Eph. 3:14-21.  The individual believer should pray that he may experimentally

enjoy this privilege of 2:19-22 which for the present is expressed in the

words: `That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith'.

We will, therefore, follow the apostle in his argument, and postpone the

examination of the connection suggested by the words `for this cause', until we

reach verse 14.  The reason why the apostle paused to explain is because of the

claim inherent in the words:

`I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles' (Eph. 3:1).

This is the first occurrence of the personal pronoun ego

in the epistle.  Here, the message is placed first, the messenger second.  On

other occasions, as for example the fight for the faith in the epistle to the

Galatians, the commission and the independence of the messenger takes

precedence.  The occasions upon which the apostle was led to use the personal `I

Paul' are six in number, as follows 2 Corinthians 10:1; Galatians 5:2; Ephesians

3:1; Colossians 1:23; 1 Thessalonians 2:18 and Philemon 19.  The only two which

are used to make a claim to special revelation and stewardship are those in

Ephesians and Colossians:

`I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles'.

`Whereof I Paul am made a minister'.

It is evident that so much is involved and implied in the claims of

Ephesians 3:1 that it justifies the long digression of the next twelve verses.

What was this claim?  Let us notice the last claim first.  `For you Gentiles'.

It was no new thing for Paul's name to be intimately associated with the

Gentiles. At his conversion he was described as a chosen vessel to bear the name

of the Lord `before the Gentiles' (Acts 9:15) and in Romans 11:13 he declares

himself to be `the apostle of the Gentiles', a claim already recognized by

Peter, James and John (Gal. 2:8,9).  It was the connection of Paul's

imprisonment with the Gentile, that introduced the claim that demanded

explanation.  He was the prisoner of Christ Jesus (R.V.) for the Gentiles, and

it is the `prison ministry' that must claim our attention.

We must commence our survey with Paul's own introduction of the subject as

described in Acts 20.  It is evident that Paul has come to the end of one

ministry, and is now facing another.  Verses 18-21 are his own survey

of the ministry that was closing, and verses 22-24 an anticipation of the

ministry that awaited him.  Already, before a visible shackle was on his wrist,

he was `bound in the spirit' and knew that bonds as well as afflictions awaited

him.  His attitude to these things, tempered by his one absorbing desire,

however, is made known:

`But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto

myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which

I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of

God' (Acts 20:24).

The apostle then told these Ephesian elders that they would see his face

no more, and with a word of exhortation and a display of mutual affection the

chapter closes.  The fears expressed in Acts 20 were soon realized, and Paul

found himself a prisoner.  It is during his defence before king Agrippa that the

next statement concerning his prison ministry is made.  He recounts his

experience on the way to Damascus, where he was met by the Lord, converted and

commissioned.  Up till this time we only know what the Lord said to Ananias