Greater Than We Can Imagine

We all want to be a part of something great. Whether it’s a great ball team, a great group of musicians, or just a great group of friends; we deeply long to be a part of something big. For me, when I was in high school, that was drum line. We were really good and really well known. Those people became my closest friends, we spent all of our time together, why? Because we felt we found our belonging in something bigger than ourselves and we liked it. But the reality is that, as I’ve told you before, that thing didn’t last and neither do sports, or music groups, or sometimes even friend groups. But this doesn’t stop the fact that we want to be a part of something awesome, does it?

Well, today, as we consider Ephesians 3:8-13, we will look into the suffering of Paul and as we do that we will find that we, as Christians, have belonging in something greater than we could ever imagine. So, with that said, if you feel like you’re looking for your place to belong, if you’re looking for significance, or something of value to be a part of, as a believer, this is it. Today we will find that God takes every day people and puts them on stage in the greatest play ever known. So, if you find yourself discouraged this week, or feeling as though you have nothing significant to contribute to, I want you to remember this lesson.

God Has Given Us A Truth To Give Others

As Paul writes concerning his imprisonment, he wants to make sure that the Ephesians aren’t discouraged to hear about his difficulties, why? Because Paul knows that this suffering is further proof that He is serving the same Christ who wicked men crucified. Paul encourages us here by letting us know that his privilege in life is to give to others the message that Jesus gave him and how does he do that? By preaching to us the unsearchable, or how the CSB puts it, “the incalculable riches of Christ.”

That word preach means, “To announce the good news.” And the good news that Paul has is that Jesus Christ is the Lord who has unbelievable riches. But Paul doesn’t just go around saying that there is a man named Jesus who has unsearchable riches, no, he goes to tell of the Jesus who is unbelievably rich and He is the one who gives riches to all that come to Him. Listen to how John Stott expresses the riches of Christ:

“They are riches freely available because of the cross. They include resurrection from the death of sin, victorious enthronement with Christ in the heavenlies, reconciliation with God, incorporation with Jewish believers in his new society, the end of hostility and the beginning of peace, access to the Father through Christ and by the Spirit, membership of his kingdom and household, being an integral part of his dwelling place among men, and all this only a foretaste of yet more riches to come, namely the riches of the glory of the inheritance which God will give to all his people on the last day.”

What Paul preaches is that in Christ there is freedom from sin, there is a reconciled relationship with God, there is resurrection from the dead, there is hope, and there is so much more. But it’s not in a box, or in a card, or in a donation, its in a person and His name is Jesus Christ.

Paul, in verse 9, proceeds to tell us that it is through preaching, or telling people about Jesus, that God works to open the eyes of the blind. In Acts 26:17-18, Paul said that Jesus told him:

Acts 26:17–18 NKJV

17 I will deliver you from the Jewish people, as well as from the Gentiles, to whom I now send you, 18 to open their eyes, in order to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in Me.’

and here, where Paul says, “to bring to light for everyone” shows us that he never forgot what Jesus told him in the beginning.

John Stott says, “What is needed today for a recovery of evangelistic zeal in the church is the same... conviction about the gospel [as Paul had]. Once we are sure that the gospel is both truth from God and riches for mankind, nobody will be able to silence us.”

It is in this gospel that God, who created the Heavens and the Earth, is now creating a new creation through Jesus Christ, which is the Church. If you ever feel like you don’t have much to contribute to the world, know that as a believer you hold the most valuable thing in all the world, the gospel of Jesus Christ. You hold the words of life, you know the greatest story ever told and God sends us out and uses us to tell others and through that, He chooses to save sinners. This message reunites enemies, that message changes the hearts of sinners, that message takes an atheist and melts his heart at the thought of God, that is God’s gospel and He has gifted it to us.

You Are a Part of Something Bigger Than Yourself.

In verse 10, Paul brings to light something that is incredible. He tells us here that God, who is building His Church, is using it to teach angels about how brilliant He is. One writer said, “It is through the old creation (the Universe) that God reveals His glory to humans; it is through the new creation (the Church) that He reveals His wisdom to Angels.” He continues “It is as if a great drama is being enacted. History is the theatre, the world is the stage, and church members in every land are the actors. God himself has written the play, and he directs and produces it. Act by act, scene by scene, the story continues to unfold. But who are the audience? They are the cosmic intelligences, the principalities and powers in the heavenly places. We are to think of them as spectators of the drama of salvation. Thus ‘the history of the Christian church becomes a graduate school for angels.”

Calvin says, “The church, composed both of Jews and Gentiles, is a mirror, in which angels behold the astonishing wisdom of God displayed in a manner unknown to them before. They see a work which is new to them, and the reason of which was hid in God.”

What Paul is explaining to us here is that God is using us as a cosmic sermon to declare how brilliant and wonderful He is! He takes people of different places, backgrounds, races and preferences and unites them together through Jesus Christ. He takes rebels and makes them friends, He takes dead men and makes them alive, He takes the blind and makes them to see and He takes orphans and calls them sons and daughters and the angels look down here as sons and daughters of God come before Him in prayer and they can’t believe it. They are simply astonished at how marvelous the love of God is for us and how this was His plan before time began and He did it all through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ.

If you ever doubt the significance of the Church, this should open your eyes to it. Stott said, “If the church is central to God’s purpose, as seen in both history and the gospel, it must surely also be central to our lives.”

Paul wanted to share the gospel, even if it meant suffering. And so he says in verse 13, don’t be discouraged over my situation. If it’s the price I have to pay for giving you the gospel that is your glory, then so be it. Is this your heart today? Do you think to yourself, “God has people placed throughout Burlington and throughout my life that need to hear the gospel and even if it means some people think I’m weird, they need to know that Jesus saves sinners. And that through Him they can be forgiven, they can know God as Father, they can run to Him in prayer, they can be united to a body of believers that will love and prayer for them.” Don’t you want that for your friends? For your barber? For your teammates?