Ep 902 | Phil & Miss Kay’s Record-Holding ‘Duck Dynasty’ Wedding & Jase Buys a Bouncy House!
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I am unashamed. What about you? We're going to study Ephesians. We might already get the study of Ephesians before we start. Let's go ahead and record and start it. Let's start it with this because I got something I want y'all to come at me like this. Go ahead. I got a new nickname for you. What's his nickname? I'm going to wait until we're rolling. We're rolling. We've been rolling for four seconds. Zach is now the fire hose.

member of our party. As in drinking out of? Let me just tell you. We're fixing to study Ephesians. We introduced it the last two podcasts. We did. We read Acts 19. I don't know about you guys, but I've been reading ahead and reading the book several times and immersing myself

For the last few weeks while we were off. Right. And the first three chapters, you know, I'm like, ooh, this is a little heavy. So I've been doing some study time, you know, and looking at various people that I trust in the scholarly world and here, there, and yonder. And then, so Zach, this morning, a couple of hours ago-

sends an outline that he found because you had sent an outline yesterday which took me some of my little teaching outline nothing earth-shattering just so here's a simple mind here's the difference you you it took me five minutes to look through your outline so zach he's like yeah i think we should you know here's a good thing to discuss i opened this document up

And I start scrolling, not really reading it, but just kind of looking where we're going. It's an outline of Ephesians. Yep. 110 pages. 110 pages. Yeah, let's talk about this this morning. And by the way, it's one, two, three, four, five, six, five and a half pages in my Bible. I could read the book of Ephesians in 10 minutes.

It would take me all day to read this. And I thought, yep, fire hose.

Open your mouth, Jace. When the show was going wide open, that was the saying we always had. Somebody said, how's it going down at Duckamander? And I was like, drinking out of a fire hose. But you liked it. You said you skimmed it. It's an excellent idea. I skimmed it. I loved it. I thought, where has this been? And then I think I sent you a text. Great. Awesome find, Zach. This would have been great two weeks ago. Yeah.

Well, what Jack needs to remember, or anyone else we run into. Get him, Phil. It's a mystery what we're looking at. And look, this is why you just don't go wham, wham. Thank you, ma'am. This mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, He who created all things. So...

If something is that long in the making, better get you some grub and get it around you and start digging into it. Let me dig into this before I start talking about it. I mean, mystery for ages past was kept hidden, you say, so I don't know exactly when that bloomed, but I think maybe it might be with the book of Ephesians.

And I didn't notice. I got the same text, but I didn't notice Zach's original text. So I'm at the Chick-fil-A line. I look down and see your text. I thought you were talking about my little skinny outline. You said after skim, this is awesome. So look at there, James loves it. But it would have been way awesome a month ago. The problem is that the Apostle Paul said God's intent was that now through the church, and here we see it.

today the manifold wisdom of god should be made known to the rulers authorities in the heavenly realms according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in christ jesus you get back to the gospel jesus died was buried and raised from the dead

Good point, Phil. In which we recommend accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence. I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my suffering for you, which are your glory. There's a lot going on.

When he was writing this. Oh, it's a reader's condensed version of the Book of Romans. So, yeah, there's a lot going on. Well, y'all are talking over one another. But I responded to the text, after a skim, it's awesome. But it would have been way more awesome two weeks ago.

So let's just continue our overview. Well, let me say this. This is, for the audience, this is as close as you get to a compliment from the Robertsons. What you're witnessing right here, this is their version of affirming. They're affirming me right now. So you may think, well, they're being hard on us. See, I take this as affirmation. Maybe there's mystery tied to it.

For ages, mysteries, people not figuring this out. But Phil, we're going to solve that mystery here. To get Jew and Gentiles together.

on a page or two would be quite the task that Apostle Paul has. Well, and that shows you how rich this is because it is true that Paul condenses basically the explanation of the purpose of God and humanity in a few pages. The faith that's required makes it so, and it does mention a couple times that

Washing with water through the word. So all of it lines up. So I've got just enough sense to be dangerous about the whole thing. Well, let me read you Zach's response to that text that I sent him about it had been better two weeks ago. He said, yeah, you're probably right.

Because he made a big deal about when I called and said you were right on another matter. He left a doubt. He used the word probably. Probably. Yeah, which means maybe not. Probably. I have an exit strategy, you know. But y'all's compliment reminds me of, I was just thinking about one time, Granny, our grandmother, she lived with my mom next to Phil, and she had a hankering for fried oysters.

And so Phil got my brother-in-law, Ben, to go down to, I think it was Captain Avery's, and he waited for the fresh shipment of oysters to arrive. He gets them, puts them in a cooler. This is like a, this is an ordeal. He's waiting for the fresh oysters right off the truck to come in, grabs them, takes them down to Phil's. Phil fries up the oysters.

He takes the oysters to granny. I mean, this is a whole process. And she takes her first bite. And you know what her line was? Not much. She said, not worth the wait. But that was a compliment. Thanks for trying. No, there is something about the memories of how it works, too. Because today I walked in. Today is one of Jep's daughters is getting married.

So there's been wedding and wedding festivities. Which is why we've been really distracted. Yeah. I mean, we're going to a wedding tonight. Right, exactly. Our niece is getting married. And so I walk in, dad says, so Al, Jimmy Frank, my oldest brother, no wedding.

Harold, the next brother, no wedding. Tommy, no wedding. Judy. Yeah, Judy, no wedding. He said, now we got weddings everywhere. What's happened? I said, well, dad, I think there was a wedding for all of those people. You just weren't there.

So, Dad thought we just discovered this wedding thing has been a recent development. It was all the marriages of the Robertsons where mine was... Well, you went back to yours. You love me? Yeah, I love you. Get in the car. Let's go. I said, Dad, you were a little unique. Phil, you do have to remember that the first miracle that Jesus did...

was involving his attendants at a wedding. He's pro-wedding. And the woman who chose to be my wife, Miss Kay, I mean, she had the audacity to say, you know, are we going somewhere? Are we going to have a wedding, have a meeting? Our wedding? No. Fifteen bucks? Man, I say, sign right here.

The wedding was over. Well, see, Dad, and he forgets because I let him off the hook with me because I decided from one Friday to the next that I wanted Lisa and I to get married. So we just had 20 people at the preacher's living room, and you were already on the road selling duck house. No big deal, right? Yeah.

But then Jace comes along, and his wife wanted a wedding. Same with Willie and Corey and Jeff and Jess and everybody going forward. So you've attended a few weddings. Yep. And that's the grandkids. Yep. In your case, and now you even attended your great-granddaughter's wedding. Yeah, today, my great, what is she, my great-granddaughter? Now, this one is just a granddaughter. Yeah, just a granddaughter. Hard to keep up. It's hard to keep up, because now you have greats that are married. But, Phil, you did actually have a wedding.

because of our little duck show. Yep. And it was actually the most watched episode of all the 130 episodes. Still listed as the fan favorite. I didn't know that. I think it's the most watched episode of any show.

Still the record holder. It's like 12 million that night. All time of all networks, all shows. Till duck do us part. I'm understanding why the Apostle Paul went into great detail there. Well, we are the bride of Christ. I've been reading that John 3. I wanted to get into that. I did say, Jack, for your information, this is a profound mystery. But I'm talking about Christ and the church.

Now, now verse 32. Well, that's pretty, pretty, pretty. You're on the last podcast. We started talking about that mystery that got your attention. I got dad's liking that. I'm going to try to solve that mystery today once and for all, because in my studies before I receive what is now become known as the fire hose document that we need to study and pursue out the next few days. Uh, uh,

I would really like to get into the parallel of the book of Ephesians because Paul wrote the Ephesians, but he also wrote a letter to the Colossians, which has a lot of the same language. I gathered that too. So I'd like to talk about that. Yeah, and Romans. I think for those listening, you think, well, how are we going to tackle this?

We're probably, I mean, I think I could speak for all of us that we're trying to look at this as what is the narrative of the whole entirety of Scripture, and particularly what is the narrative here of this letter to the Ephesian church, and probably less emphasis on pulling out positions, doctrinal positions, but what's the overarching theme of what

of what Paul would have us see here, which, I mean, Phil had mentioned it. I mean, a lot of this has to do with this mystery, which, by the way, he also mentions the mystery in the first chapter of Ephesians in verse 9. It says, which he lavished upon us all wisdom and insight. This is verse 8. Then 9 says, making known

to us the mystery of his will. So the mystery that he's talking about, he says here that we're going to make that known, you know, according to his purpose, which he set forth,

In Christ. So whatever this mystery is, the two things we can know right now based on verse nine is one, he's going to make it known. And then two, he set forth this mystery in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time. For what purpose? To unite all things to him, things in heaven and things on earth. So you get the picture here. That's tied to the gospel. That's Ephesians 1.10. So what Zach is saying for the...

For the dumbed-down listeners, which I am a part of, is you have in this section, and y'all can correct me if I get this wrong, because whenever you try to dumb something down, there's always a danger. But the gospel is the centerpiece. But what I'm saying is from Ephesians 1, or let's just take chapter 1, he basically goes through before creation to after creation.

the earth. So just that process and how the time came, and I'm saying the time came, which is when Jesus got here, and I can prove that, which we can get into here in a minute. So it's the process by which God brought or reconciled, as the Bible says, humans to him through Jesus.

So summertime is approaching, and one of the things down here in Louisiana, Jace, that we find is when you spend a little bit of time outside in Louisiana in the summertime, you're going to do some sweating. Well, you are, but, you know, it's never easy to talk about underwear, but underwear, you spend a lot of time in underwear. So that contributes to a happy life. I mean, whether you have them on, whether they're clean, are they Tommy John's?

You get the idea. So they have what they call their second skin underwear. A lot of really cool innovations. They have the contour pouch, that breathable, lightweight, moisture-wicking fabric, which is very important when you're in Louisiana in the summertime. It's four times the stretch of competing brands.

They've sold over 20 million pairs of underwear, thousands of five-star reviews. So they say that they don't have customers, they have fanatics. And I concur because I've been a Tommy John fan for years. They also have the best pair you'll ever wear where it's free guarantees. You got nothing to lose to give them a try. You get 20% off your first order right now at TommyJohn.com slash Phil.

So save 20% on second skin at TommyJohn.com slash Phil. That's TommyJohn.com slash Phil. See their site for details. It's like being married to God. Oh, it's not like it. It is. Yeah. So you think about like how...

how fractured the world is and how, I mean, how fractured we are, even as an individual, even within ourselves. And we, we often feel untethered. We feel disconnected. We feel disembodied. I mean, fill in the adjective that you want to use to describe what I'm talking about here, but we all know what this is. And then here in this particular culture, you have a great divide between Jew and

Israel and then between the Gentile world. And these were not to co-mingle. And so I can't overestimate like the big narrative here. Now, we're seeing it come forth in this inclusion of the Gentile, because that's what he says about the same Phil just mentioned in Genesis.

Ephesians 3 again talks about the mystery, and he says that the Gentiles now are fellow heirs. So you see it, but even that is not the metanarrative of this. The metanarrative is this right here. The metanarrative. Explain that. The metanarrative, the overarching story. Okay. The overarching story is this. Thank you. Thank you for the roast there, is to unite all things in him.

Things in heaven and things on earth. What we are moving towards in this mystery is this idea of oneness. And that's why Paul's ministry, you go back and read Romans chapter one at the very beginning of Romans one. Paul says that he was called and set apart for the gospel ministry.

primarily to bring the gospel to the Gentile world. So that is the bulk of his ministry and what he was called to do. God called someone who was the Pharisee of all Pharisees. He knew the law backwards and forwards. He was circumcised at the right time, all the things. He had all the credentials as the elite inside of this Israelite world.

God chose him, which is so how God works, to go bring the gospel to the Gentiles. So you got to get that as the backdrop of what he's talking about, even in this letter to the Ephesian church, because a lot of this, what this is about is he's making the case that God is bringing in the Gentiles

Into grafting them into God's people, very similar to language in Romans chapter nine. He's bringing in Gentile people into his promise and he is making Jew and Gentile one unification.

in all things. And then what that means is, and how God's going to do that is through Jesus and God is going to move and he's going to live in human beings. Now he's going to not live in temples built by man's hands, but he's going to live in the temple of us, our bodies as Christ himself being the cornerstone. So that's, that's the narrative. That's the big picture of what I think we're headed towards. Do you guys agree with that? No, I agree. And I think you're right on the bigger point and the lessors.

Which is important, again, just something as little as geography.

If you look at a map and you look at Jerusalem, Israel today, and then you look and see where Turkey is, which is where Ephesus was, or you look at Italy and you see where Rome was, you see that the further the gospel moved out from its original source of Jerusalem and where the church was, the more importance there was on Paul laying out the basics of what we're talking about here. That's why these broader themes in the book of Romans, the book of Ephesians,

and I would even argue the book of Colossians, you see this idea that he's having to establish this because these are all new people. And so there's going to be a huge identity complex. A lot of people are like, well, do I have to become a Jew first? And we saw all those early problems in the book of Acts. So all of this matters, even geography, as to what Paul's laying out here in these major points to your points, Zach. Well, it's kind of fascinating because a lot of people probably don't

who are new to the faith or whatever, they're like, why do y'all keep talking about Jews and Gentiles? What exactly is that? So when you read, if you started reading in Genesis 1, you see the creation of man. And if you fast forward to Genesis 11, where they build this tower, after he said, scatter. And thus by the people scattering, you got into different nations of people.

And so then you have Abraham's call and eventually comes Moses and the Jewish nation, which are people from Israel. But all the other nations are referred to in the Bible as Gentiles, which we would be a Gentile because we're not from Israel. So that's kind of the narrative that Zach is referring to. So it's another way to say all people are.

God is bringing all people together in heaven and on earth as one. Would you agree with that? Yeah, I love the Tower of Babel reference too because –

I had this conversation yesterday with somebody that I had to study with, a woman who had come to our church. She has been 30 years in kind of Buddhism and New Age mysticism and has recently come to understand who God is. And so we were talking about baptism, and she said, I want to be baptized and

We were just working through that with her, what that means and what all that is. And we had this beautiful conversation. I believe she's going to be baptized soon. But one of the things we talked about was because she had mentioned some of the philosophies that she has subscribed to or ascribed to in her previous life. But it was all like working your way up to something.

And I said, you know, that's the thing, you know, that you're that's different with with what's going on here in the Gospels. I said that I went to the Tower of Babel. I said, you know, the apostle, you know, the apostle Paul and all of that. He did say verse thirty two.

This is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about Christ and the church. When he looked at marriage and how you should operate. Yeah, but he defines that mystery for us, and I love that. But that Tower of Babel reference is key because that is when you see the disbursement and the confusion.

The confusion happened through basically different languages. They were all speaking in different languages, and nobody could understand each other, and it created mass chaos. The whole project of the Tower of Babel, that they were building their way to God, crumbled because they lacked the ability to communicate because God confused them. So you fast forward to the coming of the kingdom.

in the New Testament, and then you get to the book of Acts, and you see the rectifying of that curse on the day of Pentecost. What was the difference? That they weren't trying to ascend to God. God condescends to them. He came through Jesus first, and then he sent the Spirit. The Spirit came, the Spirit condescends, comes on all the nations, and everybody can hear everybody speaking in their own native tongue. And so you can kind of see a little...

short and small redemptive part of what happened at the Tower of Babel now coming to fruition in the kingdom. I think that's what's happening here too in Ephesians. It's just a further

explanation and a further accomplishment of this vision that God wants to bring all people to hell. And to Bo's, to your point, Zach, the Genesis 11, which is where the Tower of Babel story is,

is then followed by Genesis 12, and it's the story of Abraham, which begins the journey of the people of God that became the Jewish people. And it also, I would say, when we're talking about this time being fulfilled, and I'm going to read a few passages from the Gospels where Jesus actually said, the time is fulfilled. That's in Mark 1 15, and we'll read that

But what I wanted to say is also you have this event happen post Jesus being resurrected and ascending to the Father where all these nations gathered up on the day of Pentecost speaking different languages. And all of a sudden, heaven actually comes down via the Holy Spirit and is poured out on all these people. And the apostles say,

start speaking in a tongue where different languages are understanding them in their own language. That's right. It's quite the feat. Yeah. If you put that in light of Genesis 11 and the Tower of Babel, where there's a problem, they're trying to go to heaven via a tower. You now have in Acts 2, heaven coming down, which I say that a lot when people ask me

They say, what's it going to be like to go to heaven? And I usually say, just for fun, I say, well, before I answer that, what would it be like for heaven to come here? Which is usually cricket button. But that's what I have in mind. Even in Jesus, you had heaven coming down. Look, even in the garden, what did you have?

God created the heavens and the earth, and then him injecting himself into the earth via the garden, he came down. You think about the tabernacle. They would go and meet God. You think about the temple. God would come down. I mean, it's over and over. It's a theme. Yeah, and I like that picture of languages bringing people together in the kingdom, the new kingdom, that you see that picture of the tongues in Acts 2. ♪

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And you see the church coming down out of heaven and you're like, well, what does that mean? So these are themes that when you look at the whole scheme, or as Zach said, the narrative, the process by which God reconciled humanity, it is fascinating when you start looking back before the beginning of creation,

all the way to what our future is going to be like, living eternally with God. I mean, I'll tell you a silly illustration, but the reason I say it's fascinating, it's also inspiring to look at that process, because the more you look at the process that Paul depicted here in the first chapter of Ephesians, all of a sudden it starts making the scriptures, which are true moments of history written by men who were filled with the Holy Spirit,

all of a sudden this seems more believable. Like this thing fits together like a glove. And we're talking hundreds of years of history with different authors and it makes way more sense. And it's very inspiring. I'll give you a silly illustration. So there's a, we have a two-year-old that we're fostering for lack of a better word. And, you know, at that age, they called, you know, they call it the terrible twos for a reason.

Because you're trying to figure out in moments a time to occupy his time. Right. So she bought this, it's a bouncy house. I think I've shared this before. But it's basically somebody invented an idea that you...

It's an air-filled bouncy house. It's some kind of vinyl, but you put air in it, and the thing runs the whole time. And they literally can go, and it's safe. It's fine. It's only a couple hundred bucks, which is amazing. And so every time he comes to our house, he's like, bouncy house. That's the first thing he wants to do. And so we would take him out there. All you do is flip a switch, and this thing just blows up. It just basically looks like a piece of canvas laying on the floor.

But in 30 seconds, it blows up and he can jump in and slide down. So what was perplexing is that every time he would do that, he would go in, play for 10 seconds, and then he does his hands like this, which means I'm all done. And so we would flip the switch off. Well, then as soon as we walk in the house, he's like, bouncy house. We just did that.

That's over. You only wanted it for 10 seconds. And cause I was thinking the boy's just temporary minded. So after about the fifth time of this happening over a span of a month, we realized something. What he wanted to experience was watching the creation of the bounty house participated in it. And now I want to do that again.

And it made all kind of spiritual applications to me. He was so fascinated with what we were taking for granted that you're turning this piece of canvas into this awesome place where I can play. So I want to play, but I want to watch this whole process again. That's what's exciting. So now that's the game.

You blow it up. You go in there and jump for 10 seconds. You come out. You take it all the way down. And every experience is like it's brand new. And it's just exhilaration moment after moment. And I thought, isn't that what it's like to experience the process that the Bible is?

of revealing jesus at the right time for us and you get to watch it in other people like zach was just describing i could tell zach from your conversation with this woman that when you get to watch the light come on for the first time in someone's life where they get it they understand it and they make that connection that's as thrilling to me as when i heard it or

Or the first time I shared with somebody. I mean, that never gets old. Exactly. It's the new creation over and over and over and over again. And you see, I was going to make that point too, Al. You see it in other people's lives as they come to Christ. And you get to experience it all over again. Which is what Luke 15 is all about when you think about it, why it causes joy in heaven and on earth for someone. Yeah.

to be lost and to be saved, which was why Jesus came. She said something that was interesting in the conversation that kind of reiterates what you're saying. She said, you know, she said, I found myself, she'd been in the church for three months, really virtually zero background with Christianity and until recently. And she said, but she does a lot of nature walks and, you know, she kind of in the whole nature scene. And she said, you know, for the first time in my life, she said, I'm, I'm,

Finding myself on my walks, looking at like the beautiful nature. And we live in a beautiful area. I mean, Nashville area is absolutely beautiful.

And she said, I just find myself weeping with tears at the glory. She said the glory of God and what he has made. And I was like, wow. To hear her talk about being able to participate now. And it's kind of like what you do with that little boy. He's looking at this creation. This thing happened. And he's like, wow. You know, what she's doing is even taking it to that next place where she's experiencing the wow moment.

And then that's being directed into an awe and a wonder of who God is. And I think that is a very good description of what the kingdom life is. It's a life that...

ultimately manifests itself in wonder on our part. We marvel and we wonder, which by the way, I think it's in, Paul says in one of the Thessalonian letters that when Christ returns, it says that he's going to be marveled at among the saints. And so there's the idea that like what heaven's going to, like I guess heaven or what heaven really is, it's to marvel at who he is and to be astonished and to be moved and to be

and to be changed and transformed. I love that. And I think when you get to Ephesians, you see that God is saying, this is something that I've been planning forever, and it's always been a part of my plan, but nobody knew about it until now. Although...

When you go back and read the Old Testament, in the light of Ephesians, you're kind of like, how did we miss it? You know what I mean? Well, exactly. How did we miss it? Well, and he even uses that term in verse 3 when we got started, is you're blessed in every spiritual blessing where? We say on earth, right? But in the heavenly realms, it starts there. That's where the plan started. That's where the idea started. That's where Jesus is.

And yet we're living it here. I mean, but we're blessed in the heavenly realm. And he also in verse three, Al said, you see the Godhead functioning as one. Right. Because he says, praise be to God, the father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. You see the father, the son and the Holy Spirit. That's right. And then he goes through Jesus and winds up with the Holy Spirit in verse 14.

I don't want to jump ahead too much. We can get to this maybe not today, but I will say this. I actually think that the first part of Ephesians 1, when he says that he's blessed us, he chose us, he predestined us, in him we have redemption. He goes through this us, us, and we language. I think he's talking about Israel. And then he flips it when he gets over here in verse 10.

and he flips it from us and we to you. And he says, and you also, when you heard the word of truth, I think this is the inclusion of the Gentiles, the gospel of your salvation and believed in him, you were sealed with the gospel of your salvation.

with the promise of the Holy spirit. And there's the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it to the praise of the Lord. So that's the inclusion. I think that's what's going on here. Um, and, and I'll get into this later why, but mainly, you know, verse 13 says, uh,

Or if verse 12 says so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be the praise of his glory. And that language seems very similar to language in Romans chapter one, verse 16 and 17, which, by the way, this podcast, that's our anchor verse for this podcast. I'm not ashamed of the gospel. And but what does it say there? First for the Jew.

And then for the Gentiles. So you see that progression, even in the book of Romans, first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. I think that same progression is happening here. But the reason why I wanted to go back

It's that kind of a narrative of what I think Paul is trying to accomplish here is because this is we said it before on the podcast. It's like that movie Sixth Sense, where once you see the end of it, then then you're like, oh, and then you can reinterpret all the other stuff where it makes sense. But but if you guys will indulge me, I want to read just a few Old Testament scriptures that talk about the inclusion of the Gentiles, because it's clear here that that's what's happening.

I mean, that's very clear based on what Paul says in Ephesians 3. It's also mirrored, Zach, in the discussion that he closes out in Romans. You mentioned 1, 16, but when Romans 8, 9, 10, 11, where he kind of closes out the doctrinal section of the book of Romans, is mirroring exactly what you're talking about. Well, before you read the Old Testament, I think what you're saying is true because when he gets to Ephesians 2, the back half...

11 through 21, that is what he's talking about. He took the two and made them one Jew and Gentile, thus providing peace. And you're no longer two, but one in Christ. Yeah. And I know we're jumping around and we're going to like dive into this more later, but I think it's good going into it, kind of setting out the parameter here. So the kind of anchoring down, if you're listening on, on Ephesians one, verse 10, um,

As a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things to him, things in heaven and on earth. That's the mystery of his will. Read verse 9 and 10. The mystery of his will according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ. You do the Old Testament, and then let me give, because I did a thing about the word fulfillment, verse 10.

Uh, which Jesus, well, then we'll see if these come together. I will say, cause you didn't check with me what you were doing. And I did not, I did not focus on in the fullness of time. I was mainly emphasizing the inclusion of the Gentiles, uh,

into this, mainly because Ephesians 3, 6, that the mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the same promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. So then listen to what Isaiah says. I mentioned this one almost on every podcast, but Isaiah 2 says that it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains and it shall be lifted above the hills.

And all nations shall flow to it. Many peoples shall come and say, come, let us go up the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways. He's not talking about simply Israel here. He's talking about all nations and that we may walk in his paths for out of Zion shall go forth the law.

The word of the Lord from Jerusalem, he shall judge between nations and shall decide disputes for many peoples. And then they're going to there's this whole thing about turning their swords into plowshares and spears and the pruning hooks. And a nation shall not lift up sword against nation. It's the idea of peace. Then you scroll down here to a little passage in Hosea 223, which, by the way, is also mentioned in Romans nine. And he says, I will sow for myself in that land.

And I will have mercy on no mercy. And the word no mercy there, it's actually like a name. He's talking about a group of people. It's the people that he's not going to have mercy on. He's going to have mercy on no mercy. And I'm going to say to not my people. That's in all caps. Not my people. You are my people. And he shall say, you are my God. You see here, this is not the inclusion of the Gentiles. Or you look in Isaiah chapter 11.

This is a beautiful one, Zechariah 14, 16. Then everyone who survives of all the nations that I have come against, Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast.

Isaiah 19.

There will be five cities in the land of Egypt that shall speak the language of Canaan and swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts. I mean, think about this. These are people that speak the language of Canaan, but they're going to swear allegiance to the Lord of hosts. One of these will be called the city of destruction. And that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt.

He's going to send a savior, a defender, and a deliverer to Egypt. And the Lord will make himself known to the Egyptians.

And the Egyptians, think about these are the people that Israel exited out of. This is the whole book of Exodus. They left Egypt. And the prophet here is saying God's going to show up for these people and deliver them. Egyptians will know the Lord in that day and worship and sacrifice and offering. And they will make vows to the Lord and perform them. And the Lord will strike Egypt and striking Egypt.

and healing, and they will return to the Lord and he will listen to their pleas for mercy and heal them. I mean, I don't it's like you read this now in the light of what we know about Jesus. And you're like, it was always in there. It was always in the scriptures the entire time. That's the mystery, though, that Paul is unfolding here. And once we receive this mystery, then we could go back and actually read the Old Testament and understand all of these prophecies that God was making the entire time.

You brought up the sixth sense. I thought about the Mrs. Doubtfire, you know, at the end where she's like, the whole time? The whole time? That was you? I thought about the Book of Eli because I watched it last night. And, you know, at the end of that movie, you realize the whole time he's blind. He's doing all this crazy stuff, and he's read the Bible in prayer. It was another thing. It was another one of those where it's like... Those are usually pretty good movies. All right, so let me go. So...

When you look at Matthew, I just chose Matthew, and you could do this in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John, and you're going to come to the same conclusion. But in Matthew 1, yeah, Matthew 1, 22, you know, talking about the virgin birth, it says, All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet. The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means...

God with us. And if you just read, I'm not going to do this every time because it would take too long. But when you go look up where this was said, and now you see Isaiah 7 and chapter 9, I was thinking about chapter 9 where it says, verse 6, for us, a child is born to us, a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom. So there's that. You say, well, does this continue in chapter 3 of Matthew in verse 15? So you remember when Jesus was baptized? You're like, why was Jesus baptized? Well, watch what he said when Jesus replied in verse 15, let it be so now, because John the Baptist didn't want to baptize him. It is proper for us to do this to fulfill God's

all righteousness. And you say, what does that mean? I'm not exactly sure, but I know one thing, it was planned. And he was the fulfillment of it. In chapter four, in verse 12, when Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, let's see, where's the fulfillment? Oh yeah, this was really interesting. Leaving Nazareth, verse 13, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali.

to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah. And it's the same land. If you go look Isaiah, where this is referenced in Isaiah 9, 1 and 2, the way to the sea along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, to the people living in darkness, they have seen a great light. To your point, Zach, on those living in the land of the shadow of death, a light has dawned. Yep.

From that time on, Jesus began to preach, repent for the kingdom of heaven is near. So look at 517. You remember this one about the law when he gives the Sermon on the Mount? And he says, I didn't come to abolish the law of the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.

There's the same word in Ephesians, you know, the fulfillment, the times have come. 817, which is another interesting one. You say, why did Jesus do all the miracles? Why did he heal people and cast out demons? So when Jesus heals many, it gets to verse 16. When evening came, many who were demon possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick.

This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah. He took up our infirmities and carried our diseases. I mean, this is just one fulfillment after another, and it's covering a broad spectrum of things that he's doing, claiming, and preaching. So Matthew 12, 15. What's fascinating is you can do this with every gospel letter.

12, 15, aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place because the people were trying to kill him. Many followed him and he healed their sick, warning them not to tell who he was. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah. Here's my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight. I will put my spirit on him and he will proclaim justice to the nations.

And he goes on, I like the last part of verse 20 where it says, till he leads justice to victory. In his name, the nations will put their hope. To your point again, Zach. What's crazy is he uses that word chosen. When you see that in Ephesians 1, it's going to make more sense.

Because when it says before the creation of the world, we were chosen in him. We were chosen in him because he was chosen. Yeah. And then he fulfilled it. Right. All right, let me get the next one. 13. Oh, this is funny. 33 of 13. He told them still another parable. No, this seems like I've written this wrong. Oh, no, verse 34. Verse 34.

Yeah, after he's telling these parables in verse 34, Jesus spoke all these things to the crowd in parables. He did not say anything to them without using a parable. So, so was fulfilled what was spoken through the prophet. I will open my mouth in parables. I will utter things hidden since the creation of the world.

21-4. And you remember that. That's where he came. Where was the last one you just read? 13-34. Which, I mean, that's the same language here. The mystery, right? He's going to make something known that's been hidden. It's the secret. And this is really setting up what we're going to do next podcast in Colossians. But we'll wait for that. So, look, 21-4. You remember him riding in on the donkey? Yeah.

as king, verse 4 of 21. This took place to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet. Your king comes to you gentle and riding on a donkey. 26, 54 and 56, you see this was done, Judas' betrayal and all the disciples fleeing. It says the same language. This happened so that this could be fulfilled.

In 27, 9 and 10, you see another fulfillment about the 30 pieces of silver, another fulfillment about where he was going to be buried. In chapter 27, in verse, I can't read my writing, but I think it's 35, about them casting lots for his clothes to be fulfilled. Mm-hmm.

So I read all of Matthews, and that wasn't all of them, that was just some, to read Mark chapter 1, and this is really without going through all the ones in Mark. Mark 1 and verse 15 and 16 literally says what Paul's point is in Ephesians. And depending on your version, you'll miss this because the NIV says the time has come. But when you look at the Greek language, I'll read it again.

in light of what we just read in Matthew, verse 14. After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee proclaiming the good news of God. The time has been fulfilled. The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news. I mean, he's basically saying the time has come. It's here. This is the fulfillment. Well, who is the fulfillment?

The king has arrived. Right. Everything pointing to Jesus. Yes, it's the inauguration of the kingdom now. And it's the language in Daniel, the prophecy of Daniel, the statue. It's the same thing, right? You have these four different types of composite. And the last one was the mixture of clay and the feet were like, what was it? Bronze and clay, iron and clay. Yeah.

And just to put an exclamation on this, because we're out of time, if you read Luke 24, 44 through 49, and Luke is filled with fulfillment verses, but I love how he sums it up. This is post-resurrection. He said, all this happened, as I told you while I was with you, everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the law of Moses, the prophets, and the Psalms.

Then he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures that this is what is written that Christ would suffer rise from the dead and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem. And I want to close with just one in John that I think is really interesting. You remember when John the Baptist and Jesus going back to when he was baptized in John three,

In verse 27, and this gets back to Phil's original point about the mystery of Christ, that we're married to Jesus. In verse 27, John replied, a man can receive only what is given him from heaven. That's why I went through all that. What if heaven came down? Well, John the Baptist wouldn't be making that statement unless he realized that principle.

You yourselves can testify that I'm not the Christ, but am sent ahead of him. The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. And I love this with the fulfillment. That joy is mine and is now complete or fulfilled because he recognized that Jesus is

has come from heaven. He must become greater and I must become less, which then makes sense when you keep reading because in verse 35, it says, "'The Father loves the Son and has placed everything in His hands. Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God's wrath remains on him.'"

And so now this gives you really good context into John 3, 16 and 17, where he said, for God so loved the world that he sent his son, whoever believes. He didn't come here to condemn it, but to save it. Yep.

I like it. We're out of time. We'll come back next time. We're preparing the way for the study in Ephesians, and you see what a big deal it is because it's so good and so broad. So we'll see you next time on Unashamed. Thanks for listening to the Unashamed podcast. Help us out by rating us on iTunes.

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