Welcome to Studies with Stearman.

Join us as we look deeper into the Bible.

Strengthen your faith with us, even as we see the day approaching.

And now, here's Gary.

Ephesians 4, 7 through 11, talk about Christ ascending, leading captivity captive,

after he descended into the lower parts of the earth.

And when he ascended up on high, it was the fulfillment of what Paul calls all things.

And the result of that was the giving of gifts.

That's sort of where we were when we left off last week. He gave gifts to men.

He, Christ, did things that we will never fully understand in this life. He fulfilled the protocols of heaven, the details of redemption,

and things went on, things happened, that we don't have a clue about,

not the slightest clue.

One of these days is going to be fun to find out what he actually did in all of its full detail,

and I'm sure we'll be able to find that out.

What I'd like to emphasize this morning is the idea of the giving of gifts.

Ephesians 4.11, on the basis that he ascended up on high, fulfilling all things.

And by the way, that fulfilling of all things in verse 10, or filling,

is the Greek word pleroma, which, as we've been saying for several weeks, is the key word

in all the Greek mystery religions that had to do with philosophy. They believed that the highest

thing you could achieve as a human

being was what they called the pleroma, the fullness, full knowledge. And the only way you

could do that was to engage in secret rituals of various kinds. The philosophers, the various

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