Ephesians 3 - August 6, 2006
Good morning. Join me in turning to the book of Ephesians, chapter 3. We have been going through this letter of Paul the Apostle, written to Christians in the town of Ephesus, the capital city of Turkey or Asia Minor as it was known back them. We mentioned that chapters 1-3 deal with doctrine, and chapters 4-6 deal with duty. 1-3 deal with who we are, and 4-6 with how we live. We look at verses 1-4 and we see the key idea: we are blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ in the heavenly realms. We see that we live on a spiritual plane, and we look beyond just the blessings of health and money and family. We see that on a spiritual, supernatural level God has given us every possible blessing.
We see that the Father chose us for salvation. The Father is the one who initiated our salvation and made it possible. We see it is Christ who has redeemed us, offering us forgiveness by dying in our place on the cross. We see the Holy Spirit seals us, identifying us as a Christian. The Holy Spirit is also our guarantee, our downpayment, our security that we WILL receive all that God has promised we will receive. And because of all of these blessings, our response is to give praise to God. To load him down with our praises.
In the end of chapter 1, Paul has seen the faith and love of these Ephesians believers put into practice, and so he prays all the harder for them. He doesn’t pray for them to GET anything new, because they have already received every spiritual blessing. Paul is praying for the believers to KNOW what they have already been given.
Paul’s prayer is that we would KNOW God on an experiential basis, more and more; that we would ANTICIPATE with hope the calling we have received to salvation; that we would understand the glorious INHERITANCE we have been given; and that we would know the incomparably great POWER of God. So powerful, that the only thing that comes close to helping us understand it is that this was the power that raised Christ from the dead after he died for our sins, in our place.
In chapter 2 and see Our Position in Christ. In verses 1-10, we see ourselves positionally. We see who we WERE - dead in sins, led astray by the world, the devil, and our flesh, our sin nature. But Paul reminds us we have been given victory by God. We have gone from being a corpse to being made alive, to becoming a masterpiece, a great work of art, showing God’s glory, and we are to do good works so that God may continue to get more and more glory as others see our good works and glorify the Father in heaven.
In verses 11-22 we see RELATIONALLY who we have been made to become. The Ephesians, as Gentiles, were without a past, without a present, without a future, without hope, and without God. But Christ has broken down the wall of separation, brought peace, and brought access to God. In Christ, Jews and Gentiles together form one people, one kingdom, one family, and one building: a holy temple.
Today we go on to chapter 3. In this chapter, we see Paul responding to this great truth he has just explained to the Ephesians. Let’s look at what he says. He will go on as we’ll see next week to apply these truths he has been teaching, but what is not properly understood cannot be properly applied. So it is important that we understand this basic teaching about the church. Let’s read chapter 3. READ 3:1-21. PRAY.
We are going to break this chapter down into 3 parts to understand it. We will look at three words - we will look at three sections - and we will look at three questions. Let’s start with the first section.
1. Paul’s Learning - and our key word here is “MYSTERY”. What do you think of when you hear the term “mystery”? Most of us think of a good book or movie we know. We think of Sherlock Holmes or Charlie Chan out to solve a puzzling murder. Paul talks in verse 2 about a “mystery” as well. Only the term has a different meaning in the bible. We think about a mystery as something that we can find out if we just search hard enough. In the Bible a mystery is something we can NEVER figure out. Only God can reveal it. A mystery is something that we NOW KNOW because God has given us a special revelation of his truth. Paul tells us about several of these mysteries, but here in Ephesians we are talking about Christ bringing Jew & Gentile together as one body, the church.
Paul starts out, as he writes as a Roman prisoner, calling himself a prisoner of Christ. Even though the Roman soldiers are the ones giving orders, Paul knows that his orders come from the Lord himself. And he says he is the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of the Gentiles. Peter had a ministry to the Jews, and Paul to the Gentiles. If you look back in Acts 21, Paul is appealing to Caesar because he was taken prisoner because some Jews thought he was bringing Gentiles into the temple. Paul’s ministry was focused on bringing the gospel to the Gentiles. He says he was given an “administration” - a stewardship, a dispensation - of God’s grace. God gave special grace to Paul, and he was a steward of that grace. Remember back in the OT, the story of Joseph. Joseph is sold into slavery and becomes the steward of Potiphar’s house. Everything is under Joseph’s control, but everything is owned by Potiphar. Paul is saying that God had given him grace, and now he is under an OBLIGATION - to use that grace wisely. He says this mystery - of Jew & Gentile forming one body - was made known to him by revelation. God directly made known to Paul what he could not otherwise have known.
In the OT much is said about the role of the nations - that in Abraham all nations would be blessed - that the Messiah would receive the nations as an inheritance - that Israel was to be a light to the Gentiles. But this new body - the church - was never mentioned in the OT. Paul was given direct insight by God. After Paul was saved, he went out into the desert in Arabia and was personally taught by the risen Christ, we are told in Galatians 1.
Verse 6 tells us that these Gentiles are now fellow-heirs of the same promises, fellow-participants in the same body, and fellow-sharers of the same blessings. These Gentiles who were once distant from the promises of Christ have now been brought into the same body. The Jews considered the Gentiles an unworthy people, but God in his love and grace, chose to bring salvation to them as well. That raises the first question for us, “What am I doing to reach “outsiders” - those who are outside the faith? The danger that we sometimes face as Christians is that we lose all of our unsaved friendships. While we do not want the unsaved snaring us into their sinful practices, neither do we want to isolate ourselves from them. Jesus considered himself a friend of sinners. He call us to be IN the world, but not OF the world. So, is there anyone you can identify who is a non-Christian that you are trying to reach with the gospel? I’m sure there are many people you could say “They sure need the gospel”, but who are YOU trying to PERSONALLY reach? Paul was taught by Christ that God LOVES the outsiders, the outcasts, the pagans, the lost sheep - the messier the better. Because Christ loves to change lives by the power of the gospel. That brings us to the second section:
2. Paul’s Preaching - in 1-6 we see how Paul came to know the truth, and in verses 7-13, we see that Paul came to preach this truth to others. The key word here is GRACE. We see it several times in this chapter. It is here in verse 7: I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. It was God’s GRACE that changed Paul. Grace is when God gifts us with unmerited favor. God chose to give Paul special “gifts” by his grace to prepare him for the ministry he would have. As Paul writes about this truth, that Jew & Gentile are now one, it would certainly have some resistant by both Jews & Gentiles, so Paul takes time in this chapter to defend his authority: He has been personally instructed by Christ, and has been gifted with special “grace-gifts” to accomplish his ministry. Next week we go on to chapter 4, and we see that God has given to the church a whole spectrum of gifts. Every Christian gets a different set of these “grace-gifts” to use. God is the one who chooses which gifts we each get. He chooses, because he knows what purposes he has for us to fulfill in the church. The key is this: Are we using the gifts God has given us?
Paul tells us in verse 8 - his gift was preaching. (read 8&9) And he used his gift constantly, preaching every day. What gift do you have today? Maybe your gift is teaching - are you serving in a teaching ministry? Maybe your gift is giving: how are you giving away your finances to support the ministry of the church. Maybe your gift is encouragement: who will you encourage this week? Maybe your gift is prayer: How much time will you spend praying this week? As we have been given unique gifts, we need to be actively using these gifts for God’s glory. That is the key purpose that God gives us gifts: to bring glory to himself. Look in verse 10. Read 10 & 11 - God’s eternal purpose - before the creation of the world - was for Jews & Gentiles together to form one body, the church. And as we live as one, in unity, God’s glory is displayed in the heavenly realms, in the spirit level. Remember we live in two worlds: the physical and the spiritual.
1 Peter 1:12 tells us that even angels desire to look into things related to salvation. They don’t understand it. But we show the wisdom and glory of God to angels and demons as we live out God’s purposes in our lives.
In verse 12, Paul reminds us what we saw last week, we have free access to come into the very presence of the God of all creation through Christ. And Paul reminds the Ephesian believers not to be discouraged because he is in prison, because Paul realizes that this too will bring glory to God and God will use it for good.
Paul didn’t get upset and all worked up when things didn’t go well. He said he was stoned, beaten shipwrecked, left for dead, he went hungry, naked, in perils constantly - but he counted it joy to serve God. Some Christians have their faith weakened when they get sick or get a few extra bills. Let’s remember that we will all face trials as James reminds us, but when we do, we consider it all joy knowing that the testing of our faith produces patience, and that God works in the midst of those trials.
So Paul write to the Ephesians, telling them what he has been taught - the mystery of the church, and he tells them why he preaches, it is God’s gift of grace that he uses to bring glory to God. Then we come to verse 14, where Paul picks up the prayer he had started in verse 1.
3. Paul’s Praying - and the key word we are going to look at here is POWER! Read 14-16. Paul says he kneels - an act of submission and worship. The typical Jewish pattern of prayer was standing, but Paul expresses his submission to God. He has stated in 13 that he doesn’t want them discouraged, but instead, in verse 16 we see the opposite, he wants them strengthened.
Just like a tree that has deep roots, and just like a building with a firm foundation, the Ephesians have been grounded with God’s love. But Paul wants them to be “energized” with God’s power to experience God’s love in a far greater way. He wants God to get hold of their inner self and energize them with power to truly get hold of what it means to love like God.
He prayers that Christ would “dwell” in their hearts - to “be at home.” When I was a youth pastor in NC, I stayed at different homes each week. One home I stayed at was Roy & Kathy Love. They had a parlor in the front of the house - a room where no one sat - they only used it when special company came over. (I guess I wasn’t special enough, because I never sat in there) The plastic was still on the furniture. You never really felt at home there.
Then there was the home of Jerry Blohm. Jerry’s house was your house. If you wanted something to eat, you got it out of the fridge. Whatever Jerry was doing, he included you. You felt completely at home there.
Christ wants to be “at home” in our lives. If Christ was physically present with you, would you feel “at home” to have him be with you tomorrow - to watch the movies you watch, to listen to the lyrics of the songs you play, to listen to the jokes your co-workers tell, to be with you in the habits you can’t seem to get victory over. Remember, even though we can’t physically see him, Christ DOES live with us!
Paul prays he would be at home in our lives, and that we would have power to understand his love. This love Paul says is beyond comprehension - it is past knowing. That’s why is takes a limitless power to work in us. Paul knows that it will take a lot of love for Gentiles and Jews to live as one. Even though they ARE one spiritually, relationally it takes a lot of love to overcome the past.
In the church, even though we are one, it can take a LOT of love to help you to show love to certain other brothers and sisters in Christ. But the reality is that God can give us everything we need.
Paul closes this chapter once again mentioning that the result of this love is to bring glory to God. God receives glory through the church and through our lives. May God be glorified by our lives this week.
Paul was very passionate about sharing the truth of the gospel with others. The third question today is this: How passionate are you about sharing the gospel with others? It needs to be something we are consistently thinking about. You can’t say you love someone and not share the greatest news ever with them.
So Paul in Ephesians 1-3 has taught us about the church, about the blessings we have received. Next week we’ll go on to see what we need to do, how we need to live, based upon what we know to be true.
Let’s pray.
