Sunday, September 8th
Ephesians 3:1-13
Matt Rawlings
When I was growing up, some of my favorite TV shows were Perry Mason and
Columbo and I would claim when I was a kid that I only watched Murder She
Wrote, with Angela Landsbury because my mom liked it. But I liked mysteries. I
read every one of the Hardy Boys books – and secretly, I even read my sisters’
Nancy Drew and even sadly, the Bobbsy Twins books. I couldn’t get enough of
mystery books. Much later, I liked to read espionage thrillers. I liked
Sherlock Holmes and I remember wondering just who exactly is Professor Moriarty
and will Holmes ever catch him. Today, I still enjoy a good mystery and I’m
looking forward to seeing the new Sherlock Holmes series on BBC when it comes out.
I think most of us like mysteries too. A mystery that isn’t too obvious and
that we can’t figure out right away, but a mystery with enough clues to make us
feel smart and feel like we are the only ones who know – we’ve got it figured
out - but without enough proof to really be sure until the end. And then we
think yes! I figured it out – I was right!
I think most people like mysteries, because we were designed to want to
know the unknown. We were created with a God-given desire to understand. We were
created to want to know, to want to get to the bottom of things, to want to be
wise. In fact, the serpent tempted Eve using this very God-given desire and
said to the woman in Genesis 3:4-6...
"But the
serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that
when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing
good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and
that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make
one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband
who was with her, and he ate." Genesis 3:4-6
They wanted to be wise in their own eyes and they were foolish. What God
said seemed foolish to them and they thought they knew better. And so, humanity
slipped into the darkness of sin and the eyes of humanity became blinded to
sin, blinded to true wisdom, blinded to what God said and our foolish hearts
were darkened.
But God had a plan. It wasn’t a contingency plan though. In the wisdom of
God, He knew what Adam and Eve would do. And God had made a plan in eternity
past – before He even created man - to redeem humanity and to call a people to
Himself and to make His purposes known through His people. Through the entire
Bible, God reveals who He is and who mankind is, over thousands of years, and
God called a people to Himself and gave them promises. And He asked His people
to trust Him, like He had asked Adam and Eve to trust Him. But His people had
to learn to trust Him, even when they didn’t have all of the details.
So God revealed time and time again, and demonstrated through thousands of
years, that He could be trusted, even when it didn’t seem to make sense. And
then, about 2,000 years ago, God rose up a Roman emperor and subjugated His
people to this emperor and made everyone speak the same common language, all so
He could bring His Son at just the right time, at just the right moment in
History, to bring about God’s plans, in the fullness of time. And what had been
a mystery to mankind for thousands of years was finally revealed and it was
shocking. The great shock was that redeeming the people of Israel and bringing
them into a physical promised land were not God’s ultimate purpose.
His ultimate purpose was that He would save a people, from all nations,
through His Son.
For thousands of years, mankind couldn’t figure out the seeming mystery of
what God was up to. How in the world could what was happening to His people be
part of His plans? Every good Jew knew, through hundreds of years of painful
lessons learned by their ancestors, that God could be trusted, even when they
didn’t understand. But no Jew was prepared to understand that God’s purposes
were to send the Messiah not just to save the Jews but to save all the nations
and unite them in one people. The thought would have been unacceptable to them.
It would have been revolting to think of being defiled by being joined with the
Gentiles.
Why would God keep them separate for so long only to join them together
later? It was a mystery no one quite figure out. That is until Jesus came on
the scene. And even then, the Jews didn’t understand how this man Jesus could
be the Messiah, especially not after He was killed and His disciples claimed He
was raised again. It seemed like foolishness to them. Especially to one young
Pharisee named Saul, who would later become the Apostle Paul and write the
letter to the Ephesians that we will be thinking about this morning.
"For this reason
I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles - assuming that
you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you,
how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly.
When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ,
which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now
been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is
that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of
the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Of this gospel I was made a
minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the
working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this
grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for
ages in God who created all things, so that through the church the manifold
wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the
heavenly places. This was according to
the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we
have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. So I ask you
not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory."
Ephesians 3:1-13
Saul was a
Pharisee of Pharisees. And if you remember, the Pharisees didn’t really like
Jesus. He claimed to be the Messiah but then, He ate with sinners and tax
collectors. If He was the Messiah, He would have known that the woman who
anointed His feet was a prostitute and no self-respecting teacher would let a
woman of any kind touch their feet. Jesus talked to Samaritans and He even
talked to Samaritan women. He let His disciples pick grain on the Sabbath when
they were hungry. He dared to perform miracles and heal on the Sabbath.
This Jesus
seemed like a fool to them and He certainly couldn’t be the Messiah because He
wasn’t what they expected. But despite the Pharisees thoughts, Jesus is the Son
of God – they just didn’t understand the truth. They should have seen that all
of the Old Testament pointed to Him. They
should have seen that the lame walked, the blind were made to see, that He
opened up deaf ears, He cast out demons, He raised the dead to life and that He
fed God’s people by making bread and fish from nothing – all these are things
only the Messiah could do. Not only that, He raised to life again, just as He
said He would after He was crucified and then he appeared to hundreds of
people.
But Saul
still didn’t believe. Instead he zealously pursued the Christians and sought to
wipe them out. He was their chief prosecutor, thinking he was doing God’s will.
The book of Acts tells us he “was ravaging the church, and entering
house after house, he dragged off men and women and committed them to prison.”
This continued until
Jesus confronted Saul on the road to Damascus and blinded Saul and sent a man
named Ananias to pray for him and he was filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, many
years later, Paul is in jail and he is writing to the churches in the area of
Ephesus. And in verse 1 of chapter 3, he is about to pray for them again and he
says...
“For this reason
I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles”
And then he
stops praying before he really ever started and he doesn’t pick up his sentence
again until verse 14, that we are going to cover next week. It is almost as if
Paul is both struck with the immensity of what he just said himself. And he
also wants to explain what he just said, because they might have been tempted
to be concerned about Paul being in prison and they may have been confused as
to how God could allow Paul to be in prison at all.
1. In God’s wisdom, He uses unlikely
people to make known His mystery
It is astounding
that God chose Paul. Paul was a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of the
Gentiles – what an incredible statement! The man who once persecuted Christians
and threw them in jail was now in jail on behalf of Gentiles – people he
wouldn’t have ever associated with in the past. When Paul writes about the
reconciling power of God in the church, he isn’t writing as a spectator. Paul
knows the amazing power of God in his own life. Paul has been reconciled to God
through Christ Jesus. And now, Paul has been reconciled to those he once hated
and those he never would have even eaten with, he is willing to go to jail for
and die. The Pharisee of Pharisees is now a prisoner on behalf of those he once
would have disdained as just Gentile dogs. He bound and imprisoned Christians
and now he was physically imprisoned, because he was bound to Jesus Christ. He
had not done anything wrong legally – but he had preached the gospel and
directly as a result of his mission to make disciples of the Gentiles, he is
now in prison. And he
tells them about the stewardship that he was given.
"...assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's
grace that was given to me for you..."
Paul wasn’t his own – he wasn’t living for himself. His entire life mission
was to be a good steward of God’s grace for the sake of the Gentiles. God
entrusted a great truth to Paul that had been hidden for ages prior and this
mystery was that God’s eternal plan was always to unite Jew and Gentile alike
into a new humanity through Jesus Christ. Paul knew that he had not been given
the gospel – he hadn’t been given this grace - just for his own personal
benefit.
And we haven’t been given God’s divine grace in the gospel for our benefit
alone either. So often, we live as if the message of reconciliation, the
revelation of who Jesus Christ really is and why He came, is just good news for
us. We live as if the good news He has entrusted to us doesn’t need to be
shared. Perhaps it is because we don’t see ourselves just how unlikely it is
that God should call us and choose us – because if we did, we might understand
that He called us for a purpose – to make known His mystery.
But Paul was aware of his unlikely stewardship of God’s grace and he was
aware that it was intended for the good of others. The question for us, if we
have been born again by the power of the Holy Spirit, is whether we are aware
that we have been given a stewardship of God’s grace. And if we are aware that
we have been given a stewardship of God’s grace, do we realize that this
stewardship we have been given is for the sake of those around us?
Paul lived to make God’s grace known. He lived to reveal the mystery – or
better yet, the open secret of the gospel of reconciliation to those around
him. If you were Survivorman, and you were dropped into a remote wilderness
with only limited supplies – you would be a man on a mission and you would
steward what you were given. Paul was a man on a mission in a hostile world,
given the stewardship of God’s grace. And all of us are meant to be a people on
a mission, carefully considering how we are stewarding God’s grace. In verse 3,
we can see that Paul was aware that he received this stewardship when the
mystery of God’s grace was revealed to him by revelation.
"...how the
mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly."
Paul was keenly aware that he didn’t understand the mystery of God’s grace
to unite all things in heaven and earth in Christ on his own. He didn’t
understand that God had planned to unite Jew and Gentile alike into the body of
Christ – the church. The only way he understood these things was that Jesus
Himself personally intervened, knocked Paul off his high horse on the road to
Damascus and revealed the truth to him. It was a greater revelation than any TV
show that tells us the truth behind Magic’s greatest tricks. This was
revelation of the miraculous truth and it required God’s mighty power to reveal
it. So, Paul writes to them to explain the mystery to them, so that they would
understand and be amazed at God’s will for them as they grasp the significance
of what they have been called to in the church
"When you
read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ..."
What is the mystery of Christ? It is the mystery of how God has made a new
humanity through Christ, in the church. Paul uses this theme of
mystery-revealed, four times in this short passage. And in verse 4, Paul says
that it is the mystery that has been fully disclosed in Christ Jesus – because
Jesus is the full revelation of the previously unseen God the Father. The open
secret that has now been made known, is that salvation does not depend on
keeping the law, but it depends on the grace of God, that we receive by faith
in what Jesus has done. The mystery of Christ is that He joins Jew and Gentile
together in His own body to make a new humanity in the church. And God uses
unlikely people like you and me to make known His mystery of Christ.
"...which
was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been
revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit..."
Verse 5 tells us that the truth was not understood by man until God chose
to reveal it. But all the Old Testament – the Law and the Prophets point
forward to Jesus Christ. And it is clear if you are to go back and read the Old
Testament that God always intended to bless all the nations – the Gentiles
through Abraham’s seed. And the apostles were eye-witnesses to everything that
Jesus said and did and by the Holy Spirit, God used them to reveal the truth of
who Jesus is to us. Now, we have the privilege of being on this side of the
coming of Jesus Christ, and realizing that all of God’s grand plans have been
revealed in Jesus Christ. And
in verse 6, Paul tells us that this mystery that he speaks of...
“This mystery is
that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of
the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel...”
2. In God’s wisdom, His mystery is
that unlikely people are joined together in the church
Not only does
God call unlikely people but He joins them together in the church. The open secret
that Paul is talking about, is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs. They are
together members of the same body with the Jews as part of the body of Christ. It
was an open secret that wasn’t previously understood. Not only in the good news
of Jesus Christ are all the families of the earth blessed but now, all of
humanity can be redeemed and counted as Abraham’s children by faith.
We are fellow heirs to the promise – fellow heirs – on the same footing as
the Jews, as God’s chosen people. And together, we partake of the Holy Spirit
himself, who is the epitome of God’s promise – God’s very presence with us, to
help us and bless us. And all of this is true in Christ Jesus and through the
gospel alone.
So, it is in Christ Jesus that all of the promises are fulfilled for Jew
and Gentile alike and these promises are ours through the gospel of Jesus
Christ. Paul knew his commission to preach the gospel was a great gift of God’s
grace. He who once was a persecutor of Christ’s body, now counts it the highest
honor, which was given to him by the working of God’s power. You see, nothing
short of God’s power could change Paul, the hater and persecutor of Christians
into a Christian himself. God mightily and effectively worked in Paul – to make
a dead man alive.
And in the same way, if you are now a Christian, you have been made alive
by the mighty power of God, to be a minister of His grace. No, we don’t have
the same scope of ministry as Paul but we do have the same powerful gospel that
we are called to minister and we have the same grace of God that we proclaim.
Do you see yourself that way? Do you realize that you have been made alive
by the powerful working of God and do you realize that He has ordained you to
shine the light of His gospel hope in a dark world? Paul knew that God had
given him a great commission by His gift of grace, but Paul also knew it wasn’t
because he was something in and of himself. In fact, in 1 Corinthians 15:10
Paul explains that everything he is, is by the grace of God.
"For I am
the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I
persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his
grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of
them, though it was not I, but the grace of God that is with me."
1 Corinthians 15:9-10
No, Paul understood who he really was on his own. He was saved by grace,
called by God’s grace and enabled by God’s grace. He says in verse 8...
"To me, though I am the very
least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the
unsearchable riches of Christ..."
He says that he is the very least of all the saints. How could he say this?
He could say this because he once thought he was great, when he was a Pharisee,
but God showed him who he really was and he was renamed Paul – or small. So he
is saying that he is Paul, small, and not only that he is the smallest of all.
In fact, he creates a new word that isn't used anywhere else and says in effect
that he is the “leaster” or less than the least. He knows how unworthy he is.
Maybe he continually remembered Stephen’s face as he was stoned to death
while Paul looked on approvingly and held the cloaks for the men who martyred
him. He likely never forgot the torment and agony that he caused the
Christians. He never forgot that Jesus
had to blind him and say “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” He wasn’t just
hurting people – he was persecuting the very body of Christ and so, Christ
Himself. So, Paul is aware that but for the grace of God, he would be nothing
good. But he doesn’t stop with a focus on his “leastness” – his focus is on the
grace of God that was given to him to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ.
My family visited a place called “endless caverns” a few years ago in
Virginia. They aren’t actually endless but there does seem to be endless numbers
of tunnels and caverns to explore for mile after mile and supposedly, all of
the tunnels there still haven’t been explored, over years of searching it out –
there are still untold depths to explore. When Paul uses the word that we have
as “unsearchable”, it has a similar meaning – that the riches of Christ know no
end. No one has ever been able to explore all of the depths of His riches.
The riches of Jesus are unable to be searched out – there is no end – we
could live a hundred lifetimes and still not reach the end of His riches. Jesus
has an unending wealth of grace – unending kindness, unfathomable wisdom,
endless mercy, love and all knowledge – true riches are hidden in Christ. And
Paul is overwhelmed that he gets to be a “proclaimer” – a missionary of God’s
grace in Jesus. In fact, he said in Philippians...
"I count
everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my
Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as
rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ."
Philippians 3:8
Do you feel this way – do you know that Jesus has unsearchable riches – do
you wonder at Jesus this way? Do you talk about Jesus this way? If not, I would
say that we haven’t seen Jesus for who He is yet. God desires to make Himself
known to us in Jesus Christ and God desires that we would treasure Jesus this
way. And I believe that if we pray and ask God, He will make Jesus even more
dear to us. So although we can never fully comprehend the eternal, all-knowing,
infinite God – we can know Him and grow in our knowledge of Him more and more. And
Paul was given not only the grace of God to preach the unsearchable riches of
Jesus, he was also called to...
"...and to
bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in
God who created all things..."
God’s plan wasn’t seen before – but now, in Jesus, the light of the world,
God’s plan has been revealed. The Creator of all had always planned and chosen
a people for Himself – before the foundations of the world were laid, God had
predestined a people for Himself and planned out the way that He would put it
into place at just the right time. And Paul was called to shine a light on the
fact that God who created everything has always intended to bring all things
together in His Son and complete His work of re-creation on the final day. Then,
in verse 10, Paul tells us that the reason that he was called to bring these
things to light was...
"...so that
through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the
rulers and authorities in the heavenly places."
You see, God
had always planned to make known His wisdom through the church. That is the
third thing we are going to look at in these verses
3. God always planned to make known
His wisdom through the church
God’s plan through the ages was always to have a people for Himself and
that the church would be the place where the manifold wisdom of God might be
made known. God intends to make known and bring about His plans through the
church. What is your view of the church? Is it optional? Is it secondary? That
isn’t God’s view – God intended that the church might make known His manifold,
or many-splendored wisdom.
The word we have as “manifold” is a unique expression – it is a poetic
expression. It is the same word used for the coat of many colors. It brings to mind
an intricately colored and embroidered pattern or all of the different shades
and colors of a rich bouquet of flowers. It is the diverse, richly colored,
multi-faceted wisdom of God and in this context, it has to do with God’s many
splendored wisdom in creating a body of multi-racial, multi-cultural people
from every tribe and tongue and nation in the Body of Christ - His church.
So, the church is a product of the revealed mystery of God through all the
ages and the church is also the means by which God makes His wisdom known. And
the astounding truth that we have here is that the wisdom of God is made known
to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places - through the church! It
is in and through the local gathering of the church that the church reveals the
manifold wisdom of God. The very existence of a local congregation of gathered
believers – from different backgrounds and ethnicities and nations is itself a
sign to the principalities and powers of the reconciling power of the gospel.
The fact that people who are very different love each other is itself a
display of the wisdom of God in the church. When there is unity and peace and
excitement about our shared mission together, instead of complaining and
back-biting and gossip, this makes knows the manifold wisdom of God to the
angels and demons alike. And when a local church is carrying out its mission of
being ministers of reconciliation, when a local church is committed to each
other, loving each other and serving each other through whatever may come – it
testifies of the wisdom of God to the entire spiritual world.
When we lay aside our preferences and participate together wholeheartedly
in what God has called us to in this local church, it is a reminder to the
demons and evil spirits that their power has been broken and that everything is
under Christ’s feet. When we as a local church carry out all of the
“one-another” commands in the New Testament that we have been given, it
testifies to the power of God at work in us and it testifies that no power can
stop the good news of Jesus Christ, as it transforms our lives.
How we act in our local church makes a difference. If we are neglecting
fellowship in the church, it is saying something untrue about the wisdom of God.
If we are not committed to our local church, it is saying something untrue
about God’s wisdom. If we are not serving in our local church, it is saying
something untrue about God’s power to change our lives and make us into people
who are willing to give everything to make His good news evident in our church.
You see, when a local church is united in purpose and heart and deed, it
testifies as proof that one day God will unite all things together in Christ. And
this was God’s plan from the very beginning – in fact it was God’s plan before
there ever was a beginning – from all eternity, it has been God’s plan to show
His wisdom through the church and even through our little church here.
"This was
according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord..."
God’s eternal purpose that He has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord is that
He would make Himself known through the church. As a part of this local church
body – and as a part of the greater body of Christ – we can be assured that we
are a part of the eternal purposes of God that He has realized in Jesus. When
you serve and love and care for others here. When you serve in children’s
ministry when you don’t feel like it. When you give financially, even though it
is difficult and means sacrifice. When you carry out our mission and make
disciples, you are carrying out the eternal purposes of God and preaching to a
watching world and to angels and demons that you aren’t relying on your power
or your ability but that you are relying on and trusting in God’s power to
enable you and His grace to sustain you.
Maybe you’ve become weary. Maybe you’ve lost sight of what God has called
us to. Maybe you find that you are no longer thrilled with the simple but
astounding mission of God in and through His church. I would encourage you –
shake off any wrong understanding of what the church is and embrace the wisdom
of God to place you in the local church to work out your salvation, to grow in
sanctification – to grow as His disciples and make disciples of Him.
God has great riches of grace that He gives to His children. He doesn’t
leave us alone – He calls us, he equips us and He makes us able for His glory. This
is the eternally planned mission and direction and unstoppable purpose of God
that we get to be a part of. God is carrying out His eternal purposes through
you and me as we live out the unglamorous life of being a faithful, diligent,
committed, loving and supportive church member in our local church. And all of
our confidence to live this way comes from our faith in Him.
"...in whom
we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him."
We have boldness and access to come into God’s presence with confidence in
our union with Christ Jesus. We don’t have to hope for boldness and access to
God – we have it. We have boldness and access with confidence as well. We don’t
have to come timidly or cautiously or wondering if God accepts us – no, we can
have confidence to come before God with joy, knowing that we are accepted in
and through our faith in Jesus. No hardship that they face can thwart God’s
plans or take them away from God. So, Paul appeals to them to not lose heart
over his sufferings for them.
"So I ask
you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory."
Paul’s sufferings
are on their behalf and for their good. Paul’s arrest and imprisonment are no
setback to the cause of Christ, even though they may seem that way. Nothing can
stop the unstoppable plan of God. Paul’s suffering will lead to the salvation
of many Gentiles and he knows it.
What he
probably didn’t realize is that his own suffering and imprisonment was the
means that God intended to make the gospel known to countless Gentiles for
thousands of years. Because had Paul not been imprisoned, he likely would not
have written so much of the New Testament. He would have been too busy doing
the work. But he is Christ’s prisoner and in jail, Paul writes these words of
encouragement to the churches in the region of Ephesus and he wrote these words
for us too – to encourage us – even though he didn’t know we would one day read
them as well.
Truly Paul’s
suffering for the Ephesians was for their and also our glory. Paul was a part
of God’s glorious plans to reveal the mystery of the good news of Jesus Christ
in and through His church. We are a part of God’s glorious plan to make the
good news known and to make known to angels and demons God’s multifaceted
wisdom in how we participate in our local church too. What do I think God wants
us to get this morning, I believe it is this: In His divine wisdom, God works in ways we may not understand on our
own, but we can trust Him, because we can see His wisdom at work in the church.
So, in some
ways, like Paul, we may suffer and it may be difficult to be a part of a
church. It may require we die to
ourselves so that we become more like Jesus – but we get to be a part of God’s
eternal mission and we get to me ministers of His grace. And we can trust that
He is working His plans at just the right time, in just the right way for His
glory and our good – and we get to partner together with Him. What a privilege!
