Now imagine that! Paul is in jail. He's in jail because he taught the mystery of Christ.
And not only that, a little later he was beheaded because he taught the mystery of Jesus Christ. Now, that's one example that shows that people don't understand the mystery of Christ in this world. Paul, though, knew it so well and understood it so well that nothing would stop him. He was so excited about this message that nothing would stop him from uttering it unless he was killed.
That's how he thought about this message. Now, that's
how profound his dedication was to uttering that message.
Now, even as he was so exhilarated by the message, he asked God as he was sitting there in jail, to open a door so he could speak this message, this mystery of Christ to everybody
around. And of course in the first century they did preach it to all the known world at that time.
Paul and others did that. But Paul is going to get a tremendous reward. If you know
anything about the Bible and what it teaches about Paul, it's pretty certain that he's going to rule over the Gentiles under Daniel. Now, that's a huge responsibility, and Paul was trained for that, and he uttered this message to the Gentiles until they killed him. So that's an interesting truth that we need to think about.
Here is the mystery of Christ being preached to the people, and the people were so
enraged by it that they put Paul in jail and eventually killed him, cut off his head.
What is there about the mystery of Christ that so upsets people? Or at least, most
people. I mean, after all, this is the great Apostle Paul. Why should people persecute and kill a man who was doing nothing but preaching about the mystery of Christ?