Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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Beginning in verse seven. Listen,
for this is the word of the Lord.
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But grace was given to each one
of us according to the measure of
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Christ's gift. Therefore, it says
when he ascended on high, he led
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a host of captives and he gave
gifts to men. In saying he ascended,
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what does it mean but that he
also descended into the lower regions of
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the earth? He who descended is
the one who also ascended far above all
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the heavens, that he might fill
all things. As far the reading of
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God's Word May he bless it to
us he may be seated. This passage
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sound a little bit familiar to us. This morning we read from Psalm Sixty
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Eight, and here we are in
Ephesians for where Paul quotes Psalm Sixty eight,
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verse eighteen. But before we get
to that quotation, I want us
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to hear a bit of the context
of what Paul is saying and this part
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in his letter to the Ephesians,
to see why he quotes from this Psalmon
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and what he's saying when he quotes
from Psalm Sixty eight earlier in Ephesians chapter
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four. Paul says before when I
just read in verse four, talking to
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the church, describing the unity of
the church, he says there is one
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body and one spirit, just as
you were called to the one hope that
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belongs to your call, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one
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God and father of all, who
is over all and through all and in
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all. And so the church here
exists in Oneness, oneness with God,
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oneness with one another, and as
one body. The Church has fellowship with
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Christ, for the body belongs to
Christ. He's the head, as Paul
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says elsewhere. Therefore the church belongs
to him. In fact, the unity
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of the Church reflects the very unity
of God in the Trinity, as Paul
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Lists All three persons of the Trinity
and describing this unity that the church possesses.
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And so it may seem unusual,
then, what Paul says in Verse
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Seven. where he'd been talking about
the the oneness, the unity of the
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church, he now addresses our individuality. But grace was given to each one
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of us according to the measure of
Christ's gift. So, the way he'd
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been talking about our unity, now
he describes diversity. He quickly goes from
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referring to the Church as a collection
active one, and now he addresses us
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as individuals. So which is it? Is The church just one thing,
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or is the church multiple many things? Of course the answers both right.
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Elsewhere, using the same imagery of
a body, Paul will say that the
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church is like a human body,
being composed of many different parts, and
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so to be united to the church
does not mean that you lose your uniqueness
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or the gifts you've been given.
Rather, there's an essential unity to the
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body and an essential diversity to that
body as well. A pile of eyeballs
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doesn't make up a body. And
to the Lord has blessed his church with
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a variety of gifts which, in
their diversity, are given to build up
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and to support one another. You
don't lose yourself. Rather, what you've
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been given is for the benefit of
the body. But Paul doesn't really tell
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us about the variety of gifts until
later, until verse eleven. What I
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want to focus on is what he
first establishes here, which is the reason,
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the foundation for these gifts. Before
describing the gifts, Paul draws eye
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eyes back to the giver again,
as he says in verse seven. But
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grace was given to each one of
us according to the measure of Christ's gift.
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And so Christ is the giver,
He is the One Who bestows gifts
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upon his church. And rather than
just stating that fact, he goes on
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to prove it, doesn't he?
And in order to prove his assertion,
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he references for us a familiar psalm. Here in Verse Eight he quotes from
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Psalms Sixty Eight, verse eighteen.
And isn't this an interesting place for the
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apostle to turn? I mean there's
several places. There's many psalms that are
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widely considered to be Messianic Psalms,
psalms which specifically anticipate the coming Messiah.
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Famous psalms right like Psalm to.
As for me, I've set my King
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on Mount Zion, my Holy Hill. I will tell the decree. The
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Lord said to me, you are
my son Today, I have begotten you.
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Or Psalm one hundred and ten right, the Lord says to my Lord,
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sit at my right hand until I
make your enemies your footstool. The
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Lord Sends Forth From Zion Your Mighty
scepter rule in the midst of your enemies.
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These are psalms which anticipate the coming
victory of the Messiah, and that
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is how they both reference his his
kingship, they reference his victorious ascent to
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the Heights of Mount Zion. And
yet Paul doesn't quote from these more commonly
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Messianic Psalms. He points us to
a verse in Psalm Sixty eight instead.
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As we saw this morning, this
is a psalm that's very much based in
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the history of Israel. Psalm Sixty
eight seems at first glance to just be
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looking backwards, not forwards, but
upon specific events in Israel's past. As
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Psalm Sixty eight describes God's victory when
he conquered Jerusalem, the place where the
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temple would reside now. The historic
battle was fought by David. But unlike
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more narrative accounts of David's victory there
in Second Samuel Five or first chronicles eleven,
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Psalm Sixty eight gives a poetic retelling
of this victory, for in this
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psalm the victory doesn't belong to David, it belongs to the Lord. Likewise,
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the Psalm doesn't begin with David,
it begins at Mount Sinai, and
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so psalm sixty eight gives us God's
perspective on this March from Sinai to Zion.
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In Jerusalem and we're shown God's victory
March leading his people through the Wilderness,
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as we saw. He says,
lift up a song to him who
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rides through the dead Azzart, and
that God settles the Solitary in a home,
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he leads the prisoners to prosperity,
but the rebellious dwell in a parched
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land. Oh God, when you
went out before your people, when you
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marched through the Wilderness. And so
the Psalm describes God bringing victory to his
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people and God bringing defeat to his
enemies. It's a battle song describing God's
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ultimate victory and taking up residence upon
Mount Zion in Jerusalem. As it describes
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this journey from the tent of the
Tabernacle to the more solid structures of a
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temple. It's the journey of a
wandering people of Israel to Israel, being
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given a home to call their own. And yet while David describes this victory
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March, Paul turns to verse eighteen
to prove whose victory. He turns the
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Verse Eighteen to prove Christ's victory.
Psalm Sixty Eight, verse eighteen says you
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ascended on high, leading a host
of captives in your train, and receiving
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gifts among men, even among the
rebellious, that the Lord God may dwell
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there. What its describing here is
that, according to the ancient practices of
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war, after a victory, it
was customary for the conquering king to ride
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into the conquered city with much ceremony. And as the king would leave this
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parade, he'd be followed by his
own army, who would then be followed
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by their prisoners, by their captives. In a display of military might and
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power, the victorious King's enemies would
be chained together in humiliation and and paraded
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before the entire city. Their possessions
would be taken from them, along with
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their freedoms, as they were no
longer belonging to their former king, but
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now belonging to their new king.
This triumphant March for the king would be
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a humiliating and degrading March. Then, for the captives, the king would
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receive his rewards from the plunder of
the city. These were the spoils of
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war, with the enemy defeated,
that things that used to belong to him
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now belong to the king. Psalm
Sixty eight picks up on some of this
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language. The Lord leading in his
train, a host of captives, as
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the Lord takes his dwelling, as
the Lord receives gifts, and it psalm
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sixty eights does more than just describe
the Lord as one who conquers and one
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who gathers and weeks. For in
the same Psalm, God is described as
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a father to the fatherless. He's
described as a protector to the widow.
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There it says that the women divided
the spoil. This is a king who
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cares and who blesses his own people, especially the afflicted. So the Psalm
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describes both the mighty strength of our
warrior God and also his protection and his
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care for his people. And so
Paul takes that historical Psalm and now here
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applies it to Christ, and in
doing so he tells us something about how
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to read our bibles. Is He's
doing more than just saying that Christ is
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the Lord who was victorious when David
conquered Jerusalem. He's saying something more.
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It's not just that Christ was present
back then, but that we should read
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the very history of Israel as anticipating
and expecting and pointing us to Christ.
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The Lord's assent into Jerusalem was but
a shadow. It was a real event,
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but it was still a picture of
what would take place when Christ ascended
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into the true and Heavenly Zion.
Christ's assent was not up an earthly mountain
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to subdue an earthly city. His
assent was into the very throne room of
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God and was given a place of
victory, for Christ is seated at the
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right hand of God in heavenly places. In this light, then, the
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picture portrayed by Psalm Sixty eight makes
so much sense to us. The Lord
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who descends Mount Sinai, who shepherds
his people through the Wilderness, is the
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one who claims victory in his assent
to Mount Zion, and we see in
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that the very work of our Lord, the very work of Christ, for
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in Christ God descended. In Christ, God descended Mount Sinai once again to
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be with his people. For Christ, who is truly God and truly man,
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was also born under the law.
And when describing Christ's incarnation, John
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and his Gospel says that the word
became flesh and dwelt among us, and
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that word literally means tabernacled among us. And it was Christ who was then
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tempted in the Wilderness for forty days
so that in the ascent in Psalm Sixty
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eight. That ascent actually anticipates an
ultimate, a final assent vent of Christ
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into that final resting place, to
that final Jerusalem that is above Paul.
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That emphasizes the significance of Christ's victorious
assent and what his victory accomplished. Look
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at verse nine. In saying he
ascended, what does it mean but that
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he also descended into the lower parts
the earth. He who descended is the
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one who also ascended far above all
the heavens, that he might fill all
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things for Paul. Here Christ's assent
makes no sense unless you talk about his
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descent. And HOW LOW DID CHRIST
DESCEND? Lower parts of the earth,
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as another way of saying the grave
itself. The Christ descended all the way
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to the pit, to being under
the very earth itself. For Christ to
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be victorious, he had to be
taken captive himself. For Christ to conquer
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the grave, he had to first
die enter the grave. To be victorious
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over sin and death, he had
to first take sin and death upon himself.
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And so Christ's victory did not look
like the victory of an ancient conquering
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king, did it? His victory
did not come by the might of his
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sword, but through the weakness of
the Cross. Christ's victory did not come
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through military might, but through the
humiliating death of a prisoner, for Christ
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took on the very forces of sin
and death, where military force cannot win
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the day. And Paul makes note
of this reversal that has taken place in
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Christ's victory. For even though Christ's
victory was greater than David's, the method
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of gaining it couldn't be any different. Where David is victorious in this Parade
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Right, Christ is bound, tied, humiliated, scorned. That's what happens
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to losers, that's what happens to
captives. And this reversal is picked up
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in verse six and Verse Eight itself, when Paul quotes from Psalm Sixty eight.
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Casalm sixty eight, verse eighteen sounds
different from Paul's quote. Psalm Sixty
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Eight, verse eighteen says you ascended
on high, leading a host of captives
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in your train and receiving gifts among
men. When Paul quotes us in Verse
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Eight, he says when he ascended
on high, he led a house of
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captives and he gave gifts two men. What's going on here? Psalm sixty
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eighth says he received gifts. Ephesians, for says he gave gifts. As
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Paul just misremembering the Psalm, these
weren't are opposites right. Is Paul disagreeing
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with the Psalm? No, his
his change here is very intentional. Paul
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showing this that in Christ a reversal
has taken place. When he ascended the
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Mount of Jerusalem, he did not
ascend in ceremony but in chains. And
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this reversal is seen in Christ's very
nature, who came not to be served
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but to serve. Christ does not
go all the way to the cross in
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order to receive gifts. Rather,
he went to the cross that he might
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give gifts. And so Paul changes
one word. That that we would see
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what happens when we move from the
picture of Israel to the reality of Christ.
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Rather than Christ plundering his captives,
he blesses his captives. Rather than
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humiliating his captives, he takes the
shame of the cross in your place,
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for look at who the captives of
Christ are. And just in Paul's letter
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to the Ephesians, twice Paul identifies
himself as a captive, the conquered subject
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of the Lord as he begins Chapter
Three, as he begins Chapter Four,
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Paul's calls himself both a prisoner of
the Lord and a prisoner in the Lord.
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Paul wants us to see him as
a prisoner taken captive by Christ,
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because in Christ it's a blessing to
be a captive, because in Christ the
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place of blessing is the place of
captivity. In Christ, the place of
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blessing is the place of captivity.
In the new covenant, you want to
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be a prisoner of Christ. To
be a prisoner of Christ is not proof
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of God's cursing you. Rather,
it's a proof of his blessing you.
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The Lord is teaching you to see
yourselves as prisoners of the Lord, to
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see the church as a host of
captives that he has conquered. By bearing
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the curse for us, he has
removed humiliation and the shame of being a
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prisoner, as Hebrews says in chapter
two, verse fourteen, since therefore the
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children share in flesh and blood,
he himself likewise partook of the same things,
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that through death, he might destroy
the one who has the power of
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death, that is, the devil. Deliver all those who, through fear
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of death, were subject to life
long slavery. And so Christ has conquered
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a people for himself, not to
plunder them, but to bless them and
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to give them gifts. And how
does he give gifts? In his victory
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he's been blessed with the fullness of
Heaven. He took possession of the Very
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Heavenly Zion, and that is his
gift, that is his reward for going
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to the cross, that's his heavenly
inheritance, and it's in light of that
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fullness that Christ blesses and gives to
his church. As what Paul says all
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the way back in chapter one,
verse three, blessed be the God and
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father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with
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every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. For you've been given the gift of
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Christ's own inheritance. You've been given
the gift of Christ himself, because he
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has conquered you, because he has
made you his own. What a blessing
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it is to be God's prisoner,
to be his eternal inheritance, to know
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that you are his spoils of war, just as he has made himself yours.
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For Christ has become a prisoner for
your sake. Therefore, it's an
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honor to be a prisoner for his
sake. Therefore, it's an honor to
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walk in a manner worthy of this
calling, as you're called to walk humbly,
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to walk graciously, to walk with
patience, bearing one another in love,
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because you've been given gifts not to
secure your own glory and honor,
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but to be a blessing to the
body, and you're to walk in this
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manner knowing that your home is heaven, where Christ has been seated, for
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this is what being bound to him
calls us to. So maybe this be
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what Christ continues to do in our
lives until he calls US home. Amen.
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