`Date: March 30th, 2003
Title: The Mysteria of the Church
Text: Eph. 3:1-13
Subject:
Complement:
Main Idea:
Intro: Secrets fascinate us. All of us want to be privy to secrets. Secrets are fascinating. Someone says, “Hey, you want to know a secret?” and our natural response is not to say, “Oh no thanks, I don’t like to be in on secrets.” No, it’s just the opposite! We all like to be let in on a secret.
Did you know that God has a secret which He kept for thousands of years? It’s true. In the passage of Scripture under consideration for this morning, Paul calls this secret a mystery. It was a mystery which was once hidden but is now revealed. In other words, the secret which God kept hidden for thousands of years has now been fully communicated. Simply put, the secret which has now been revealed is the centrality of the Church in God’s plan.
Do you really know what Church is? Do you understand the place of Church in the plan of God? Do you know what place Church ought to have in your life? These are important questions for which every Christian ought to have answers. The way we answer these questions will determine the extent to which we fully enter into God’s plan for our lives. It is possible to come to know Christ as your Savior and miss the plan of God for your life. And the Church is central to that plan. If you do not understand the role of the Church in the plan of God, you will never understand what God is up to.
Sadly, we seem to have come to a place of biblical illiteracy in our world today. There is very little understanding of the great doctrines of the Bible. And, unfortunately, this is even true in our churches. It is somewhat ironic to have to say that in the Church there is little understanding of Church.
I’m not talking about the elementary things like understanding that the Church is not merely buildings and holy furniture. Most of us understand that. We understand that the Church is not the structure located at 1822 South Market Street. We have come far enough to know, as recently as last Sunday’s message on 2:11-22 that the Church is people. But too often that is the extent of our understanding. And this lack of understanding spans all denominations and non-denominations alike.
Among many people the Church is viewed as an organization like a small business or large corporation depending upon it’s size. You see, to say the Church is people is to say too little. Some people therefore assume the Church is to be run like a business where everyone is a general partner. They reduce the Church to a democratic deliberation where the least offensive course of action is pursued --- assuring the lowest common denominator of spirituality to prevail. The Church is reduced to a social institution where the needs and preferences of the members are its focus.
But truly, that is not Church!
The Church is a living organism of God’s people --- placed together by God’s wisdom --- led by spiritual leaders of God’s choosing --- committed to doing God’s will --- living out its life together in community --- submitting to one another and God’s authority in its midst --- and revealing God’s grace and wisdom to all around.
Back ground: Last week we learned about the barriers and walls of hostility between the Jews and the Gentiles being removed. God has done an amazing thing in bringing together all people to be his Holy Temple! To be a beautiful temple made up, not of brick and mortar and normal building materials, but of God’s most precious resource, people! Souls!
Well, because of this new holy temple, Paul explains that he has been chosen, by God, through His grace and mercy, because if anyone knows Paul, they know he doesn’t deserve anything from God… he tracked down Christians and had them killed because they followed Jesus!
But, in God’s Grace He has chosen Paul to make this mystery known at this moment in time!
The mystery revealed is the church!
So, the Church is central to what God is doing in the earth today. It is true that God deals with individuals, but generally God chooses to deal with them through the Church. And unless we come to this understanding of the Church as central to what God is doing in the earth today and in our own individual lives, then we will never understand why God does things the way He does. So let’s look together at the mystery of Christ which is His Church.
I. The Progressive Presentation of the Mystery. (3:1-6)
A. There is a progressive presentation of this mystery.
1. The word Paul uses for mystery is the Greek word musterion.
2. The word mystery in English is used to translate this Greek word.
a) But our English word mystery sometimes gives us an incorrect idea of what Paul is talking about here.
b) Sometimes we view a mystery as being an enigma -- something that we cannot understand or figure out.
c) But the word musterion referred to a secret hidden from all but those who were initiated into it.
3. Those who had the secret knowledge could understand the mystery.
a) Those who did not could not.
b) Those outside the wisdom and knowledge of what God wanted to do and was doing just couldn’t “get it”
c) Similar to today when people observe Christians doing good works which God prepared in advance for them to do.
d) People without God in their lives just shake their heads and think Christians are weird.
e) They just don’t “get it.”
4. In Paul’s day there were many “mystery religions.”
a) Religions where people were kept in the fog because things were explained as a mystery.
b) Religions where only the leaders and the priests really understood.
c) Most of our cults operate this was way.
d) Don’t start asking too many questions!
5. So when Paul uses the word musterion, he is referring to a secret which was hidden that is now made known.
B. This “revelation” in understanding the mystery is solely from God.
1. Paul says that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation. (vs. 3)
a) The solving of this mystery was all the work of God.
b) Paul refers to the first Mystery being one of his salvation on the road to Damascus when Jesus met him.
2. The revelation was Jesus revealing Himself to Paul and allowing Paul to accept Him as His personal Lord and Savior.
a) This was the guy who had persecuted those who followed Jesus.
b) What a mystery that God would choose Paul to be His tool and instrument!
Acts 9:15-16 (NIV)
15 But the Lord said to Ananias, "Go! This man is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the Gentiles and their kings and before the people of Israel.
16 I will show him how much he must suffer for my name."
3. Because Paul had experienced his own personal revelation regarding the great mystery of God’s grace and mercy, even to a wretch like Him, He is extremely qualified to speak of this still greater mystery yet to be revealed.
a) In reading this, Paul writes in verse 4, you will be able to understand my insight, as one who first hand experienced the powerful truth of this mystery in his own life.
b) Paul wasn’t just the president of the club, he was also a member!
4. He goes on to say that the secret which God is revealing has not always been plain. (vss. 4-5)
a) God had always intended to reveal His plan.
b) But until this time He could not reveal it.
5. Throughout all the Old Testament, God was bringing His people to this place.
a) Now He has reached the point where the mystery can be unveiled.
b) At no other time in history was everything in place in such a way as to reveal God’s mysterious plan in all it’s glory and fullness.
6. It is a progressive presentation through His holy apostles and prophets.
B. The mystery is a new entity called the body of Christ. (verse 6)
1. The mystery is that through Christ’s death both Jews and Gentiles can be brought together into a new entity.
a) Both are members together of one body.
b) The body refers to the body of Christ, the Church.
2. The mystery is that God inaugurated a New Covenant --- a unity of all peoples formed together into a new entity, which is the Church.
a) God has inaugurated a new age in which “there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor freeman, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Gal. 3:28)
b) God has established a new society on the basis of a New Covenant.
3. This is the revelation of the Church.
a) Until the time when God could bring the Church into existence, He chose not to reveal that mystery.
4. It is the mystery of the called out ones.
c) In Greek, the term translated “church” is ecclesia. It literally means “called out ones.”
d) And for hundreds of years church was called ecclesia --- called out ones.
e) Then the Emperor Constantine was converted and built many gorgeous temples.
f) The term was changed from ecclesia to kuriakos --- lordly house.
g) Over the years and through the languages kuriakos became kirkus which became kirk which eventually became church.
5. But a church is not a lordly house made with hands.
a) A church is a gathering of called out ones who know the Lord and are placed together by Christ.
b) It is a living organism known as the body of Christ. And the Church is central to God’s plan.
Trans: So we have this mystery that God has planned from the beginning. A plan which was that all humankind would join together in Christ over all sorts of barriers and form one entity. The Church! Paul saw his calling to be one of preaching this mystery.
II. The Preaching of the Mystery (3:7-9)
A. The means by which the mystery is to be preached is human messengers.
1. Paul says that God revealed to His holy apostles and prophets this mystery.
2. God made the apostle Paul a servant or minister of this mystery which Paul calls a gospel which simply means good news.
a) Paul says that God made Him specifically to be one who proclaims this new entity now revealed.
b) The passage says that it is a gift of God’s grace given to Paul through the working of God’s power.
c) Isn’t this amazing?
3. I have always been fascinated and awestruck by the fact that God has entrusted the preaching of His mysteries to mere mortals.
a) It seems that we are so ill-equipped for the task.
b) In fact, Paul echoes this very sentiment when he says “Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given to me to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.”
4. Paul knows all too well his own inadequacy to preach this glorious mystery.
a) He says as much in:
1 Corinthians 2:1-5
1 When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God.
2 For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. 3 I came to you in weakness and fear, and with much trembling. 4 My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power,
5 so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.
b) Paul knew the real power was not his eloquence or lack there of, but rather, God’s Spirit working in people.
c) That is why prayer is such a crucial part of preparation for preaching.
6. It seems to me that an angel could better preach this mystery.
a) If Michael or Gabriel would suddenly appear in the clouds proclaiming in a thunderous voice the truth concerning Jesus Christ, I would certainly be impressed.
b) But God has not chosen angels to proclaim this message.
c) In fact, angels can’t even understand this mystery first hand.
d) Angels are not redeemed creatures.
e) Insofar as our salvation is concerned, angels have no first hand experience.
7. Peter refers to God’s marvelous redemptive salvation in 1 Peter 1:12 where he says that these are “things into which angels long to look.”
a) And as we will see in just a moment, the angels actually learn about God’s grace and wisdom through the Church.
b) So God has chosen redeemed humanity to preach the mystery.
B. The epicenter of this mystery to be preached is Jesus Christ.
1. This mystery centers around Jesus Christ.
a) All of God’s redemptive purposes center in Christ.
b) Paul calls this the unsearchable riches in Christ.
2. This new humanity, the church, based on the New Covenant reveals the unsearchable riches in Christ’s grace and God’s wisdom.
a) This new community is based on Christ living in you privately and in us corporately.
b) This coming together of all people under the banner of the Cross and living out God’s purposes through the life of the Church has it’s focus in the person of Christ.
3. Christ’s riches are revealed.
a) We see that He is rich in His love for us.
b) We see that He is rich in His mercy toward us.
c) We see that He is rich in His grace.
d) And we also see the riches of His presence within us, His power in us, and His plan for us.
4. And now we have the privilege to share that mystery with others.
Trans: So we see that this mystery of God bringing together His people in one entity is all accomplished through Jesus Christ, the head of the church. But why would God want to bring together a people in such a way?
III. The Purpose of the Mystery (3:10-13)
A. The church is to communicate God’s wisdom.
1. We find that the Church, Christ’s body, is in itself a revelation of the manifold wisdom of God.
2. We see here again that the Church is central to God’s purposes in redemption.
3. The mystery of the Church is that God has established an age of grace in which He is working out His purposes through a new community in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
a) In other words, in the Church God teaches heavenly beings.
b) The angels of God learn to understand the manifold wisdom of God as it is made known through the church.
c) What an amazing statement!
ILL. Let me quote W. A. Criswell on this point: What an exalted conception and idea of the Church this is! What the angelic beings did not learn in the presence of Deity, and what they have not learned in all the providences of God through the centuries, they learn in how God saves man, and in how God’s redemptive grace is building this new creation, the Church, the body of the Lord.
4. The angels didn’t learn of God’s wisdom in creation.
a) They didn’t learn of God’s wisdom in His dealings with man in the Old Testament.
b) In all of God’s covenants, they didn’t learn of His wisdom.
c) But through the saving work of Christ to call the Church together, they see His wisdom.
5. In the establishing of a new humanity based on a New Covenant whereby Christ’s very life is imparted to people made new by His grace, we see a wisdom unequaled anywhere in the universe.
B. The Church is God’s enterprise.
1. This is why it cannot be run like a human organization.
2. This new way of living calls us to deny self and to operate out of a different mentality.
a) It calls us to lay down our lives.
b) It calls us to do things which are not simply hard to do, they are impossible to do without the power of God.
3. In the Church we are called to live in community, where our actions or inaction impacts the lives of all others.
a) We are called to lay down our individual preferences, not simply for the preferences of the majority, but for the will of God.
b) We’re called to respect and submit to the spiritual authority of the leaders God has placed in the Church, as well as to submit to one another in the Lord.
c) We are called to forgive one another, to love one another, to serve one another, to support one another, and to encourage one another.
4. And that runs both ways.
a) None of this can be done by our power, or wisdom, and it certainly cannot be done by employing worldly strategies.
b) It is only as God is present in every aspect of the life of the Church that we see the wisdom of God revealed.
c) But when He is allowed to be in charge, then we see what He had in mind.
5. We must see that through the Church God reveals His manifold wisdom and unsearchable riches in Christ, and we must commit ourselves to be the Church ---
a) Those who have entered into a New Covenant of grace and into a new relationship with one another.
b) As we do, then God will reveal His plan through the Church to us, to others, and even to angelic beings.
C. The Church is to be a place of hope and encouragement. (12-13)
1. We don’t need the church to have salvation or personal access to God.
a) But, through participation in the Body of Christ called the church, we have a glorious platform from which to boldly demonstrate God’s grace through His Son!
2. It says here that we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
a) Can you imagine this?
b) Not just access to God through faith in Jesus Christ, but confidence!
3. Not because of anything we have done, but because of Jesus!
a) God’s plan has come to fruition!
b) There is nothing we need to do, we approach God freely because of what Jesus has done!
c) No ceremonial washings, no Laws regarding personal purity that must be followed, we can enter freely!
4. And because of that great truth, we can have confidence as we approach God!
5. All of this is written to us in the church, Paul says in verse 13, so that we might be encouraged and hopeful!
a) Paul was saying in essence, “Yes, I am a prisoner, yes I am suffering, yes things look dismal regarding my future here on earth.”
b) But guess what? What is really significant and long lasting is the fact that now the church has been instituted and Jesus is the head of the church, and because of Jesus Paul considers all his personal suffering as worthy of glory!
c) Paul gladly suffered in his place in history because it was for the Glory of God, Jesus Christ, and the church!
d) Paul could clearly see the good that came out of his personal suffering!
Conclusion: So, we have been let in on a mystery! We are the mystery! The church, all people, different people, coming to a place of being one in Christ. Gathering together to form the body of Christ, the church. As Paul says here in verse 13, it will not be all warm and fuzzy, church picnics and pot lucks. Sometimes difficult situations come. But one thing is clear, we are the church, now what do we do about it?
The job of the church is not to impact the church, but to impact the world. It’s like a huddle in a football game. 67,000 people don’t pay $71.00 a ticket to watch the Eagles or the Steelers huddle. What if you went to a NFL game and for 2 ½ hours you watched 11 men stand in a circle and talk? That’s not what you pay for!! 67,000 people pay $71 a ticket to see what difference the huddle makes. What they want to know is, having called the play in secret, does it work in public? The challenge for the church is not what we do when we call our Sunday morning huddle, but what we do when we break our huddle and head to our Sunday morning assignment. When Satan lines up against us, what difference does it make that we are Christians?
