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Through the Bible with Les Feldick
LESSON 3 * PART 4 * BOOK 37
Ephesians 4:1-11 - Part 2
If we can just get people back into the Book, and realize that it’s the greatest Book on earth. So let’s finished that one before we go on into the following verses in this chapter.
Ephesians 4:6
One Body, one Spirit, one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and now one God and Father of all. This of course is the Jewish view of God being like Paul just said in Ephesians, "One God." Deuteronomy 6:4
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:" And here you have all the letters capitalized. Deuteronomy 6:4-5
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: 5. And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."
Isaiah 9:6
God the Son! Matthew 3:16-17
"And Jesus when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: (so there in the Person of Jesus we have One of them in God the Son) and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God (there’s number 2, the Holy Spirit) descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: (and here in verse 17 you have the third One in the voice from heaven, the Father is implied) 17. . II Corinthians 13:14
"The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, (Son) and the love of God, (Father) and the communion of the Holy Ghost (Spirit) be with you all, Amen."
So we’re not polytheists, as we believe in the One God, the One Father of all as Paul mentions in Ephesians. So let’s come back to our text in that Book to chapter 4, and read verse 6 again.
Ephesians 4:6
Now verse 7.
Ephesians 4:7
Now verse 8.
Ephesians 4:8
"Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men."
Now back to Ephesians and let’s read verse 8 again.
Ephesians 4:8-10
"Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men. Well come back with me first to Matthew chapter 12. Let’s look at verse 40. Matthew 12:40
Luke 16:19-21
Now continuing on in verse 22.
Remember Abraham died 2,000 years BC. Now Jesus didn’t take him to heaven like some teach, but rather He took him down with Him into paradise, in the heart of the earth. "...the rich man also died, and was buried:"
The rich man had died and his body was buried, and his soul had gone down into the ether part. Hell is what the Scripture calls that place.
Luke 16:23-24
You know the story of how Abraham couldn’t do what the rich man asked. Look at verse 26 what Abraham tells the rich man.
Luke 16:2628
(hell side) 27. Then he (the rich man) said, I pray thee therefore, father, (Abraham) that thou wouldest send him (Lazarus) to my father’s house: 28. Now verse 29 I always like to use when I emphasize Paul’s writing for us today in the Church Age. Luke 16:29
Notice Abraham didn’t tell them, "Well they can pray to God." Abraham said, "They’ve got the written Word." We know that Abraham and Lazarus were on the Paradise side. Ephesians 4:9
"(Now that he (Christ) ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?"
This was where Abraham, Lazarus, and all the Old Testament saints were waiting for the atoning blood of the Cross so they could then enter into what we now know as heaven. Now let’s read on in Ephesians chapter 4. Let’s read verse 9 in it’s entirety.
Ephesians 4:9-10
So once Christ finished the work of the Cross and went down into Paradise and preached to those spirits in prison as Peter says, "Now what could Christ tell the Old Testament believers? ‘Today in the Church Age as believers die their soul goes right into the presence of Christ in what the Bible calls the third heaven, the very abode of God.
So remember, the work of the Cross finished the whole plan of redemption for the Old Testament saints as well as for us today in the Church Age. God has removed some of them, but look what we have left in verse 11.
Ephesians 4:11a
Now at the time Paul wrote this there were still apostles. He claimed to be an apostle in Romans chapter 11. Now coming back to Ephesians chapter 4, verse 11. Even Paul’s doctrines were not yet in print. And so until Paul’s letter and the rest of the New Testament came about, God had to have gifted men to keep the thing going from the time that the Church began until these Church letters appeared. Every local church that is true to the Word of God should have these kind of men functioning and active in that local Body of believers, and what are they?
Ephesians 4:11b
"...evangelist, and some, pastors and teachers;"
And that literally fills the need of the local church. Not all pastors are good teachers, and God doesn’t expect them to be. All evangelists aren’t teachers, so they are three distinct gifted kinds of men that God has placed in the local Body of believers. Ephesians 4:12a

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