Revealing God's Wisdom

In this message from Ephesians 3:1–13, Pastor Jim explores Paul’s surprising digression about imprisonment, his call, and the breathtaking purpose of the church. What looks small and ordinary on the surface is actually cosmic in significance. Jim shows how Paul understood himself as a steward entrusted with the key to God’s household, revealing that Jews and Gentiles now belong together as one new family in Christ. Through the church, God’s multi-faceted wisdom is put on display not only to the world but to the spiritual powers themselves. This passage reminds us that our ordinary faithfulness, unity, forgiveness, and love carry eternal weight. The church is not the goal but the preview of what God is building, a foretaste of the coming kingdom where every tribe and language will gather around Jesus. Even suffering becomes part of the story as we live out worship, obedience, and proclamation in a world that resists reconciliation.

Transcript

Jenna | 00:00
The passage for today's sermon comes from Ephesians chapter 3, verses 1 through 13. For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles. Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you. That is the mystery made known to me by revelation as they have already written briefly. In reading this, then you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations, as it has now been revealed by the spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body and sharers together in Christ Jesus. I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all the Lord's people, this grace was given me. To preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages Past was kept hidden in God who created all things. His intent was that now through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he 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 sufferings for you, which are your glory. This is the word of God for the people of God.
Jim | 01:50
Amen. Thanks, Jenna. When I was younger, my family would-- regularly vacation in Chincoteague, Virginia. Maybe some of you have been there before on the eastern seaboard where they've got wild ponies that run around out on the beach, which is either amazing or disconcerting, depending on your temperament. But-- You have to remember that I grew up in the 1900s, before the internet. And when we would go to Chincoteague, we would rent houses every time, every summer. And to rent a house back then, they would send a catalog in the mail to the house. A brochure of sorts in which you would pick which place you wanted to stay in on the island. And my mom would be in contact via the phone to talk with someone and say, this is what we want. I'm assuming they mailed in a deposit, is my guess, to lock this place down. 
And then we would drive the four hours down to Chincoteague, all piled in the car. And, you know... We could see pictures, you know, we could hear stories of what this place was like. We would take a recommendation from the rental agency of like what this house was like. But we, you know, You didn't know what it was like until you got inside, right? And so we would get there and you'd have to go to a place with real people and they would hand you a key. To your house that you would then go to this like seaside cottage or whatever it was called. And you would go and you'd have to have somebody let you in. But really, we couldn't get in right until someone handed us the key. 
So someone gave us the key to get into that place. And when my mom would open the door, everything would change, right? Suddenly it becomes your place for the week. It's like trash by the end of the week because you're treating it as a 12 year old. You're treating it as like your place. 
You know, it becomes your place. You're inside. There's a sense of belonging. This is where our family is. This is where we're going to locate for the time being. This is where we're going to be. And we live differently because we were in that house. We would have friends who would come down to visit us for, you know, for a couple of days and we play cards with them and became their house as well as we invited them in. Paul in this section of Ephesians 3, which is actually one of my favorite sections, despite how weird it is, he's literally interrupting himself. To say something. Did you pick up on that? He's literally interrupting himself. Most of our, you know, your translations might have a dash at the end of the first sentence in verse one. He's interrupting himself to say that something like that house with the key has happened to him. That God has given him a key of some sort to see inside to this new house of God. And he's been instructed to tell the people of God about it. He's in a sense, he's defending himself because he's in prison, which imagine if you're, you know, the leader of your new religious movement, if you want to call it that, Jesus has disappeared. And now you got this guy, Paul, he's telling you about it. And now he's in prison. You'd start to think, are we doing the right thing? Who is this guy? Why is he in prison? 
Right? Like, and so he's defending himself a little bit to say, I, Paul, but he says, I'm actually a prisoner of Christ Jesus. And he talks about this, he says, " by the way, let me tell you about all what that means." And he's interrupting himself to get this letter continuing on. But what he's trying to convey to them and what I love, I mean, it was written to the Ephesians, but it's for us today, is that this little Ephesian church. Meeting at homes. Sharing meals together, forgiving one another, it looked insignificant compared to the Artemis temple that was down the road. This little church looked insignificant compared to the great temple of Artemis that was centered in Ephesus. What he goes on to say to them is that angels leaned in to see it. That the dark spiritual forces that are behind injustice and abuse and sin, that those dark spiritual forces are trembling as they see this little church in action. He's telling them that God is forming a household on earth as it is in heaven, confronting the those dark forces. Confronting those powers, displaying his wisdom. And so as we move through this, kind of a weird passage, as we move through this today, I kind of want to help you see three things. The steward? The display... The cost. The steward, the display, and the cost. 
So just pray with me as we dive into this, just pray with me one more time. Jesus, this is your scripture. Paul was your apostle, your guy who you commissioned to tell, to write this letter. To tell this early church and to tell us today, about who you are, and about who they are supposed to be as your household. 
So I pray that you would reveal to us the truths of the gospel, that we would grasp a little bit more who you are, who we are in you and who we are supposed to be as a local church. The body of Christ. 
So Spirit, would you do a work? Bring home what you want to bring home to us. Anything I say that's dumb, just get rid of it. Speak through your word. Speaking to our hearts and minds. We give you permission to do so. I pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. 
So look with me, I'll show you this interruption here. Look at three one. Chapter 3, verse 1 says this, "For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles," it's like, you can tell he's going somewhere. For this reason, he's saying for all the things that I did, all the things I've been talking to you about the first several sections of this letter, I've been telling you who you are in Christ, that you have a new identity, that you've been given a new home, a new family. You're part of a body. You're part of a temple. He's like, there's all this incredible stuff in light of that. I want to say this. I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles. 
And then he goes, well, surely you've heard about any like diverts. He goes into this digression. Then look at verse 14. After all that he says in those first 13 verses, then he says, for this reason, He's going back now. He's like, for this reason, all the things I talked about, remember chapters one and two, all those things. For this reason, I kneel before the father from whom every family in heaven on earth derives its name. 
And then he continues on with his initial thought. So this whole thing that we're looking at today is really a digression. He gets caught up in a thought of some sort that he's telling them that something spurs him in this moment when he says, I, Paul, a prisoner, And it's almost like, he's like, I'm not a prisoner of Rome. I'm a prisoner of Christ. "I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, on your behalf, Gentile, on your behalf, Ephesian church. And he moves into this whole digression, which is what we're looking at today. And so I want to begin by looking at what he's saying about himself. 
So we'll call him the steward, and I'll tell you why in a couple of minutes. What he's saying about himself. 
So again, we'll just... Read through this again because I want it to be fresh in your minds. He says, "For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for the sake of you Gentiles, surely you've heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you. That is the mystery made known to me by revelation. As I've already written briefly saying all the things I've already been telling you. In reading this, then you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to people in other generations, as has now been revealed by the spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel, the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel members together of one body shares together in the promise in Christ Jesus. I became a servant of this gospel. By the gift of God's grace given me through the working of His power. As I said, Paul is defending himself. He's saying, "Here's why I'm in prison. Because they know he's in prison. I think what's happening to our leader. He's defending himself. He's offering a case for who he is and he's recalling for them his biography. 
So I guess in a sense, it's a bit of an autobiographical section. So if you want to know more of Paul's story, you can look to Acts 8 and 9. Galatians 1 has a big chunk of this as well. Paul was a Pharisee of all Pharisees, meaning he was in Judaism. He was a lawyer. He understood the law. He understood how the Jews were supposed to obey things to try to get God to come back to Israel, right? And he was very staunch in his legalism. 
So much so that when the new... The new people of God were being birthed when Jesus ascends and the Christian church is born. 
So much... He's so... Legalistic in his understanding of God and Judaism that when this new church is born, he starts persecuting it. He's going out and he gets papers written up so that he can go and start dragging people out of their homes if they belonged to a synagogue but were these Jesus followers. He has people... Murdered. This is the blood that's on his hands. He's saying, this is what happened to me. 
Like, I was that guy. Read Acts 8 and 9. Read Galatians 1 and see the things that he says about himself. And so he's on the way to Damascus at one point. He's going to persecute the synagogues there that are allowing Jesus followers into them. And on his way to Damascus, Jesus appears to him. Jesus has already died. Been laid in a tomb, resurrected and ascended. He's no longer on the earth. Jesus appears to him in some sort of vision and it knocks him off his, you know what, onto the ground, knocks him right onto the ground. And he's blinded. He can't see, just knows that there's this voice, this bright light has appeared. And Jesus says to him, why are you persecuting me? Why are you doing this to me? Saying what you're doing to the church is actually to me. And so, This light dissipates And there Paul is with like scales on its eyes. He says, you can't see. And so they lead him into Damascus, this place where he was supposed to go with all his power and authority. He goes in being led by the hands because he can't see anymore. And he's in a home there for a few days before God taps a guy named Ananias on the shoulder and says, hey, I know you've heard about, they called him Saul at this point. We'll just call him Paul. I know you've heard about Paul. I need you to go lay your hands on him and pray for him. And Ananias is like... He was sent here to kill us. And he says, I know. Just go. And so Ananias goes... And he lays hands on Paul and he says, Paul, this is in the name of Jesus. Be healed. And he heals him. And scales fall off his eyes. And so Paul is left at this point, if you read Galatians 1, what you pick up on is that This messes him up. As it would, I think, any of us. This messes him up. He goes off into Arabia for a little while. Similar prophets in the old Testament. It's interesting. 
Anyway, he goes off into Arabia for a little while to figure out what the heck just happened. If Jesus is who I'm persecuting, if Jesus is God, what does that mean about my Phariseeism? What does this mean about Judaism? Everything is undone for him. What happens in this time is that God is revealing the mystery of Jesus to him. And he realizes, Jesus is the fulfillment of all I was working on. He's the fulfillment of all of that Old Testament work. Profit. Law stuff that I had been learning. He's God. 
Well, this changes everything. And he comes back into Damascus. He starts preaching the gospel. He travels to Jerusalem, preaching the gospel. And he realizes I've been sent to the Gentile world, not just not to Jews. I've been sent to Gentiles. And he goes out and he's just preaching the gospel that there's, we read this in chapters one and two, there's one new humanity in Jesus. There's no longer dividing wall between these two people. He's saying, I, This is who Jesus is. If Christ Jesus is Lord, if he's closed this distance vertically, then it's closed to the division this way horizontally. And he's preaching this gospel all over Asia Minor, basically, in the first century. Completely radicalized his life. It's completely changed him. And he didn't just learn something new, he became someone new. Do you know what I mean? It wasn't just knowledge. It dramatically affected his life. Everything was different because of this. And he says, I'm not a prisoner of Rome. I'm a prisoner of Jesus now. He's in charge of me. I'm linked up to him. And where he says go, I go. And he's reminding the Ephesians of this. And so this is what happens to him. When revelation opens your eyes to who Jesus is, it produces a few things. The first of which is worship. The second is obedience. The third is proclamation. When you know who Jesus is, man, worship flows out of that. Obedience to him flows out of that. Not just checking a box, but like I want to honor him with my life and proclamation flows out of it. I got to tell people about this. If Jesus is really Lord, if he's King of all things, if he's doing all these things, that matters. I need to tell people about that. And so Paul starts proclaiming. He's going out there to tell people about who Jesus is. And he calls it an administration. Administration is a Greek word that's a combination of two Greek words: oikos, which is household, and nomos, which sometimes is law or means like management. Household management duties. I'm a steward of this new household. What he's saying is God gave me the key. To the house. God gave me the key to the house and I'm going to go and I'm going to open the door and show people what's inside. Starting with you Gentiles, building up the Ephesian church, building up the Colossian church, the Galatian church, right? Building up Timothy and Titus, Philemon telling them this is what God's doing. It's been revealed to him and now he wants to reveal it to other people as well. God Paul, God handed Paul the key. Paul didn't build it, he didn't invent it, he didn't own it, he was simply entrusted with that key. The mystery of the gospel, he calls it to go and tell the Gentiles about Jesus. He isn't presenting himself as impressive. He never does. He's self-deprecating all the time. He's not presenting himself as impressive, but he is presenting himself as entrusted. God has given me a message and he's reminding them of this. I know I'm in prison, but this is who I am. This is what God has done. Do you see it, friends? When God opened the door for Paul everything changed for him. Everything changed. Everything was different. He realized, "I live in a different household now. Everything is new." And so he goes and he is revealing this to the Gentiles saying, you are now citizens of this new kingdom, this new country. You are now co-heirs with the Jewish people who had the promises in the covenant. You are now one new humanity. You are one body in Christ. You are a temple that's being built up on the message that I'm preaching you. This is what he's going out and delivering them. He's opening the house. He's got the key. He's opening the door and he's saying, come in and see what's inside. Come in and be one family living in this new household of God so that the world can see it and enter. He's revealing it to them and us these 2000 years later. 
So it occurs to me If Christ has been revealed to you, friends, If he's become your Lord, your Savior, You're king. Is it changing your whole world like it did for Paul? If it's not, He might not. Truly be the Lord of your life. He might be just like a fun part of it. A nice part of it. Gentle Jesus. But Paul's like, "No, no. He knocked me to the ground." and changed everything for me. That revelation led me to a place of obedience and worship and proclamation. Friends, that's what disciples do. Completely changes him. 
So Paul is this steward But as he's stewarding this new church, then he switches into saying, And you are being put on display. God's manifold wisdom is being put on display through you, Ephesian Church, through you. Hope Nazareth. God's wisdom is being put on display. Read these couple of verses with me. Verse 10 and verse 11. This to me is... Probably one of my favorite verses in all of scripture. His intent, meaning God's intent, God's purpose for this, God's intent was that now through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. According to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus Christ. Our Lord. He's saying, Paul is the steward. The church is the stage. The church is the stage where this message is going to be put on display. The manifold wisdom of God is going to be on display. God gave that key to Paul so he could open the door and invite people in so that they could then put it on display for other people to be brought in to understand this gospel message. What it's saying is God has purposed in Christ that the church would reveal the manifold wisdom of God. And this is what you need to know is that he's bringing a bunch of different thoughts all in at the same time that he's been building through chapters one, two, and three. It's all coming to a head right here in this one verse that. That all things would be united in Jesus someday. That the church is meant to be a masterpiece, a new family displaying him. And he's saying, and it's going to display the manifold wisdom of God as all things are united in Jesus someday. It's already started in the church. He's saying. Christ Jesus is seated above all rule, above all authority, above all powers, above all of the names that would be called on for salvation. He's saying he's seated above them. He has dominion over all of them. He's saying Christ Jesus freed you from the ways of the world. You're no longer stuck in sin and slavery. Those powers no longer have to have effect over you because Jesus has rule over them. N.T. Wright, one of my favorite theologians and scholars, he says, if you want to understand Ephesians, look at 1.10, 2.10, 3.10. Read these with me. Look at 1:10. It starts kind of funny because you're coming in mid-sentence. He's saying, "This has been purposed in Christ to be put into effect when the times reach their fulfillment, to bring unity to all things in heaven and on earth under Christ." He's saying, God is going to unite all things in Jesus. Meaning? All the purposes, all the things we don't understand, everything is going to come together in Jesus. All purpose is found united in him. We see it a little bit now, but someday it will happen in its fullness and every knee will bow and tongue confess. 
Yeah, him. It's all going to come together in Him. He is Lord. Now look at 2:10. He says. 
You're that family, that thing that he's putting together, and it's a piece of art for the world to see. And then it culminates in 10. His intent was that now through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. The manifold witness of God. Again, if you get into some of the wording that's behind this, it means multifaceted. Multi-colored Multi-dimensional. When I was little, And I was bored in church. I remember sitting with my mom, I can still see it, the red like woolen pews, incredibly uncomfortable. I'm like an itchy little kid. 
Like, I just don't want to be there in this moment. And it was this big, beautiful window up at the back of the church and the light would come in. And I remember my mom, she still had her diamond ring on, her engagement ring. And I remember, playing with her hand. And moving it around as it caught the light, which I'm sure she was like, "Great, just do anything to be quiet." And I would move that diamond around As the light beamed into the building, and you know what light does when it hits a prism like that or a diamond like that, it starts to just refract in all these different colors. I remember just looking at the pew in front of me, just doing this. I can still picture it. This is what the manifold wisdom of God is like, that the light of Jesus shines into the church and it goes, And it just explodes in light, in color, in diversity. It's just wild, multifaceted. And he's saying in the church, the manifold wisdom of God will be put on display so that all can see. This is a fulfillment going all the way back to the book of Deuteronomy, that God's glory would be known to the ends of the earth. And Paul says, yes, but I'm going to double down on that. It's not just going to be known to the ends of the earth. It's going to be known by the powers. Heaven's gonna see what's happening here. The powers that the demonic dark forces of the world, they're going to see this and they're going to tremble because such unity has never been seen. Such beauty, such manifold multifaceted diversity has never been able to be happening on this earth. And he says, but the church can do it because of who Jesus is and who they are in Christ. Paul is opening their eyes. 
So that the eyes of angels can see so that the eyes of the dark forces can be opened and man, they see it and they are terrified. Because the enemy of God doesn't want unity and diversity. The enemy of God does not want reconciliation. The enemy of God does not want people being brought together for a great purpose of making God known. And Paul says, I've got the key and I'm opening it for you. And he's opening a cottage by the sea. But what he starts to reveal is that no. It's actually a, an entirely bigger cosmic community that God is opening up, that God is doing this thing. That's going to change all things for all time, starting with the church, He says the church is a sign and a foretaste. 
Of God's oikos, God's household. That is going to come in all its fullness someday. Look at me at Revelation 7. Revelation 7:9 says this, After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count This is John his vision of heaven someday after this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count from every nation that Tribe people and language standing before the throne and before the lamb they were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hand a sign of praise and Adoration do you understand what he's saying in God's household someday? We should be a sign in a forced foretaste of it now, but he's saying someday When we're in glory with Jesus in the fullness of new creation, as he remakes the heavens and the earth, he's saying someday every tribe. Representatives of every language Every color. Every people group, all will be brought together at the feet of Jesus, just praising him in total unity. And what Paul is saying is you, the church are meant to be a foretaste of that now. Now. We don't just Wait till heaven someday, Tell you what, you're going to be a little bit surprised when you get there. Who's there? And he's saying, you should demonstrate that now. Now, the manifold wisdom of God is being put on display through the unity that is supposed to be happening in the church because of the unity with Jesus. He has closed the distance vertically so that we can deal with a division horizontally. And so can I just say that what Paul is talking about here is not social media posturing. Not the... The virtue signaling that our generation is so annoyingly good at. Not running our mouths, not arguing with people, trying to browbeat them into the kingdom. He's saying you, when you live like this, put it on display. You, when you live with unity with Jesus and with one another, you put it on display for the world to see. The church's ordinary faithfulness has cosmic significance, friends. 
Like, Cosmic. Not just earth, like beyond into the spiritual world. Our ordinary obedience, our ordinary faithfulness, has cosmic significance. Heaven looks in, demons tremble when they see what we're doing because they're so opposed to it. When we forgive. One another. When we reconcile with one another, When we share meals, when we bear burdens, When we pray. When we struggle to stay married, When we raise... With our best intent, God fearing kids, When we confess sin, when we care for the poor, Immigrants, refugees, it is not small. It's cosmic theater. And the world looks on and angels look on and demons look on and they say, this is amazing. And demons say, this is terrifying. We don't want that. This is what the dark forces are doing at work behind the scenes, behind the injustice, behind the abuse, behind the sin, behind the brokenness. 
So it looks small to the world, but heaven watches, hell watches, history watches. This displays the manifold wisdom. The church, friends, is not the goal. It's the preview. You understand? The church is not the goal. It's the preview. 
Someday the church goes away. Because we're all going to be with Jesus. The mission will be complete. 
So right now we're the preview. We're the sign. We're the foretaste that says this is what's coming. 
So be part of it now. Opening up the door saying, come in and be part of this with us. Paul goes on to say, Yep. I'm a steward of this. I'm opening this wisdom to you. You're going to put this wisdom on display for the world, but it comes with a cost. It necessarily comes with a cost. Suffering. Suffering. It just is. When you come up against the dark forces, against the powers that are behind all of this, they are not happy. And he'll continue to expound upon this as we get into Ephesians 6. Revelation leads to worship, obedience and proclamation. And it is an affront to the powers that are behind the scenes, friends. It will bring suffering. Hours and authorities, again, I'm not talking about people. I'm talking about the things behind people. Powers and authorities are the dark forces behind injustice, greed, division. Can I just tell you something? The powers don't mind religion. Doesn't bother him. The powers do not mind religion, but they resist reconciliation and redemption. You can be all sorts of religious and they don't care. You start being people of redemption and reconciliation. Not happy about that. The powers don't even oppose church attendance. I don't care if you're here every Sunday. But they oppose new creation life. If it starts making a difference in your identity and you start leaving this place, going out in obedience and worship and proclamation, I'm up against that. Again, I'm not talking about people. We're called to love people. 
Well, to be generous to people, gracious to people, merciful to people, charitable to people. The dark forces behind it? That's who we're after. That's who Jesus has given us authority to confront as we'll read in chapter six. And so what Paul is saying is, yeah, I'm in prison. I'm in prison. Don't be embarrassed of me. I'm doing the right thing. This is not abandonment. Don't be embarrassed. Don't be distressed. He says, we've been given the key. We are prisoners not of Rome, not of our culture. We are prisoners of Jesus. He's the one in charge. He's the warden anyway. He says, "We are His prisoners. People living in revelation of what God has shown them will respond in worship, obedience, proclamation, and it will come along with struggle and suffering. People not Fighting in the public square. 
Like think about how much of our time is spent reading about people fighting in the public square these days. Inundated with it, right? What Paul is saying is a people not fighting in the public square will bring about fighting in the spiritual realm. People who are unified, operating in peace, They'll be the ones who were in a true war. Behind the scenes. With these powers. And so what he's saying is when you live like this, man, that puts the manifold wisdom of God on display and the power, see it. And they are scared. When we live like this. It's an affront to them. And again, I just, I need to say this. I am not talking about people. I'm not talking about people who simply disagree with you. Disagree with Us. For the sermon podcast later, I just put us in quotes. Okay. I'm not talking about people who simply disagree with us. He's talking about the forces that twist human hearts towards pride, injustice, and division. This matters because if we start painting people as the enemy, We will live in fear of them. We will live in hatred of them. Do you ever see that in Jesus? Afraid of no one, hated no one, No. He was dealing with what was going on behind the scenes. The spiritual dark forces that are at work behind brokenness in this world. 
So he says, friends, I'm in prison, but take heart. Don't be discouraged. Don't give up. Remember Christ Jesus who suffered for you. He brought you into God's house through his suffering. He suffered and died, and we now join in his suffering so that we can join him in his glory. 
So Romans eight is all about. In him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence. 
So don't be discouraged, friends. You're not alone. We have one another and we're always right there with Jesus. He's always right there with us. Walking in obedience, walking in proclamation, honestly, walking in worship of his Father. We. Have the key to open up the house for people, friends. To our love of one another. They will know us. They'll know Jesus by our love of one another, by the way we are united, by the way we go about works of generosity and charity and justice. Together, we walk in his presence in obedience and worship proclamation. And so, I'll end where I started. This little church in Nazareth. Meeting in homes. During meals, forgiving one another, looks insignificant. But angels lean in. The dark forces tremble. When they see what happens among us, friends. Because God is forming his household on earth as in heaven. Dark powers behind injustice, greed, and abuse are being confronted, and they are not happy about it. But man, I am. Let us make much of Jesus. Our obedience matters. ", And one day God's glory will be revealed in us. And the universe will be made new and all things are united in Christ Jesus. As the old timers would say, Maranatha. Come, Lord Jesus. And until he does, we remain the manifold witness of God.