“The Great Mystery” Ephesians 3:1-13
OPEN: How many here today would say you love a good mystery? I love a good mystery. I love trying to sort through all the clues and pieces of evidence in order to figure out the key, the central truth that explains everything. I don’t know about you, I love reading mystery books trying to figure out who done it. I think that must be a common thing among a lot of us. The entertainment industry seemingly makes its living on “mysteries” Agaitha Christi, Law and Order – CSI – all mystery shows. It seems like half of all the shows on television are “who-done-its.” The other half are documentaries on unsolved crimes, the mystery of the pyramids, mysterious UFO’s and every other “mystery” under the sun. In order for it to be a mystery, there needs to be a seemingly unexplainable situation - something that you can’t figure out without help. If it involves murder, hatred, politics, or romance - it’s all the better
I don’t know what it is, but there are just some things in this world I can’t explain. I don’t try to solve all the great mysteries of the world – I tend to focus more on small mysteries. Do you have any unsolved mysteries in your life? Like why do I have several unmatched single socks. It’s a great mystery. They come off my feet in pairs. They go into the clothes hamper in pairs. I’m fairly sure they go into the washer in pairs. But something happens when they come out of the dryer. Where do all the socks go? It’s an unsolved mystery. I keep a running list of questions that are mysteries for me. Every once in while I run across one and I add it to my mystery file. For example: Can fat people go skinny-dipping? Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour? Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid made with real lemons? Why is it necessary to have a locking device on the lid of a coffin? Do vegetarians eat animal crackers? If you wash wool it shrinks, then when it rains why don’t sheep shrink? What hair color do they put on the driver’s licenses of bald men? How come there aren’t B batteries? If the #2 pencil is so popular, why is it still #2? If fish oil comes from fish, and if olive oil comes from olives, where does baby oil come from? How do they make it? It’s all just a great mystery to me.
In our passage this morning, Paul talks about another kind of mystery. Except, even though this mystery is a part of life, it’s certainly not frustrating. It’s a mystery that’s a blessing that was revealed to him by God.
Paul begins a sentence, says “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles--” and then gets sidetracked – gets diverted – and never really finishes the sentence. Did you ever get in trouble in school for writing an incomplete sentence? The teacher scrawls with a big red pen across the page – “incomplete!” and reduces your grade accordingly. The passage begins with just such a sentence. Paul does eventually come back to the thought, and completes it in verse 14, which we’ll look at after mothers day. What sidetracks Paul is the need to explain his role and his responsibility, he talks about being a prisoner of Christ for the sake of the gentiles, and realizes that it would be helpful for his readers to know more about him and what it is that Jesus has told him that is so incredible he was willing to suffer imprisonment and persecution.
Paul starts out by saying: “For this reason” for what reason? For what Cause? He’s referring back to the preceding discussion in chapter two. The fact that verse 15 says you are one new man. That verse 16 says of Chapter 2, you are one body. That verse 17 says you who are far off are now made near. That verse 18 says we both have access by one Spirit. That verse 19 says we are fellow citizens and of the household of God. That 20 says we are built on the foundation of the prophets and the apostles. That 21 says we are a building that grows to a holy temple of the Lord. That 22 says we are built together for a habitation of God through the Spirit. In other words, he says the fact that we are one building, built on one foundation, one household, one kingdom, one Spirit in us, one body, one new man. In other words, because of our unity, that's what he's saying.
You say well, why does he repeat himself? Because that's the way you learn. Isaiah said you learn line upon line, precept upon precept, precept upon precept, here a little there a little. Occasionally I’ll have someone come up to me and say, “you know you covered that issue not too long ago – I already know all about that one.” Really. Every time I go over something again in the Bible I tend to learn something new about that topic. Repetition - that's the way I learned. I learned great truths that way. I learned the truth I will not talk in class, because I repeated it over and over again, 500 times on a page of paper. You may have learned the same truth the same way. We learn by repetition, repetition, repetition.
Notice how Paul describes himself – he is a prisoner of Christ Jesus. Is that how you’d introduce yourself? He was a man who spent a lot of time in prison. We know from the Scriptures that he spent at least 5 years of his life in prison. Two years in Caesarea and at least three years in Rome. He was arrested on false charged of violating Temple law in Jer. and thrown into a Roman prison. But he never considered himself a prisoner of the Jews, nor did he consider himself a prison of Rome. He had appealed to Caesar, but he never considered himself a Caesar’s prisoner. He was a minister of Jesus Christ, bought with a price, and given the special mission of preaching the gospel to the Gentiles. He was therefore a prisoner of Christ Jesus. Wherever he went and whatever he did, he was under Christ’s control.
Don’t just pass over that - This is what Paul is saying here: “I live by a divine perspective”
“I know who I am.” How we view and react to circumstances is more important than the circumstances themselves. If all we can see is our immediate situation, then our circumstances control us. We feel good when our circumstances are good but miserable when they are not. It's how you view it that matters, the point of view. When something comes into your life, how you view it is the issue. Like somebody has well said, it isn't the circumstance, it's how you react to it. That's true. The apostle Paul is a prisoner, but instead of being melancholy, instead of being disheartened, instead of being discouraged, he just said I am a prisoner of Jesus Christ. This is just another step in my service to Jesus Christ.
I think from time to time this is a hard thing for us to hang to, isn’t it? We have to fight to maintain this point of view. Sometimes the stress and pressures of life can divert our attention and we start looking at our problems instead of the promises of God. Sometimes you just have to push pause and get alone with God until you get a proper perspective back. Don’t you wish that from time to time you can just kind of find a nice jail cell that’s out of all the busyness of life - and you could just sit there and get refocused on Jesus? Jesus was the initiator of the jail ministries. He knew Christ wanted him there. He took it as all from Christ. If Jesus didn’t want him in prison – Rome wouldn’t have been able to hold him there. That’s how you count it all joy when you face trails of various kinds. He says, ‘Being in prison is great – because Jesus is the one who wants me to be here.”
If you don’t know who you are - you won’t know how to respond. In order to know how to act – we got to know who we are, right? If I know who I am, I know what's expected of me, then I know how to behave. And so in Ephesians there are three chapters of identity, then three chapters of how to respond to who we are - behavior. Behavior always follows identity. You say, “Paul how can you keep going after all that has happened to you?” It wasn’t easy to keep going – but he did because he had settled the issue of identity. Once the issue of identity is decided, most of the decisions in life become simple. “Since I am a prisoner of the Lord, what would Jesus have me do?” I don’t respond to the world’s demands or expectations, I don’t live by the rules of man, I don’t follow after people who have superficial faith – I am a prisoner of Christ.”
Realize Your Responsibility. Know what you’ve been entrusted with. 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. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. (Eph. 3:2-6)
Ok so let’s dig into this and unpack it a bit: Paul says, “Surely you’ve heard about this, right? I mean something as great as what I’m talking about couldn’t have escaped your attention, right?” Paul talks about the administration of God’s grace that was given to him. The word, administration, for most of us conjures up pictures of a building with a CEO running an organization or maybe someone in charge of a school – like a school administrator. The KJV uses the word dispensation. Other translations use the word stewardship – that’s getting closer to the idea. - What I want you do is write the word responsibility beside it in your Bible. Because that’s really what it means. He’s talking about a responsibility that God gave him to carry out. That responsibility had to do with an important message. It’s the message of God’s grace. Paul is talking about his responsibility to manage grace. He was first a recipient of grace and then he was given a responsibility. He became a steward of grace. Look closely at what he says, “It was given to me, for you” God’s grace is not just for me to glory in – no, it is given for me to give away to someone else. He says, “that’s my responsibility here.” Given to me – for you. It’s about others.
The responsibility came to Paul as a result of revelation. Revelation leads us into Responsibility (say it out loud) Paul says that his responsibility was the direct result of revelation. “the mystery of Christ was made known to me by revelation” “It has now been revealed.” It wasn’t just revealed to Paul – it was revealed to Paul – the apostles and the prophets. And what was revealed to them wasn’t for them. What was revealed led to their responsibility. As they picked up their responsibility that led others to relationship with God. Revelation leads into responsibility which results in relationship. When revelation comes – responsibility follows.
Check this verse out: That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, (that’s revelation – know John says his revelation was more than just hearing, He goes on…) which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. The life appeared; we have seen it and testify to it, and we proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and has appeared to us. We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. Revelation – leads into responsibility – which results in relationship.
Now what is Paul’s responsibility? He refers to it as a mystery. … the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. Now he’s not talking about something dark, secret or puzzling. The biblical meaning of the word, “mystery” is quite different from that concept. To put it simply, a mystery is a truth that at one time was hidden from human knowledge - but now has been disclosed by divine revelation. That’s exactly what he says in this passage: “which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed” No one knew the full meaning God’s promise to Abraham when he said, “in you all the families of the earth would be blessed.” No one really knew the full meaning of Isaiah’s predictions, “I will make you a light of the nations so that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” Old Testament saints had no vision of the church assembling together – no vision of on united Body in which there were no racial distinctions. That is why Jews in the early church - even the apostle Peter – had a difficult time accepting Gentiles into the Church.
Now in the next verse he’s going to let us know what that mystery is. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. This is the new revelation – Jews and Gentiles are now together in Christ Jesus. No more wall of separation. In the Old Testament period, the Jewish people were the instruments through which God revealed Himself to the world. They were God’s “chosen people”. Now the problem was they mistakenly believed that they were “exclusively” the people of God and that God had no interest in the Gentiles, or in all other non-Jewish people. They were “In” Everyone else was “Out” Insiders and outsiders – God’s grace through the Cross of Christ has done away with all that – In Christ, there are no longer needs to be any outsiders. 3 Key Words in Verse 6 goes on to describe the three strands of relationship that we have with God.
a. “heirs together” speaks of having the same inheritance as the Jewish people.
b. “members together ” speaks of belonging to the same family as the Jewish people.
c. “sharers together” speaks of having the same privileges as the Jewish people.
Here’s what he is saying – the greatest mystery the world has ever known (How Can A Person Live Right With God?) has been revealed in Christ. – Mystery solved! How can a person inherit eternity? For thousands of years it was a mystery – solved in Christ. How can we learn to truly love our neighbor? Since Cain and Able it’s been a mystery – But solved in Christ. How can we not only understand but actually experience the promises of God in the Bible – for many people on earth, it’s a great mystery – but solved in Christ Jesus.
This week as I was preparing for this message I said, “Lord, how can I get this truth over to these people how revolutionary it was for Paul to do that?” God gave me this idea: What if I told you this morning I was resigning from Eastford Baptist Church and I was going to go and start a new church in Kenyonville. I was driving down by Kenyonville and I saw a couple of cats sitting beside the road and I had compassion on them. And I feel called of God to go down there and start a church which was going to be a church made up entirely of cats. That’s right! I’m going to go preach to cats. Why? Because God revealed a mystery to me. God revealed that cats have the same spiritual capacity as human beings and I’m going to go preach the gospel to cats. I’m even going to try to baptize some cats, although that’s going to be hard, since they don’t like water. I’m going to form a “cat church.” I want you to visit our “cat church.” We will have “catachism” every Sunday morning at 9:00 and the “meow-sic” will be “purr-fect.” Cat Stevens is going to be the worship leader. So you come out and visit my “cat church.” You say, “Well, pastor I suspected you were crazy and that just confirms it.” If I were to do something as foolish as to leave a congregation of human beings and go preach to cats, you would think I was nuts. You see - That’s exactly the reaction the Jews had when Paul said, “I am going to preach to the Gentiles.” They thought Gentiles were like dumb animals. They were outsiders – they weren’t part of the club. They didn’t care about them even if they were their neighbors.
There are two main reasons the unchurched remain unchurched. 1) Either they consider church irrelevant, which is a shame because worshipping God and being a part of Christian community and getting all this great practical truth out of the Word of God together is so very relevant! Or, 2) They mistakenly think church is “Only (and this breaks my heart to even say this) for Insiders.” Instead of being critical of our friends and family that don’t worship God, do we realize why the church isn’t very contagious sometimes? Sometimes we keep the Good News to ourselves. We may not realize we’re doing it and we certainly don’t want people to stay on the out. As Far As The Church That Belongs To Jesus – There Are No Outsiders! – that’s the big secret of the Bible.
The very last invitation of the Bible in the book of Revelation is for everyone who believes to “Come” The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. (Rev. 22:17) I like how the amplified version puts this: “The [Holy] Spirit and the bride (the church, the true Christians) say, Come! And let him who is listening say, Come! And let everyone come who is thirsty [who is painfully conscious of his need of those things by which the soul is refreshed, supported, and strengthened]; and whoever [earnestly] desires to do it, let him come, take, appropriate, and drink the water of Life without cost.” (amplified version)
No Outsiders
Have Confidence In God’s Ability To Use You I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, The NIV has a rather weak translation here – It says “I became a servant” the original really says, “I was made a servant.” It wasn’t his choice – it was his calling – it was his duty. I’m not here as a pastor because this is the very best job I can find. I’m here because I’m called by God. A minister who is an only an employee of the church is not very useful in the hand of God. I’m here because God has called me here. I am a man who has a call upon his life. And by the way – you’re no different. You are the church – do you know what the word church means? It means “the called out ones” You are a people who have a call upon your life. We’re here together in response to the call God has put upon us. We are servants together of our Lord.
The word servant is the word deaconos - we sometimes translate it deacon – but it means servant. By definition, a servant is one who obeys the commands of his master. And a servant is somebody who always recognizes a higher authority. And Paul knew that he acted only on the command of God that he was to obey his master's will and that he was subject to a higher authority. Notice how Paul describes himself here. He says, “I am less than the least of all God’s people.” Let me ask you, “What is less than the least?” Well, I’m not sure how to describe it, but it’s clear, Paul saw himself as the least qualified to preach the gospel. He never got away from the reality that he used to be a persecutor of Christians. He never saw himself as immensely qualified to respond to his calling. He never lost an awareness that it was all by grace.
Paul didn’t have self-confidence as much as he had God-confidence. That’s what he says “Grace was given to me through the working of His power.” “Yeah I am less than the least of all God’s people – but I’ve got God’s power flowing through me – and that’s what enables me to accomplish the task that I’m called to accomplish.” That’s it! It’s not about anything that makes me special – it’s not about anything that makes you special – we are all just servants – allowing God’s power to flow through us.
What are the unsearchable riches of Christ? It means to tell people about how rich they are in Christ. Unsearchable means unfathomable, untraceable, can't be measured, there's no bottom. And so I can have the joy of just telling you how rich you are. If you're a Christian, you are rich. Believe me you are incredibly rich. Look back in your Bibles at chapter one verse 8: In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. Recipients of his grace – his goodness, His patience – God’s wisdom – knowledge – mercy – his blessings- His assurance – His word – His love – his faithfulness – His very Son- what has God held back from any of us?
Don’t act as if you are poor. Don’t live as if you are poor. Don’t go through life thinking somehow God is not up to the circumstances you face. That somehow he won’t be able to come through for you in these current days. Don’t make decisions that reflect poverty and inadequacy in the Kingdom and lack of resource. Paul says, I’ve been sent by God to preach to others the unsearchable riches of Christ. That’s my great joy to tell you how rich you are in Christ. I’m not preaching about what God will do for you – but what God has already done. I'm here to tell you that you've been blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus. I'm here to tell you that you're complete in him. I'm here to tell you that you have all things that pertain to life and Godliness.
You're rich. What breaks my heart so often is when I see what is available to believers but they still choose to live as paupers. Why are there so many defeated and inept unhappy doubting, anemic, fearful non-productive Christians? One they don't know how rich they are or two they can't use their riches because of their lack of faith. Have confidence in God’s ability to use you and realize it’s not about how wise we are, how much money we have to contribute – it’s not about our wisdom and knowledge – we have been access to the unsearchable riches of Christ. We have been called. We have been commissioned. When people live as paupers – they are only looking at themselves – not to God.
Think Big His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. One of the constant frustrations that I face as a pastor is dealing with attitudes that basically say, “He’s too idealistic – coming in with all these big ideas – he’ll mellow out after a while – just put up with him for awhile.” God’s purpose through this little church tucked away in the NE corner of CT is that as we recognize who we are (slaves of Christ) – respond to His revelation, pick up our responsibilities – lead others into relationship -have confidence not in ourselves but in his power which is working through us we will be displaying for heaven itself the manifold wisdom of God. Let me let you in on a little secret – the angels are watching you – to see if you will actually accomplish what God has intended to happen. To see if we are willing to be burdened to reach and rescue the lost ones who live all around us.
Close: You won’t be able to turn on your television set today and not hear something about swine flue.
States and cities around the nation are stocking up on treatments to counteract a potential pandemic. Every treatment that is given to every person all around the world can be traced back to one single man by the name of Louis Pasteur. Louis Pasteur, is the father and pioneer of immunology. He is a man that literally has impacted the entire world. Every time you pour milk on your corn flakes, you are able to do that because he discovered the process of pasteurization. Every vaccine you ever received in life was a result of his research. He lived at a time when thousands of people died each year of rabies. Pasteur had worked for years on a vaccine for rabies. Just as he was about to begin experimenting on himself, a 9-year-old, Joseph Meister, was bitten by a rabid dog. The boy’s mother begged Pasteur to experiment on her son. Pasteur injected Joseph for ten days--and the boy lived. From that formula, Pasteur developed a vaccine that would go on to be used to save thousands of lives. Decades later, of all the things Pasteur could have had etched on his headstone, he asked for three words: “Joseph Meister Lived.” The picture on the right is the tomb in which he is buried located within the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France. On the lid of that tomb are those words. Of all the great achievements he accomplished during his life, he wanted the world to know he saved one small child. But the saving of that one child opened the door to the saving of thousands upon thousands of other lives.
CLOSE: – Our greatest legacy will be those who live eternally because of our efforts. Recognize who you are. Realize your responsibility. Have confidence that God can work through you. Think big. The greatest mystery the world has ever known has been answered in Christ. Will you walk out of here today committed to sharing the grace of God.
