How to Study the Bible III - Greek Old & New Testaments II

So looking at the Greek Old and New Testaments, there's lots of different ways, as we pointed out last week, and we have the handout if you missed out on that. There are lots of different ways to take a look at the Old and New Testaments and to gain value from it. We pointed out four ways last week where you can gain some additional insights by looking at the Greek Old Testament and the Greek New Testament.

What we've done here for today is to take the book of Ephesians, the whole book, and what I have done here is I put it in, just taking the English from the New American Standard, I've edited it in a few places, taken out all the spaces and headings and all those things, so that it's closer to the way Paul would have written it. And we're actually going to be looking at it at the book of Ephesians a few different times to look at some different aspects of the book. The more I look at it, the more I keep seeing new things. There is just that much there. And so we'll want to take the time to revisit Ephesians. So this will be our first visit.

So what you have here, and what we pointed out last week, is Paul starts off, Paul an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God to the saints who are at Ephesus, who are faithful in Christ Jesus, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, and then he says, blessed be the God, And what we pointed out last week, and we included sections in the handout of the Greek Old Testament, and so what we've showed is that 2 Corinthians 1.3, Ephesians 1.3, and 1 Peter 1.3 all start out with the exact same Greek and comes across in English as well. Blessed be the God.

And that is the same in the Greek Old Testament as Genesis 14.20, Psalm 66.20, Psalm 68.35, and Daniel 3.28, all having the same Greek words. So, the Apostle Paul here in Ephesians has taken those same words out of the Greek Old Testament, which shows up several different places there. People, Jews especially, who were familiar with the Greek Old Testament would recognize that, they'd see that.

Another one, interestingly enough, is this heavenly places, and you will find also heaven and heavenly places both in the book of Ephesians. And it's slightly different. Take a look at footnote two. The one Greek word there that is translated heaven as Strong's number 3772 is multiple times in Daniel 2 chapter 2 verse 18 verse 19 28 37 38 and 44 37 and I put at all because there are a bunch of other places where it talks about heaven.

And it's the same as in Ephesians 1, 10, 3, 5, 4, 10, and 6, 9. And then the related word, which is used in the translated heavenly places, that word has that, you see the letters EP in front of it? That's from an epi prefix, which is an intensifier. So it means like highest heaven, right? And that's found in Ephesians 1, 3, 20, 2, 6, 3, 10, and 6, 12. So, let's ask this question.

Why would Daniel talk so much about heaven, and why would Paul talk so much about heaven? Daniel had those visions. Alright, so Daniel had visions, right? And that's good, and why else? Why would he talk so much about heaven? Think about it. Who was Daniel talking to when he was talking, especially there in the early chapters? Who was Daniel talking to? Remember in Daniel chapter 2, he got called in to talk to Nebuchadnezzar, right? And Nebuchadnezzar was Babylonian, right? And the Babylonians had a pantheon, right? And they had also a lot of astrology kinds of things going on.

And so Daniel is frequently talking about the God of heaven, right? And so instead of the gods, instead of the heavens, and getting focused on all the stars, he points Nebuchadnezzar to the god of heaven. So when they had all these gods and each god had a separate heaven? No, their perception was you had all these gods who dealt in the spiritual realm, and you had also in addition to these gods, you had astrology, which pointed to the stars as controlling things, right? And there was this interaction between the stars and things that happened on earth.

And so what's Daniel doing? He's pointing above all that. I'm talking about the God, singular, of heaven, the one who is over all those stars and planets that you're all excited with. actually guide things. So Daniel is pointing to the God of Heaven, he is speaking frequently as he goes through this. He doesn't just say God, he talks about the God, singular, of Heaven. He is trying to reorient Nebuchadnezzar's worldview. Talking about the God of Heaven. So that's a part of what's going on.

When the Apostle Paul is talking about heaven, what are some of the thoughts that he's trying to get across? Well, one is when he went into the third heaven or whatever, so he actually was there and saw it, even though he wasn't supposed to talk about it. Now, Ephesians is written after 2nd Corinthians where he talked about the third heaven, right? We talked about the third heaven, and when you look at that, that says that by the time he's writing this, this is the place he'd been, but it was forbidden to describe it. Because why? That's John's job. 150 verses in Revelation on the heavenly scene, he's describing it. Paul's forbidden to do so. But what Paul would write about heaven, what are some of the things he said about heaven? and especially relating to us.

Spiritually speaking, where are we right now? We are seated in the heavenly places. We are seated in the heavenly places. And that's this other word, eperanios, that you see under footnote 2. We are seated in the heavenly places. What else about the heavenly places? Where are we blessed? With every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. So there's where our blessings are. And how about our citizenship? That's in heaven too, right? And set our minds on things below? Things above. So you have this continuing focus on the heavenly things.

So Daniel had a reason to try to redirect that you could measure to look at the singular God of heaven, the one who's over all the stars and the one who's over all the things that you think are responsible for spiritual impact. So each of them had their reasons. So here's the Apostle Paul drawing from a lot of the same language as Daniel, but for a different purpose. So we see that connection just multiple times, and especially in chapter 2, where Daniel is talking to Nebuchadnezzar.

And then here in the word heaven, or heavenly places as it's sometimes translated, shows up from the first chapter to the last. The first verses to the last verses for the believer. So there's the same language, but for a different purpose. Let's take a look at the third one, the Greek word Sophia.

In Daniel, and this is the third footnote there at the bottom, in Daniel 1.4.17 and 1.20, in Daniel 2.20, 21, 23, 30, It's the same word for wisdom as we find in Ephesians 1.8.17 and 3.10. Why would Daniel focus so much on wisdom? Why would Daniel focus so much on wisdom?

First of all, it comes in the first and second chapters. In the first chapter, what's happening to Daniel? He and his friends are being taken over to Babylon. And what happens when he gets first taken over to Babylon? What's the problem that the Jews will run into as they've taken over to Babylon?

He's had the king's food. Yeah, they're saying, I can't eat this stuff, right? So there's a very limited amount of what's being presented to them that they can actually eat without violating their dietary laws, right? So, as he's going over there, stepping into this pagan world, what does he need lots of?

Wisdom, right? Lots of wisdom in the middle of that circumstance. And then the next place we see it, he is talking to Nebuchadnezzar and in that he needs lots of wisdom and he's conveying to Nebuchadnezzar that God is the source of wisdom. Now let's ask this question. Is there wisdom other than from God? Man's wisdom. Ah, there's man's wisdom. So there's a distinction And one of the things that Daniel points out is that wisdom comes from God, the wisdom of God, as opposed to all this other wisdom that the Babylonians thought they had.

I always thought it was kind of interesting that he showed such concern for his captor. Here he was, he was taken from his land and put into a foreign place. Even though he was one of the top kids there, he still responded nice to his captors. Interesting, yeah.

Even said in the education he lived forever and all those kinds of things. And now, here for the Apostle Paul, he's writing to the Church of Ephesus, why is wisdom important there? Wasn't that the sight of Adonai or something? Yeah, let's think about it. It's a Greek world, it's definitely a maximum pagan world. And in the Greek world, what's the big pursuit? Knowledge. Yeah, knowledge and wisdom are big. So he talks about knowledge and wisdom, and having understanding and insight. Those are all big things in the Greek realms.

And so what does he do? He uses that, as he goes, Paul uses that as he goes through here, and he addresses the issues in the culture, and sometimes he'll use similar language, but in a different context. So, you have this 1.8, in all wisdom, that didn't get underlined and put in blue, so underline that. In all wisdom, in verse 8, is the place where it comes out.

And so, if you see it, in all wisdom and insight, those were two words that the Greek, in the Greek mind, you really wanted to have, in all wisdom and insight, he made known to us the mystery. And, of course, mystery is something we'll get to as well, right? In all wisdom and insight, he made known to us the mystery. Whose wisdom? God's wisdom, right? different than just human wisdom.

So that's a key distinction. Now, as it turns out, as we look at this, he may know there's another thing that comes out in Daniel, especially chapter 2, Daniel, especially chapter 2, this being made known, it's just, boy, every few verses, just again and again and again. And let's think about that. Why is being made known, something being made known, so important?

It's like he said, it's the visions for Daniel. Is this a form of gnoscope? Yes. So it's not OEDA. It's not OEDA, it's not perceptive, but it's worldly. Except for, think about this, this is God's taking the initiative to make something known. That's what this Noritzo is talking about here. So God is taking the initiative to make something known.

And that's in contrast, until Daniel came on the scene right here in Daniel chapter 2, what was going on with all the magicians and the people of great wisdom and Nebuchadnezzar? What was happening until Daniel came on the scene? Nebuchadnezzar was demanding that these guys do what?

Reveal his dream. Yeah, they had to reveal the dream. It's like, good luck with that, right? And then they had to interpret it. And so, you know, he had this dream in his head. And you guys are supposed to know this stuff. And what's going to happen to these guys if they don't come up with it? They and all their family. Yeah, you guys are all gone if you don't know what happened in my head last night, right?

I think it's also interesting that Nebuchadnezzar had given Daniel the names of his gods, and here's Daniel getting these visions and information from his God, the God. So in other words, it's kind of a reinforcement So here, Daniel is taking advantage of the fact that here are all these magicians, and you know, Chaldeans, and astrologers, and all these supposedly super-wise men, and Nebuchadnezzar said, you guys are supposed to know what went on in my head last night, this dream that I had, right? And of course, they're the smartest guys in the nation. Yeah, but for them to know what he dreamt, and then be able to interpret it, you know, a bit much. So, here's Daniel comes and he gives God all the credit.

He says, this is only going to happen. I'm going to tell you what the dream was, and I'm going to tell you its interpretation, but it's only going to happen because the God of heaven is going to deliberately reveal it to me. And that's the only way it's happening. And so he gives the dream, and he gives the interpretation, but he gives God all the credit, and he says it's only happening because the God of Heaven is revealing and interpreting this dream. So Daniel doesn't walk in there and say, hey, these guys can't pull it off, but I can. He says, God can. And God does.

So, we have here in Ephesians 1, 9, 3, 3, 5, 10, 6, 19, there, excuse me, I'm jumping ahead here, 1, 9, 3, 3, 5, 10, 6, 19, what we have there is in Ephesians. Now, why would this revealing of being made known, why would that be in Ephesians? Why would Paul put that in there? Well, again, the word mystery is a revelation of a before-known truth that I never revealed. Right, so here's the Apostle Paul and he's writing some things that had not previously been revealed. As a matter of fact, we've got something going on in Ephesians that we do not see until we get to Ephesians, Philippians, and Colossians. All through the book of Romans, 16 chapters, it's called the flagship of the epistles, right? Are you seated in the heavenlies in Romans?

No. So the question for you, was Paul holding back, or did he not know it yet? He probably didn't know it. What do you think? Does anybody think Paul is holding back? He knew it, but just wasn't saying it. I tend to think that he wasn't holding back, but that it was an understanding that he came to, perhaps meeting with the Lord again, during his trip between Caesarea, or maybe while he was at Caesarea, and before he got to Rome.

So here he is writing, then, And that's Ephesians chapter 2. So let's turn there. That's page 2. So he's revealing then, so 2 verse 4, but God being rich in mercy, this is at the bottom of page 2, but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with the, when I translate it, the Messiah. We'll get to that. By grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus."

So Daniel is going to reveal things because the God of heaven is the one who deliberately makes things known. Daniel is going to reveal things to Nebuchadnezzar that had never been heard before. He just had this dream last night, and so we're here today because the God of Heaven is going to reveal it, and this has never been heard before. And then, here's Paul.

Even in his life, he learned some things, even after he'd become an apostle. He learned some things that apparently he'd never learned before, but he's now revealing them. I believe that he continually got revelations from God. God did just dump them all upon him. Yeah, that's right. Yeah, so here is this amazing revelation that the Apostle Paul has and he's passing it along to these guys.

And so here he is, he's revealing a number of different things. Did Peter and John and those guys on the day of Pentecost, did they understand that they were in Christ? Did they understand that they were in Christ in his death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and seeding? They didn't. As a matter of fact, it's valuable just to have in our minds that the Apostles went through decades of aha moments.

And for us to understand that, and the truth is, that's true of us too. At least that's what God intends. Because what happened, I believe that Christ died for my sins, was buried and rose again, I'm saved, and God says that's it, and I'm going to take it from there, and God does a whole bunch of things that we didn't know. And so we're spending the rest of our lives catching up with what He's already done. That's what it is.

As of this year, I've been a Christian for 60 years, and I think, man, I have a lot to learn. But we're going to spend the rest of our lives, there's no time when we arrive, we're going to spend the rest of our lives catching up with what He did back at the beginning. As a matter of fact, we're spending the rest of our lives catching up with what he did and learned from the Ephesians before he said it could be like. He chose us in him before the foundation of the world.

So, OK. So let's go to the next one. So this revealing has to do with this word mystery. That's footnote number five on the first page. By the way, it's shown throughout the rest of the pages on first mentioned footnotes. I don't keep having new footnotes, so first time it's mentioned, it goes back to that number. So there's the Greek word Mysterion. This is the one that over a decade ago when I taught through Ephesians, I had this moose as kind of the mascot.

But here it is in Daniel, the God who reveals, who makes known, mysteries. And the word mysteries was used in the pagan world in a different way. Mysteries was something that only the special elite folks would have revealed to them, these mysteries, and it would be exclusive knowledge. Whereas here in the Bible, both in the Old Testament and the New, a mystery is something previously not revealed, but revealed now. And in the Old Testament it was revealed through the prophets, and the New Testament is revealed through the apostles and prophets who spoke alongside them. So here's this word mystery, and so Daniel is repeatedly also using this word mystery as a, here's a truth that was never revealed before, but is now being revealed. And that's the same definition that the Apostle Paul used. in the New Testament, including Ephesians.

Out of curiosity, when you say that mysteries were exclusive, at least in Paul's time, mysteries were not revealed under a pledge of death, right? If you were in this mystery religion and you shared it with everybody, that might be the end of you. Yeah, at least the arrest where you had this pledge of I won't reveal it, right? So you had exclusive knowledge. And yet Paul is just freely giving it.

Do you know if that was also the case back in Daniel's time? Well, in fact what Daniel said to Nebuchadnezzar there in Nebuchadnezzar's courtroom. This is a God who reveals mysteries. So it's the idea that He is now going to reveal something that was previously unknown. So it's the same use in both the Old Testament and the New, by Daniel and by the Apostle Paul. So that's a key thing.

As you look in the Old Testament on into the New, God is one who deliberately reveals. things of which human beings are otherwise ignorant. And also this revelation was appropriate because Paul was always concerned that people wouldn't realize that he was an apostle. And in the Old Testament, God wanted the people to realize that Daniel was the prophet and that the information that he was giving was straight from God. And Daniel made a point to say God is the one who's revealing. This isn't me. God's the one who's revealing.

What's interesting is they had an opportunity to be really, you know, showing themselves up as great. And they did the exact opposite. Here's the Apostle Paul, I'm the least of the Apostles, and God had mercy and put me into service. What's amazing is here are these guys telling things, previously unrevealed, phenomenal things, and they don't take pride in it. They don't do it from a prideful standpoint, even though they potentially could.

And then we have, after that, we've got Pleroma, the fullness of the times. In the fullness of the times, that is the summing up, going on to the second page, of all things in the Messiah, things in the heavens, and things on the earth. OK, so here is an expression we point out below.

In Daniel 10.3 and in Ephesians 1.10, there's an expression, the fullness and then some kind of a time expression. The fullness of the time. So when it says the fullness of some kind of time, it could be the time.

In this case, in Daniel 10.3, it was in the fullness of three weeks. It means at the end of or the completion of that whatever period of time. So that's the expression. We would say end of or the completion of at the end of three weeks. Three weeks was completed or something like that.

But this was an expression that you find the Apostle Paul uses and Daniel uses and Luke seems to use something like it once. where it's a fullness of the time, which means at the end of that time or at the completion of that period of time. So that's a pattern both of them use. And so let's ask this question. Why is the fullness of the time a big deal?

Scripture is inspired and God has a plan. Okay. God has a plan. And one of the things we see both in Daniel's expression and in his case, it was a shorter period of time, but especially in Paul's use of it, this is in grand spans of time, God picks the right time. At the right time, God sent his Son.

In the fullness of the time, and we're going to see in Ephesians 1.10, that's a reference to the Millennial Kingdom. And so, when is the Millennial Kingdom going to start? At the end of the Tribulation. And when does the Tribulation start? After the Rapture.

And who calls the timing of all those things? God does. And specifically, the Father. At the right time, the Father sent His Son. So what's interesting is that the full recognition of that is something that we see consistently in scripture. God the Father calls the shots on the timing. He's got it all planned out. That's right.

And so we look at history and it's kind of like random and meaningless and crazy things go on. We've had crazy things go on in the world just in the last year. Even the situation over in Belgium, what does that mean? What sense does that make? But God is managing all of history, Ephesians 1, 9 and 10 says, all of history to the end that everything will be summed up in Christ. and there's no event that gets reported in the newspaper, there's no election that's going to take place, nothing's going to happen, no cosmic accident is going to happen to thwart that everything will be summed up in Christ. You scrutinize my path and my lying down. You are intimately acquainted with all my ways. That's just for me, or individually.

For each individual, we've got six billion people plus on the earth. Yeah, and there were probably about that many before, all totaled. One of the things that really is astounding, but is important for Christians to get, is that God cares about you individually. God's not just saying, I'm going to save all those people in mass. But each and every single one.

So He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world. And when Christ was up on the cross, He didn't just say, you know, man, this is really an overwhelming experience I'm about to go through. He even turned to the thief on the cross next to Him who didn't deserve a thing. and said today you're going to be with me in paradise. He didn't have to tell him that.

But he's concerned about each individual. Each individual and then in Revelation we find that he's going to have a name that is only between you and he. He cares about you. He has an unlimited amount of time for you. You have His undivided attention.

That's just a very important thing for us to get. It won't be a matter of, gee, it's really nice to be here in heaven, but I never get any time with Jesus because He's always so busy. And it's this big mass of people. I think that's one reason why the Rapture Church is pictured as the 24 hours, so that there's the opportunity for personal contact and intimacy. So, I think that's a very important thing for us to get. Let's take a look on page 2 at the bottom.

Footnote 7 says, the Greek word tristos, that's Strong's number 5547, in Daniel 9.25 is preceded by the definite article ha, and that's in Ephesians 1.10, 12, 20, and we list a number more there. 23 times in Ephesians, this is Ephesians, I would say it's Ephesians' best kept secret. 23 times it's THE Christ in Ephesians.

So THE Christ, which would be THE Anointed One, or in the Anglicized Hebrew, the Messiah. HaMashiach would be how they would say it. That's THE Anointed One, same thing. So here it is, and that the Christ is not just Christ's last name, but it specifically points to the Messiah. That's why in this I translated it straight out and bolded it and put it in blue. It is the Messiah.

The Messiah again and again, and it starts in Ephesians 1.10.

That's the first place of 23 times, and Ephesians 1.10 is pointing to the Millennial Kingdom. The Messiah. So to me, I went through and looked at that and it just jumped out at me. Let me just read starting with verse 7.

In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, in whom In Christ, right? In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace. And where are we going to read riches of His grace again? In Christ. In chapter 2, right? We're going to see riches of His grace again. So, and by the way, He isn't just rich in grace, it's multiple magnitudes of wealth of grace, okay?

Riches of grace. which he lavished on us in all wisdom and insight, he made known to us the mystery, previously unrevealed truth, of his will according to his kind intention which he purposed in him, in Christ, with a view to an administration suitable to the fullness of the times." With a view to an administration, that means God is managing everything to this end, to the fullness of the times, that is, the summing up of all things in the Messiah. Things in the heavens and things on the earth, in him also we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to his purpose, who works all things after the counsel of his will, to the end that we who were the first to hope in the Messiah would be to the praise of his glory.

But that ends up with a hugely different significance here. And if we track that, the Messiah, here's something we're going to have a lot of fun with. Let's look at verse 4, 2.4 on page 2. So 2.4, But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with the Messiah. by grace you have been saved, and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the surpassing riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus." Now, this is going to be mind-blowing, and we'll look at the reason for this in a little bit here, but let's look at, on page 3, You've got chapter 2, verse 11, towards the top, third line down towards the end of the line. It says, Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcised by the so-called circumcision. Okay, who is he talking about?

The Gentiles called uncircumcised by the Jews, right? which is performed in the flesh by human hands, remember that you are at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Atheos. Atheist. In the world.

But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of the Messiah. Who's he addressing this to? He's talking to the Gentiles, right? But who else is reading this? The Jews are reading this, and you were brought near by the blood of the Messiah. How'd that happen? The Jews killed him, but here's the blood of the Messiah. And how are the Gentiles brought near? Let's look at this.

For he himself was our peace who made both groups into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in his flesh the enmity which is the law of commandments contained in ordinances so that in himself he might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace. The Messiah got rid of the law. The Messiah got rid... But there's a reason why he put it this way and that's what we'll be looking at as we go through this in another time because the entire two chapters, first two chapters He talks alternately to the Gentiles and the Jews, and in a Gentile term, and in a Jewish term, and in a Gentile term, and in a Jewish term, and he keeps going back and forth, and he has the law being taken out of the way by the Messiah.

Oh, if the Messiah is okay with it, then I must be too, right? So he keeps including it, and we'll take a look at that in detail. Gentile terms, Jewish terms. Gentile terms, Jewish terms. But it's interesting, he didn't just take the law and throw it out. He completed it and fulfilled it.

And that's something that as we look at this we'll have to take a look at. Because a lot of people think he just took the scrolls and threw them away. Well let's think of what happened When Christ died on the cross, what happened to the law and any relationship with law? We were separated from it. Did it make it stop? No. Was the law bad? No. Why did he do that? Why would he do that to take the law out of the picture?

Because it was impossible for a human to actually fulfill it. It was the impossibility of a human being doing it. And so in the church, he handled it one way. He says, I'm going to take the law out of the way and put Christ in you to live out righteousness by Christ. Because the law is holy and righteous and good, but man can't do it. So I'm going to have Christ in you and therefore live out righteousness by Christ's very life. Because he fulfilled the law.

Right, he fulfilled the law, but did he do the same thing with the Jews in the Millennial Kingdom? We have a common need, we can't pull it off. So when the Jews in the Millennial Kingdom will have what? They will have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to know and live out the law. So, common need, man can't do it.

God's answer for the church and for the Jews in the Memorial Kingdom, an entirely different answer. It looks like the same in one respect, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. But an entirely different way of living out righteousness. Yeah, Marilyn? But we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Yes, we do. Yes.

They will know and live out the law by the power of the Holy Spirit and then the ifs of Deuteronomy 28, if you do this, if you do that, won't come about because they will live it out and they will be blessed in earthly ways. They will still have the sin nature. From the descriptions that we have, the sin nature will be suppressed. Now, for us as believers, now, you bring up the valid point, we can still sin, but we have, by God's doing, the ability not to, and instead to be in fellowship with Him and alive to Him.

So, both we in the Church and those of the Jews in the Millennial Kingdom have a common need, and that's that we can't pull it off by ourselves. But God answers it in an entirely different way. The Jews thought they were keeping the law, and the Gentiles knew they couldn't keep the law. Number one, they didn't have it, and they had to become Jewish proselytes to understand the law and to try and keep it. One of the things that the Jews often did is externalize it and make extra loopholes and things like that so that they weren't breaking it. Jesus said, no, it's got to start from the heart, and don't you dare make those extra rules. That's not what Moses said. No loopholes and no 10 more laws to make sure you don't break this one. Let's take it a little bit further. Let's look on page 5, chapter 5. Here's one that Craig had brought up to you before. On page 5, about a third of the way down, it's verse 18.

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, imperative, right? Be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father, and be subject, and it should be being subject, being subject to one another in fear of Christ, wise to your own husbands. Wives to their own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as the Messiah is also the head of the church. He being himself the Savior of the body, but as the church is subject to the Messiah, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands and everything.

OK, so now, back to page 2, we also have additionally in footnote 8 the Greek word apokalypto and the related word apokalopsis. This is also a word having to do with revealing. talking about God revealing. Both Daniel used it as he spoke to Nebuchadnezzar, and the Apostle Paul uses it in Ephesians 1.7 and 3.3. God is the one who deliberately reveals, again focusing on that. The last footnote, footnote 9, is the word aeon, we get our word eon from that, a number of times in Daniel 2 and then farther on in the book as well. is also used repeatedly in the Book of Ephesians 121, 22, 7, 39, etc. Why would both Daniel and the Apostle Paul be using this word which comes across as an age or a span of time, ages, forever and eternal, depending on the context and the construction?

Why would both of them be talking about this? How about Daniel? He's talking to Nebuchadnezzar. Why is he going to use this word? He's talking about the present and the future. Alright. Things that he's dreaming about. Okay. Interpretation and how it applies to now and... Alright. So you have long spans of time. And who's in charge of time? God is. God is. Oh, just Daniel was. He was a prophet. that God had to write very specific truths about what will happen after this present evil age.

Which those don't show up other places. That's what the statue is all about. Right, the statue was talking about periods of time and you've got different things happening in different periods of time. And so he's laying that out. And here's the Apostle Paul.

One of the ways he uses this word is translated the age of ages. The concept that is reflected in the New Testament is from the fall of Adam until the time right before the Messiah comes is the present evil age. Sometimes just called the present age. Or this age. And then the age to come, which is the Messiah's age. So this age and the age to come. So you'll have the Apostle Paul using that word in that way, with that kind of worldview.

From the time that Adam fell until the time right before the Messiah comes, we have the present evil age. Now why is it an evil age? Because of sin. Sin entered the world that started the present evil age, right? Why does the present evil age end when the Messiah comes? Will everything be perfect? No, things won't be perfect, but what will be out of the picture? Satan will be locked up. How did this fall take place? Who got involved? Satan. What's going to happen to Satan at the end of this present evil age?

He's going to be bound up, right? Bound up, put in the abyss, and he's going to be locked up there so that you will not have the influence of Satan in the world and you will have Christ ruling over the world. So when is Satan bound? Satan is bound at the end of the tribulation period as the Millennial Kingdom is about to begin. He's bound and by the way how many angels does it take for him to get bound? And so, is Satan going to be bound before then? No. And so people get confused when they say, I'm going to bind Satan, he keeps getting loose. And when it comes to time, it will take one angel to put the guy away.

And it will be at God's command, not at ours. He will call the shots, not us. So, a key thing there, so we have the present evil age, which is dominated by Satan, the god of this world, the prince of the power of the air. So we have this present evil age, but that present evil age will come to an end that will not be Satan roaming around doing what he does.

And one more thing we'll be missing. Our three enemies are the world, the flesh, and the devil. So the devil's out. What have we got left? Well, we have the world. No, because we will not have the world system operating. Christ will be at the head of the world government, right? The King of Kings and Lord of Lords. You will not have the craziness going on that goes on around the world. He's not going to put up with it. So instead of having the world, the flesh, and the devil, you will still have a bunch of Gentiles running around with the flesh. But that will be all.

Okay, so this is just to kind of introduce some of the things that are in the book of Ephesians. I want to take a look at the last page, page 6. For this lesson, we've looked at the Greek Old Testament connections between the book of Daniel and the book of Ephesians, and there are many, as we've seen. In the future lessons, we'll be looking at the topical, grammatical, and thematic structure of the book of Ephesians. Chapters 1 and chapters 2 have a two-part pattern, and each part is the same in its pattern. And then chapter one and chapter two, though they each have a two-part pattern, it shows up differently, as we'll soon see. We'll also be looking at what parts of Ephesians are written to the Gentiles and what parts are written to the Jews.

And sometimes within a sentence, it'll have jumped back and forth. Gentiles and Jews and Gentiles and Jews and Gentiles and Jews and Gentiles and Jews. And the Apostle Paul's talking to both of them, keeping them both engaged. using Gentile terms and Jewish terms, and alternating between the two. And finishing up chapter two with a Hebrew poetry pattern about the temple being constructed while the temple in Jerusalem was still being constructed. This is cool stuff. And Anne will be looking at this whole passage from 518 on to 609, and see that those shouldn't be broken up the way they are. So, anyway, cool things in there. Okay, any other thoughts, comments, questions? Yes, Pat?

It just seems to me that if the Apostles had different revelations and understandings at different times, when they got together, they must have been very excited about it. What did you, what was revealed to you? What understanding did you come up with? really, really, I mean they'd stay up all night.

Well, what's apparent is, like Galatians talks about the apostles getting together, including Paul, right? And then you would have, so you'd have that phenomenon, and you'd have like, okay, here's Peter, where he's getting Paul's letters and things of that sort, and he says there's scripture, and he recognizes that. We even have 1 Peter, where Peter writes about being in Christ, and talking about being dead to sin and alive to righteousness. So Peter is getting Paul's letters and reading that and saying this is pretty cool stuff. Morgan, you had a question.

The reason that the Christ is translated the Messiah, what is the significance of that? A lot of times we'll look at him and just think Christ is like his last name or something. The reason for pointing that out is because Paul uses the definite article 23 times in this book.

And most of the major translations completely overlook it. Anywhere else that they will carry the cross, they'll put the Christ or even the Messiah as they translate. But here they just kind of go brain dead and don't bring that across. And so this is really a cool insight, just understanding.

And you put the Messiah in there, which is how the Jews would have read it. He's particularly engaging them. Okay, so he does speak to the Jews. Right. And when the Jews think of the Messiah, they're also thinking of what we call the second coming, too. Right.

And so it's looking towards what's God doing in the world, right? And who is Christ in his full identity, not just, you know, he's the head of the church, although that's in there. But the full understanding of all of who Christ is, is brought out there. And it would particularly speak to the Jews, and it also talks about there's a coming kingdom, and there's a Messiah who's going to reign over that coming kingdom. It's thinking bigger about who Christ is and what he's doing in the world. Okay, let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for your word. Thank you for the things you reveal here. You love us so very much. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.