Receive Grace: To Proclaim Christ
Ephesians 3:1-13 Pastor Jim Luthy
Paul said he became a servant of "this gospel." "This gospel," according to Ephesians 1-2, is the good news that we are blessed in the heavenly realms. It is finished. The papers have been signed the authorities have been notified. We will be adopted as sons of the Father through Jesus Christ. "This gospel" is the good news that we can know Jesus better through the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, and that as we get to know him he will become for us the only prize. "This gospel" is the good news that we are God’s workmanship, the finished product of regeneration, already created in Christ Jesus to do the good works he prepared in advance for us to do. "This gospel" is the good news that we all count—we all belong and have a significant part in what God is building. It doesn’t matter if you are a second-class believer without all the credentials and all the history, like the Gentiles, the mystery is that you belong. This is such good news, this gospel, that Paul became its servant. So I want to ask you, would you consider yourself a servant of the gospel? Let me help you answer the question…
You turn on the TV set to see a large family sitting at a long dining room table. A man and a woman sit at opposite ends of the table, with three boys on one side and three girls on the other. Then another woman appears from the kitchen wearing a blue blouse and a white apron. She’s also wearing a huge smile and carrying a large casserole dish. Who’s the servant? It’s Alice from The Brady Bunch.
You switch channels and see a family in the living room of their Bel Air mansion. A teenage girl has just brought in the haul from her shopping day at the Beverly Hills boutiques. A younger sister clamors to see what she bought. A large middle-aged man seems to be rebuking a tall, slender, younger man, while a woman stands behind nodding her approval. In walks a short man with a black tuxedo with tails, a white shirt with a black bow tie and white gloves. He makes a smart remark before being sent to another room by the increasingly grousy middle-aged man. Who’s the servant? It’s Jeffrey from The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
A few more channels away you see a creepy lot of characters. The living area has the finest antique furniture but is strewn with cobwebs. Candles flicker throughout the room. A hyperactive black-haired man kisses up and down his rather gothic looking wife’s arm on the sofa while the kids play with a tarantula on the floor by the fireplace. Even stranger sights are yet to appear. In comes a bald man so pale he looks almost blue. He’s dressed like a monk and has a light bulb in his mouth. Next in comes a 4 foot ball of hair on legs waving its arms and wearing a hat and glasses, followed by a single hand scurrying across the floor. Then the amorous man takes a break from the arm of his wife long enough to pull a large rope dangling from space and in walks a monstrous living corpse of a man, who bellows in a deep monotone, "You rang?" Who’s the servant? It’s Lurch from the Addams Family.
TV has had its share of servants. Alice, Jeffrey, and Lurch are distinguishable from the families they serve because they are always serving. You might recall, even the occasional glimpses into Alice’s love life were centered around her dutiful runs to the meat market, where she was wooed by Sam the Butcher. You see, a servant is always identified by their activity.
Change the channel. Now you see a 1st century Roman apartment, like something you would see on Ben Hur. An aging man in the apartment wears light chains and is constantly accompanied by a Roman guard. The chains seem as though they were meant to serve more as a reminder than a restraint. The old man has occasional visitors, but you get the impression that there aren’t as many as there once were. The visitors bring news of churches in far off places, and sit with the old man to hear him teach. He often sends them away with a letter or two to be delivered to some people he once knew. When the visitors aren’t there, the old man often preaches to the guard on duty, and each of them have come to believe. Who’s the servant? It’s Paul, the author of Ephesians and the first Christian missionary.
If you claimed to be a servant of the gospel like Paul, then I could tune into the channel that airs your life story at any time and see activity that reflects your claim. A servant of the gospel has a missionary mindset. He or she is intentionally building relationships with unchurched and underchurched people. A servant of the gospel is unashamed of the gospel, injecting Christ into those relationships at every open door. A servant of the gospel is eager to reap what he sows, harvesting souls that embrace the message of his or her life. If your life were like The Truman Show and I could tune in any time, would I tune in to find you in the activity that identifies you as a servant of the gospel?
How did Paul become a servant? Did Christ come to him in a flashing light on the road to Damascus to threaten him? When the Lord asked, "Why do you persecute me?" did Paul fall on his knees and impishly promise to do whatever it takes to make it up to him? No, Paul became a servant, according to Ephesians 3:7, "by the gift of God’s grace through the working of his power." The instrument that changed Paul forever was God’s grace. It wasn’t guilt or obligation. It wasn’t a sense of contract between Paul and the risen Christ. It was God’s gift to Paul. God came to him and said, "you need a new identity," so he gave him one—Servant of the Gospel. What Paul makes clear is that this was not a burden, which is how we tend to view sharing the gospel, but a favor from God. It was his privilege! The power of God was at work in Paul, changing him from a persecutor of Christians to a producer of Christians. That did not disappoint Paul! It brought him joy!
God wants you to understand and believe that being a servant of the gospel is his gift to you. He invites you to receive that gift as a part of his life-changing grace. When you understand that you are blessed in the heavenly realms, that Jesus is your first and only reward, that you are God’s finished workmanship, and that you belong equally with all that God has called his own, you can receive by faith the grace of God. Today, God wants to invite you to receive the grace to proclaim him.
Two things, however, can keep God from pouring out his grace on us. First is a struggle to see. You and I struggle to see the value of being a servant, even being a servant of the gospel. That’s the nature of man since the fall in the garden of Eden. Ever since self became our god, it has never been cool to be a servant. We don’t like to play second fiddle or be considered second rate, but that’s exactly what we see in servants. We equate serving with slavery and are very uncomfortable giving ourselves to the will of another. To do so will cost us our autonomy, the ability to rule our time and choose our own courses of action. That doesn’t appeal to a self-directed being. When youu and I struggle to see that being a servant is a gift from God, we resist the grace that causes us to become servants of the gospel. It takes faith to see that being a servant of the gospel is a good thing. It’s not imposing. It’s not a heavy burden. It is a gift from God…a gift he wants to give to you.
We also resist the grace to proclaim Christ when we fail to understand. Paul became a servant of the gospel when the mystery was revealed to him. Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. (Ephesians 3:2-3) The "administration of God’s grace" was the outpouring of grace to Paul in revealing the mystery of the gospel. Paul received grace as he understood the truth about who he is and who anyone can be through faith. He believed so much in the power of the gospel for the salvation of everyone who believed, so he became a servant of that gospel through faith.
Change the channel. This time what you see is your own story. In this episode, you are prompted to give a testimony of God’s goodness at your workplace. Internally you ask yourself, "Will I choose to testify?" In this situation, if you cannot get beyond the choice to see it as an exercise of the faith that receives God’s grace, you will not choose to testify. Without faith, it is impossible for you to please God. Faith, on the other hand, overcomes all the objections of the heart and mind. When you believe that it is established that you are blessed in the heavenly realms, it does not matter that you could be reprimanded for witnessing on the job. When you believe that Christ is your great and only desire, you do not reason whether or not your testimony will make you acceptable to your hearers. When you believe that God has completed a work in you, you do not question whether or not you are qualified to testify about him. When you believe that you are a vital part of the body of Christ, you do not fear failure or feel pressured to succeed, nor do you reason that witnessing is the job of the pastor or those with the gift of evangelism. Through faith, God gives you the grace to proclaim Christ freely, without all the trappings of reason. You are then living on another level. You are a servant of the gospel, and your co-workers, clients, neighbors, and friends will identify you as such by your activity. You see, God gives us the grace, through faith, to proclaim Christ.
Change channels again. You’re now on The Learning Channel and you’re watching a woman give birth. As you can see, she is in incredible physical pain. She is writhing and moaning and pleading for more drugs. Although you can’t see it, I know from experience that the father is in pain too. If he is like me, it hurts to see your wife in so much pain—especially knowing you had something to do with it! With the birth of that child also comes a great weightiness of responsibility and the realization that this child carries with him or her an incredible potential to bring heartbreak. Perhaps this child will die unexpectedly or go through some incredible sickness. When the child is older, he or she may make decisions that are destructive and that break a parents heart. All this may make you wonder why parents have children at all! You would think people would catch a clue and finally say, "I’m not having any!" But we don’t. We want to have children. Tammie and I never once thought anything other than the pain and the heartache were worth it.
God’s invitation to receive the grace to become a servant of the gospel should be as natural and appealing to the believer as the invitation to have children. When you see the glory of serving the gospel and you understand its power to save, you don’t care if it hurts or it might involve some heartache. It’s worth it!
This was the story of Paul. He was given a gift. The grace-gift he received by the power of God was the opportunity to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery. In other words, he had the privilege of inviting the Gentiles into God’s chosen family and to let everyone know they belonged there. Oh how he loved that assignment! How much more privileged did Paul feel when he realized his assignment was a part of an even larger purpose? As God was using Paul to invite the Gentiles, believe it or not, he was making God’s manifold wisdom clear to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. How awesome is that?
Paul concluded, "I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory." (Eph. 3:13) He was saying, "Don’t sweat my chains! Don’t worry about me! Are you kidding? I’m a servant of the gospel. I’ve got the greatest gig in the world! These chains, this guard, all this is nothing compared to the incredible privilege of making Christ known."
Click ahead to the latest episode from my life. Pastor Moises and a young lady named Liz met us at the airport as we were leaving Cochabamba, Bolivia. They are accompanied by Liz’ father Casillanos, whom we led to Christ earlier in the week, along with Liz’ brother Christian, uncle Felix, and a family friend named Rosa. Casillanos asked if he could come see us off at the airport to thank us again for coming to share the gospel with him and his family. Is that worth it? You bet it is!
Stay tuned for scenes from our upcoming episodes. The episodes of my life include inviting my neighbors to be a part of my cell group. The episodes from my life include building relationships with the men I play basketball with in the morning and eventually sharing my faith in Christ with them. The upcoming episodes in my life include giving up the good for the greater, preaching Christ and inviting others to know him with me.
What are the scenes from the upcoming episodes of your life? Will you ask God for the grace that comes by his power to make you a servant of the gospel? Do not be afraid. Ask with faith and receive the grace to proclaim him. As you experience his grace, you will become more and more active until you are readily identified as a servant. That is living on another level.
