God has granted a new dispensation! This dispensation is concerned with a secret, a

secret not discoverable in the Scriptures, because it has been "hid in God" since the ages.

Now, since the setting aside of Israel, God has made manifest this secret purpose, and I

bring you the glad message, that God chose, before the overthrow of the world, Gentile

believers to be associated with Christ, as members of His body, and to be seated with

Him where He now sits at the right hand of God, blessed with all spiritual blessings in

heavenly places!

But beloved, I will not stand between you and the real message I bring; here is an

epistle sent by the Apostle to the assemblies, and to be read and interchanged with the

epistle to Laodicea, which I also am entrusted to deliver.

At this, Angelos produced a letter, the letter which we now call "The Epistle to the

Ephesians", which gives us the basis of the teaching that Paul dispensed in his own house

throughout the two years of his imprisonment.

Five epistles bear the mark of prison: Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, Philemon,

and II Timothy. When, however, we think of the new revelation and its conveyance to

ourselves in the N.T., we speak of the "Four Prison Epistles".

In verse 23 of Acts 28: neither "preaching" nor "teaching" is mentioned, but

"exposition", "testimony" and "persuasion"; in verse 31, however, we have "preaching"

and "teaching".

A number of words are translated "preach" but the two chief are euaggelizo and

kerusso. So far as Acts is concerned, euaggelizo occurs sixteen times, and kerusso eight,

but, looking at the N.T. as a whole, the two words occur almost an equal number of

times, so that we must be careful before drawing inferences. The word used in

Acts 28: 31 is kerusso, which is allied with kerux, a herald, a word not used in the

early epistles of Paul, but which is found in I Tim. 2: 7 and II Tim. 1: 11, where the

Apostle solemnly asseverates that he was "appointed a preacher (kerux), and an apostle,

and a teacher of the Gentiles". This is therefore a reason why the "preaching" of

Acts 28: 31  should be a "heralding" rather than an "evangelizing", and this

harmonizes with the making known of the new phase of the kingdom of God that

included, for the first time, the dispensation of the mystery.

Didasko, "teaching", is one of five Greek words so translated. The other words are:

Kataggello, "to teach", but only so translated once (Acts 16: 21). This need not detain us

here, for it so obviously means "to announce tidings", as to need no proof.  Katecheo,

"to instruct", Matheteuo, "to disciple", and Paideuo, "to chasten" or "train", as a child",

while having their place, would be out of place in Acts 28: 31.

Didasko, the word used, is associated with didache and didaskalia, "doctrine", and is

used to denote the new revelation of grace which constitutes the mystery. Specific

teaching was necessary on many important subjects.  When the Apostle wrote to

Timothy: "Thou hast fully known my doctrine" (II Tim. 3: 10), he presupposes that