If you joined us last broadcast, you might have been surprised as we are talking about the riches and treasures and our position in Christ and how glorious those things are that we went to the issue of being a slave of Christ. The word doulos is the word that should be translated in the Bible as slaves. We are the slaves of Christ. We find the apostles uniformly happy to be called the slaves of Christ. The New Testament also identifies us as slaves of Christ, not only now, but in eternity to come. These are wonderful privileges that are ours.
We are looking today to another title or position that doesn’t seem to be particularly inviting at first glance. We are also prisoners of the Lord. Who wants to be a prisoner? Well, if we are prisoners of the Lord, it is a very good thing.
Ephesians 3:1 says, “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles.” Paul was, at this point, a physical Roman prisoner, but also, he was a prisoner of Jesus. Perhaps he is speaking of both here, but he certainly is speaking of being a prisoner of Christ. He says he was happy to be a prisoner of Christ, captive by Christ, in order to benefit the Gentiles. What was it that he benefited them with? If you read through the text, he wanted them to know the mysteries of Christ. Ephesians 3:5-6 says, “which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” Something took pace following the death, resurrection, and ascension of Christ that most Jews weren’t so excited about: Gentiles were brought into the boy of Christ with them. So, the Lord formed a new entity, the church, and that New Testament church would be made up not just of the Old Testament chosen people, the Jews, but also of the multitude of Gentiles that came to Christ. As time went on, the church moved from a Jewish dominance to a Gentile dominance, but always from the early church and on it was composed of Jews and Gentiles who made up the body of Christ. Paul says that is a mystery. It was not something revealed very clearly in the Old Testament, so very few people were expecting this and very few people were excited about it, but Paul was, and he was excited that he, as the prisoner of the Lord, had been sent out by his Lord to give forth this mystery that the body of Christ would be made up of Jews and Gentiles . . .
