to the end of the chapter, 60 some odd number of verses, in the land twice. Including, and the land will spit you out. So, earthly blessings, Earthly blessings.

Even, you know, you look at it and it says, and you'll be healthy, and your crops will be, you know, like this, and this, and this, and your enemies will be afraid of you, and all these things, if you do all 613 right. What happens if you miss one? Curses. In fact, you may not be around for the curses. You know, there's one guy that records that he hears Moses, he gives the law, the guy picks up firewood a little late on the Sabbath. He's studying rocks up close. So that's the way the law works. You miss one and you miss them all. Yeah, you miss one. I mean, we talk about blessings and curses. I mean, you're completely out of the picture.

It's that bad. So, as we look at it here, it's important for us to recognize blessed here doesn't in any way, shape, or form come as an equivalent to the way the Jews were blessed, conditionally, in the land, if they followed all 613 laws. Does Paul say, you've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, keep working so you can keep them? No, and he says in the heavenly places, not on earth with your crops and with your livestock and with your body and your offspring and in the land and everything else. So it's not earthly, it's not if.

Do the real Jews in Israel still keep those 613? Here's the mindset of the Jews in Israel now. This is an approximation, but it's probably pretty close. There is 10% or less who are what is known as Hasidic. That is, they're observant. They try to observe the law. And by the way, they don't all do it the same. Courtney and Ingrid and Nancy and I were traveling here in Jerusalem, and depending on which part of the city of Jerusalem we were in, you found the Jews dressed differently.

You know, those guys with the super black outfits and the hats and all that, and you got that group, and then we walked along the Western Wall tunnels with a guy, and the only thing that looked really Jewish was his little skull cap, a yarmulke. So observant Jews are not the same category. The other 90% of the Jews today are basically atheist agnostic. The number of them who are actually believers in Christ is very small. It's been determined that actually nobody could comply with the law completely, right? Well, they can't. They can't do the sacrifice. Yeah. So, you know, and Marilyn's right, and your question is correct. Okay, so then if I expand that and extrapolate it, then I can say that nobody really qualified to be blessed in the land.

Before Moses went in, here's Moses, he spent chapters and chapters and chapters laying out all 613 laws. And by the way, how many of these people had been in Egypt and come out of it and were going into the land? Very, very few. We've got names of Joshua and Caleb, and perhaps some family with them, but that's about it. And everybody else did what?

Some estimates, and of course these estimates are tough to be precise with, about 80 funerals a day for 40 years to get rid of all the people who came out. And let's just have a bunch of funerals and wait until tomorrow's funerals. And then finally you're ready to go in and Moses isn't going in. But you know what God tells Moses? Now that you're all done, thanks for doing that, Now that you're all done, they're not going to do it. Just so you know. They're not going to do it. Not happening. God told them. After all that years, they're not going to do it. They're going to go in and they're going to blow it.

But we also ask a very critical and important question. Is there a temple where you can do all the required temple or tabernacle rituals? Have you got an organized priesthood and a high priest and all the proper people in place? And for everything that is not a priestly function, you've got other temple duties that are done by the Levites. And how much of that have you got set up and working?

No. Here's Mary and Joseph. Jesus was born. After a certain number of days, they went into the temple to present Jesus and sacrifice a dove. Or had a priest sacrifice a dove for them. Because that's what they could afford. So with that, can they do that now? When a baby is born, can they go to the temple? They can do it.

In fact, who knows if they're a priest or not. So the reality is that everything in the ritual part gets cut off. Not only because you don't have the priests and Levites in their places and you don't have a physical place to do it, but you also have all the people. Most of them don't care. Well, most of them don't know what tribe they're from either, right?

Yes. Sometimes we're having two areas where there's some progress with that. One is to have a name that implies what tribe you're from. For example, if I have a name like Levi or Levitt, that may imply what tribe I'm from. Cohen, for example, if you ever hear that name, Jewish name Cohen, means priest. So it's possible that those are clues. And then plus if other people have tribal names. And it may or may not be indicative. Here's Peter, who is also called Cephas. The Aramaic was Kephas. What was Peter's other name besides Peter and Kephas? Simon, right? Simon Peter, and that may be from the tribe, Shimeon. But it's a maybe. So the truth is, the other thing that is possibly beginning to help is DNA testing.

But the reality is, a great many of the Jews don't know what tribe they're from. Many of them don't have a clue, and also many of them just don't care. You know, if I'm not under the law of Moses, what difference does it make? And for a lot of them, the genealogies have gotten so complex, you know, intermarriage, just we'll see it like in the main service, there's Timothy, and half Greek, half Jew. So anyway, because it's very difficult, People don't care, you can't do it all, you don't know which tribe you're from in many cases.

Here's one, you have to keep the fire in the temple burning constantly. So eventually what they did is they distributed among clans and tribes, this is your woodcutting duty. So you'd go and say, here's Joseph, the carpenter, and they'd say, hey, you're a good guy for cutting wood. Get together with his people there in the city of David, being the descendant of David, and here's your wood-cutting duty time. And so they'd rotate around so they'd keep providing the wood. Because you've got to keep the temple fire burning. You can't put it out. You can't let it go out. Are they doing that now?

No. So just a great many respects in which this has not happened. OK, so if we look at this, then Paul begins to spell out in sequences. So we'll go through these, not in the exact sequence that he has it, but we'll go through these a little bit at a time.

But these blessings are true of our eternal position, where we are, as well as our eternal spiritual possession, what we have. Oftentimes at Holly Hills we'll be inclined to just talk about our position, when in fact the way Scripture expresses it is our position and what we have as a result of our position. In Him we have. In Him we have. So in our position we have a possession. In our position we have, as we'll see, multiple possessions. Those are all part of our unfathomable riches. The position that we have and the possessions that we have.

Okay, so he says, for this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ, and by the way, was Christ there holding him in prison? No, what did he mean by that? He's a bond slave. Prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles. If indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace, which was given to me for you, that by revelation it was made known to me the mystery as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ." By the way, how mysterious is Christ?

Is that what he's talking about here? I see Gary shaking his head, no. What's that? Mystery meaning a truth not revealed before, but now revealed that doesn't remain mysterious. So in Ephesians 5, when he says, you know, this mystery is great, he doesn't mean this is really, really mysterious. He means that this is a fantastic, phenomenal revelation to us now because we know what it means and we didn't used to before.

Yes, Dan? I was going to say, it's also interesting that Paul did not earn that stewardship. It's real clear because he, everything but, earned that stewardship. So again, God's sovereign. He does what he chooses to do. And it's not because Paul complied with the law, or all 607 aspects of the law. That wasn't it. God gave him that stewardship. So I think that's really interesting to me. He did not earn it. Yeah, and so this is a grace-given stewardship.

So it says there, as I wrote before in brief, when did you write before in brief? Was that included in this letter or a previous one? Good question. Actually, there are a number of places where the Apostle Paul makes reference to other letters we don't have.

Maybe I'll be referring to that. OK, so by referring to this, when you read, you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, what is revealed about him that wasn't before. which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed," so he's explaining the word mystery, isn't he?

"...has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit." Apostles and prophets is a pair of words that's used in that order three times in Ephesians. This is one of them. In chapter 2 is the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets. Here, revealed to His Holy Apostles and Prophets in the Spirit, to be specific, the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel.

Do Messianic Jews have a special standing before the Lord that Christian-believing Gentiles don't have? Not at this time. People give various titles and oftentimes we'll look at it, but the reality is no. Fellow heirs, partakers. Which is good for me, since as far as I know, I don't have any Jewish blood. Okay, so to be specific, the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

So what did you do with the gospel? What did you do with it? You believed it, right? That's it. You believe 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. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ." Now what do we say about this word unfathomable? It's not a word we use a lot. So what does unfathomable mean? Okay, it's hard to comprehend.

What were fathoms in reference to? They were used in terms of measuring how far is it down to the bottom here. And so they would have a rope, right? And they have knots in it, certain distances, and they count the knots. They usually have a weight at the bottom of it so that the rope wouldn't go fairly off.

And so you'd measure how many fathoms down to the bottom, when your rope quits sinking. And if you ran out of rope and you couldn't measure it, it was unfathomable. So the unfathomable riches of Christ, they are deep beyond measure. I can try, but I will never get to the bottom of this. We talk about the end of the rope, you know, I'm at the end of my rope. No, it's not that.

So there are two aspects of the location of our spiritual blessings that are important for us to recognize here. One, the location of all those spiritual blessings is heavenly. They are in the heavenly places. They are where no human being or human activity or human influence can reach them.

Something that's very interesting, as you read through the book of Revelation, there's frequently, during the tribulation period, something coming down out of heaven to earth. The reverse of that is never true. You don't find human beings throwing something up into the heavens. It just doesn't happen. So it's always coming down from the heavens to the earth.

So these unfathomable riches, these spiritual blessings that are in the heavenly places are untouchable. Human beings are not going to mess it up, which is really good, because I'm not involved. Because I'm not involved. Next, the location of all these spiritual blessings, and not just heavenly, a place Ever heard somebody say, well, he or she is in a better place? Pretty vague statement. In a better place? Well, beyond just being a place, and heaven is a place, sometimes just actually literally the heavenlies, right? A place, but it goes beyond that. Personal in Christ. personal in Christ. So it's not just a place, it is personal in Christ.

So I presume that since those blessings are in heaven, and since no human influence can reach heaven, the reason we have those blessings is because of the Holy Spirit. It is, and we'll see as we go through this, it is ultimately a work of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. that we know about and can have and can appreciate all those blessings. And all three persons of the Trinity have a part in that. They share a part in that.

So the book of Ephesians speaks of in Christ, for equivalent terms, in Him in whom, in the Beloved, 36 times. With a few related expressions, the total comes to 39 times. How did believers come to be in Christ? Did I file an application in triplicate? Did I fill out a form on the internet? Just by faith in the finished work of Christ. Pardon? By faith in the finished work of Christ.

Okay, so we believe the Gospel, that Christ, and that also includes who he is, not just some guy named Christ. Christ, the Son of God, that helps nail it down as his identity. died for my sins, was buried and rose again. I believe it, God said that's it, I'll take care of everything else from there. So Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, in him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation, what's the gospel of our salvation? Yeah, Christ the Son of God was crucified and died, was buried and resurrected, and he died for my sins.

That's the basic gospel. Could you explain a lot more about different things? Certainly. But that's the basic gospel. And other than explaining to gain insight into what those things mean, we don't need to add to it. And we don't need to detract from it with anything either.

So, the gospel of your salvation, having also believed, you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise. We'll be taking a look more at the sealed thing here. Who is given as a pledge of our inheritance with a view to the redemption of God's own possession to the praise of his glory. We could also add to this 1 Corinthians 1, verse 30, by God's doing, you're in Christ Jesus.

It's that simple. All I did was believe the gospel. I didn't do anything else. I didn't enhance it. There's nothing I can do. I can't blow it. I mean, I can blow things, but not that. I can make terrible, horrible, awful mistakes, but I can't blow this. I can't blow that. So, in Him you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. In Him. So how are you saved? by believing. So where is that position? In Him. He is in the heavenly places. We are in Him and we are safe.

Did God do that with Noah? No. So the in Christ statements apply to those who are in the church from Acts 2 to the day of the rapture, I hope it's today. I would be very happy for that to be true. But from Acts 2 to the day of the rapture, that's it.

And was Abraham saved by faith? Yes he was. Was Abraham saved because he was made to be in Christ? No. God saved him by faith but did it another way. We have the explicit revelation in our case that being a church-age believer means some different things that are not true of believers of other times, even though they're saved. Even though they're saved by faith. It doesn't mean precisely the same thing. as is revealed to be true of us. Abraham believed in God's covenant to him by faith. That's what saved him. He believed in God's covenant. Abraham believed God. Did Abraham know that Jesus was going to be born in Bethlehem Jesus would die on a cross at the hands of the Romans, and the Jews would put him up to it. They didn't know all that, right? Nobody in the Old Testament knew. Yeah. So we have, looking back, a whole bunch of details regarding that, that they didn't have. But they still believed God for his provision. Other thoughts, questions, ponderings?

The map on the beginning, the first page, what do all those arcs signify? I'm sorry, where? One of the things you'll see on these maps that I got, again it's from Mark Berry, one of the things he does is In the book of Acts, he talks about, Jesus tells him about, you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. And those arcs are kind of radiating lines coming, beginning with Jerusalem. That's all it's talking about. As the gospel moves out, and by the way, does the book of Acts record all the ways in which the gospel moved out?

No, as a matter of fact, you see in the map, it says Journey to Rome right under the word to. It says Dalmata. That's the Roman term. The term we're more familiar with is Dalmatia. And he said that Paul wrote that he sent Titus to Dalmatia. But he also earlier said that he went to Illyricum, equivalent name. But we have no other details about Dalmatia or Illyricum, but we know that Paul had been there and Titus was sent.

But we have no other details about how it happened or anything else. So the Book of Acts does not give us all the details and all the answers to the questions we might think of asking, but we do have what God intended to reveal to us, and it helps. Luke was with Paul on a lot of his journeys. We're just starting into last week and then this into Acts 16 which is the beginning of Dr. Luke's using we and us and things like that.

That's where he came on board. So it appears he came on board there somewhere around Troas. As mentioned that's where the Trojan horse, the city of Troy, It was located as a generalization. And so he seems to come on about there. They go to Samothrace, and then from there to Annapolis, and then Philippi.

And you start seeing the use of we and us. Because before that, it was just somebody was probably just dictating what Paul did. Yeah. So really, the gospel of Luke is that Luke's eyewitness testimony. We don't have any indication there was. And then the book of Acts, even up to chapter 15, Dr. Luke isn't using us and we and all that kind of thing.

So we get to chapter 16, he starts using us and we, and the indication being that from then on, with some breaks, he's with Paul for a lot of that, including the journey to Rome that we have mapped out. 1-15 was third person. Chapter 15 becomes... Right, after 15, starting with chapter 16 as we noticed last week and we'll see again in today's passage, then we'll start seeing we and us as not a continuous but a fairly regular and a reoccurring pattern. Yes, Dan?

I think it's also interesting that Paul's missionary journeys are into Asia and Europe, which is consistent with Daniel's prophecy of the nations. Because it's not showing where they all went, all the other disciples went. It's primarily through the Roman Empire influence, which is what Daniel talked about, how the nations were going to progress into the future, right?

So, yeah, this is some pretty amazing stuff to see unfolding as we go through the Book of Acts here. Let's pray, because we've run out of time. Lord, we thank you that as we look at these things, you have caused the Apostle Paul to write a summary statement. We've been blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. And the Father is to be blessed for having made that true. And we thank you that our position is very clearly in Christ and in Him, and not in shades or degrees, not in percentages, not in I hope-sos, but a certainty. Thank you for that certainty that we have. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.