Called to Share Our Faith
: 1 Several weeks ago, I was at Northrop Grumman, my old stomping grounds, and I bumped into an old friend in the coffee room. His name is Paneer, and he always has a bright smile on his face, and he always greets me warmly. You see, several years ago, when he was a subcontractor, I wrote a letter to his company, appealing for his sake, and asking if they would release him to come work for Northrop Grumman. The letter, by the way, was a miserable flop, at least from my point of view. They didn’t release him and he had to go through a “waiting period” before we could hire him. But he always appreciated my effort anyway. Go figure.
So in the coffee room, we chatted for a few minutes, I asked about how he was doing, and then he asked about me. Now, he knows I am a pastor, so it is no problem for me to talk about the Lord. But … in the seconds when I sensed an opportunity to bring up something of spiritual significance… I wavered. Now, in that instant, I pushed through my hesitation, and shared with Paneer what a privilege it is to be a pastor here, because it is my vocation, my calling, to help people know for sure their eternal destiny. It wasn’t a long conversation, and I didn’t whip out the 4 Spiritual Laws or anything, but I did push through my hesitation and engage, if only briefly, on a spiritual level.
I wish I could say that I am always like that. To be honest, there have been other times at Northrop Grumman, or even here at Immanuel during the week, when I sense that a person may want to talk about spiritual things, deeper things having to do with their personal life. But for whatever reason, there are times when I don’t engage, I don’t take the opportunity when it is there, kind of hanging in the air.
Or even worse, I wonder, when faced with someone’s problems of divorce, or trouble with their kids, or struggles with cancer, I wonder if the gospel message, that Jesus died for their sins and that they can find new life in Christ, I wonder what that message has to do with finding a solution to their problems? : 2 Have you ever been there? Have you ever questioned the truth of your own gospel? Not that you don’t believe the gospel is true, but that you don’t believe in it enough to try and insert it in the face of their problem.
You see, I am convicted by Paul. He seems to have this attitude toward the gospel that it is the only message worth sharing, that it applies universally, and that it is absolutely relevant to any situation in life. I, on the other hand, feel a little old fashioned if I even use the word “gospel.” If I mention the word “Hell” as a real place, or refer to the devil as a real person, or “sin” as something other than a disease or a victimization, I feel like a throwback to those guys with long beards and black coats, or to the caricatures of the preachers you see in the funny papers, TV shows, or movies. : 3 But the fact is, the gospel is good news, not old news, but good news. The gospel is the only thing that effects real change in a person’s life. The gospel is the only reason we are around. And as we are going to find out today, the gospel is a whole lot bigger, and wider reaching that we typically think.
: 4 Before we get into our text for today, in Ephesians Chapter 3, I would like to spend some time in review. What we will see is that everything Paul says in Chapters 1 & 2 helps us understand the content of the gospel, and why it was so important to Paul So let’s look back. Our series name – “The Calling,” comes from Ephesians 4:1 “Walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.” A survey of Chapters 1 & 2 helps us answer, what is this calling?
From the first half of Ephesians 1, we saw that we are called to a rich inheritance in Christ. We are richly blessed in 4 ways:
: 5 1. Election – 1:4 –we see that God “chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love.” One friend of mine calls this the blessing of “selection.”
: 6 2. Redemption and Forgiveness – 1:7 – In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses. These are the blessings that we typically associate with salvation – so you could say …selection… salvation… - but just keep in mind that all the blessings of our calling are blessings of salvation, not just the ones that have to do with our redemption. But to keep it simple, we will say we are blessed with selection… salvation…
: 7 3. Inheritance – 1:11-12 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance…v. 12 to the end that we who were the first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of His glory. Our calling includes an inheritance – you might call this the blessing of identity. So we have selection, salvation, identity… I believe the whole point of this letter is to help the Ephesians see how rich they really are in their identity as a believer in Christ.
: 8 4. Sealing – 1:13 “having believed… you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.” This is the blessing of security. The blessing of assurance. That what God began, He will finish – guaranteed because it is He Himself, in the person of the Holy Spirit, who works within us.
So there in the first half of Chapter 1, we have our spiritual blessings in Christ: selection, salvation, identity, and security.
Now let’s move to the second half of Chapter 1. There we see Paul praying for only one thing: Verse 17, Paul asks that God would give them “a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him. That means he wants them, and us, to know certain things, three things, to be specific:
: 9 1. Confidence = That’s a conviction of our HimHimH purpose in life. Paul wants us to know, from verse 18 “what is the hope of His calling.” That’s a calling to be a servant of the gospel. A confidence that our message is the solution to the problems of our world.
: 10 2. Significance = That’s a conviction that the result of my life somehow accrues to God’s greater glory. Look in verse 18. He wants us to know, “what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.” Your life does have purpose. It does have significance. And it is significant by God’s standard of valuation, which is of course the only one that ultimately matters.
: 11 3. Strength = Look at verse 19 – “what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.” What Paul is talking about here is supernatural strength, the kind that raises a person from the dead.
So we see 4 blessings: selection, salvation, identity, and security, and Paul’s prayer that, as these blessings take root in our life, we will discover confidence, significance, and strength to be useful in accomplishing God’s calling for us.
In the next three paragraphs, Paul elaborates on our strength, our significance, and our confidence, but in reverse order. : 12 From Ephesians 2:1-10, we found that our strength comes from becoming united with Christ in His resurrection power. When God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, he also raised you and me – and any believer in Jesus Christ - in victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil. Look at verse 4 – “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions and sins, [God] made us alive together with Christ.” That’s the resurrection power that enables us to fulfill our call – our strength. The secret to living this Christian life is to find ourselves in Christ. This is the heart of the gospel message.
: 13 From the second half of Ephesians 2, we discover our path to significance. We are called to remember – remember where we came from. That, prior to Christ, we were strangers and aliens, having no hope and without God in the world. But more than that, we are to remember what we are called into. Look at 2:22, 22in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit. Of the two groups, God creates something brand new, the church. As we will see today, the church is the most significant thing apart from Christ Himself in all of human history. It – meaning true believers in Jesus Christ – is THE dwelling place of the Living God. And is there anything more significant than that?
Notice that the strength Paul prays for comes from being united with Christ. Our significance comes from being God’s great workmanship – the Church. : 14 Now we will find today that our confidence comes from following Paul’s example, and valuing the gospel as THE means to effect real change in both our lives and the lives of others – to preach the unfathomable riches of Christ!
: 15 Now let’s at Ephesians 3, verse 1. 1For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— Notice the “dash” at the end of verse 1. What you have here is the beginning of a sentence that is never completed. What most people think is that Paul intended to pray for the Ephesians at this point in his letter. But at his mention of the Gentiles, he decides to elaborate a bit about His own personal ministry, his calling as the one who would reveal to the world – Jew and Gentile alike, how the Church fits into God’s program. In two weeks, Tom Joyce will pick up where Paul broke off, and take us through Paul’s prayer that really begins in verse 14.
: 16 So now let’s look at Paul’s digression. It’s my hope that, as we see the confidence he placed in the gospel, we’ll be encouraged to do the same. Let’s look at verse 2: if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; That “stewardship of God’s grace” is Paul’s responsibility to preach the gospel, and establish the church. Verse 3: that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. 4By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, The phrases “mystery,” and “mystery of Christ,” refers to Christ’s revelation to Paul and the apostles concerning the church, and the gospel of grace that brings people – Jews and Gentiles alike - into the church. And when he talks about having written before in brief, I believe the simplest way to take this, is to things he has already said in this letter, but now will explain in more detail.
Now lets look more carefully at this thing called “the stewardship of God’s grace.” : 17 The word “stewardship” is the Greek word, “oikonomian” which means “household manager,” or “household administrator.” You see, Paul had a “stewardship,” or a responsibility, to introduce the gospel of grace. With the apostles and prophets, he had the job of building the church upon the gospel.
Now that’s the responsibility part of stewardship, but there is also a use here that refers to the period or age associated with that stewardship. If you look down at verse 9, you find the word “administration” - 9to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery. That is the same word, “oikonomia,” but now it is being used in a slightly different way.
Before I came on staff here at Immanuel, I was a Subcontract Administrator for Northrop Grumman. I was responsible for all the Subcontracts for a particular Government program from 1997 through 2002. That period, you might call my “administration.” In politics, we refer to the “Reagan Administration,” or the “Bush Administration,” not just as their presidency, but also the era of their presidency.
Now one final thing, which might send some of you into fits of confusion. “Oikonomia” is the basis for the theological term “dispensation,” which has the whole idea of a program or arrangement between God and man for a certain period of time. The dispensation or “household arrangement,” that we are under right now is called the “dispensation of the church.” : 18 By the way, Immanuel is “dispensational” in our theology, meaning that we see the Church as a separate economy in God’s program, separate from Israel. We do not view the church as a “spiritualized form of Israel.” In other words, we do not believe that all of God’s covenant promises to Israel as a nation have been literally fulfilled, nor are they spiritually fulfilled in the church. Rather, we believe that the God who always keeps his promises will do so them in a yet future millennial kingdom for Israel. If you have no idea what I just said, then I highly recommend that you look for our Immanuel Bible Institute course on Dispensationalism, taught by one of our elders, Bob Poliquin. It’ll be offered sometime next year, probably on Sunday evenings for 8 weeks.
: 19 Now let’s go back pick up 4 & 5 together: 4By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; Now the question you might ask is, “why is this a mystery?” : 20 Let’s understand first of all what Paul does NOT mean by the term “mystery.” At least two things: (1) Paul is not talking about “secret” information revealed only to the apostles, which God would not allow them to disclose. There were such things revealed to Paul, and the Apostle John in the Revelation, but that is NOT what Paul is talking about here. (2) Second: he does not mean deep spiritual truths that only giants of the faith like Paul can understand. In other words, not only does Paul want us to know that God revealed these things to both him and the other apostles and prophets, but that through them, God is revealing these things to us as well. : 21 Paul does not intend for these things to remain a mystery. No, it is his job – and our job - to bring them to light.
What he is talking about is new information revealed to the apostles and New Testament prophets that was not revealed in the Old Testament Scriptures. That would be information concerning the Church, and particularly that the Jews and Gentiles would come to God on the same basis, by faith, apart from the Law. : 22 Look at verse 6: “to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
Now in the first century, not only was the gospel “good news,” it was “breaking news.” And the problem for us is, when we read this paragraph, we say, “Oh, I knew that! I know what the church is. What’s so mysterious about that?” : 23 Well, nothing, if you are on the inside. But for those on the outside, for most of the world, the biblical concept of the church is still brand new. This is what I mean: The world has a concept of the church, at best, as that place down the street that puts on services. They don’t equate the church with the spiritual blessings of selection, salvation, identity, and security. They do not know that Paul’s prayer for confidence (that they would know the hope of Christ’s calling), significance (know the riches of His inheritance), and strength (know the greatness of His power) can be fulfilled in their life. Even worse, there are many Christians for whom this prayer is still unanswered. They still do not know what they really have in Christ. : 24 And sadly, they do not see the church as God’s means to introduce them to these very blessings which everyone desperately wants, and seldom finds.
The church is more than an institution. More than an organization. The church is God’s witness bearing, grace sharing, gospel armor wearing, heaven preparing community of saints, baptized into the Holy Spirit, indwelt by the Son of God, doing the will of the Father, standing against the gates of Hell, rising above the world the flesh and the devil, borne along on the prayers of God’s children, ripe with the fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, singing this song: the BIBLE, yes that’s the book for me, I stand alone on the Word of God, the BIBLE; proclaiming this message: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting live. You know when you are in Church. It’s when you sit by the bedside of a young man, dying of cancer at the young age of 36, and you whisper the name that salves his every wound, “Jesus.” You know when you are in Church. It’s when your 5 year old daughter tells you that she heard a story today in Sunday School, and she wants to ask Jesus into her heart, and you take her to a place known only to the redeemed, to the foot of the cross. You know when you are in Church, it’s when you stare at the lights as they reflect off the grape juice in a little plastic cup, contemplating a man who died for you a long time ago, and you eat a little piece of cracker, that reminds you his body was broken for you, and as long as you eat this bread, and drink this cup, you proclaim his death till He comes. Till He comes. Till He comes in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, to catch away… His church. That’s a whole lot different from “that place down the street that puts on services.”
The honor of being the one to usher in this age of grace, this age of the church, through the proclamation of the gospel message, was a calling that Paul never, ever got over. Every day that Paul could fulfill his commission, his calling, he saw it as further evidence of God’s mercy and grace in his life, because, as the one who persecuted the church, he was “the least of all the saints.” Here in Ephesians 3:7, we see that Paul viewed it as a grace gift of God – a stewardship of responsibility - and a vehicle to demonstrate God’s power through … the gospel, 7of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.
: 25 Paul was absolutely convinced that this gospel of grace, of the experience of new, resurrected life by faith in the resurrected Lord, was the only message that could actually and permanently effect change in people’s lives. No matter what the situation, Paul’s answer was always the same: the gospel. Look at verse 8: 8To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, Only through the gospel could someone discover the riches of God’s inheritance in the saints, in the church, the body of Christ. Only there could they find selection, salvation, identity, and security, strength, significance, and confidence.
Paul expected change because the gospel produces change. Now, do I believe that for myself? Do I believe the truth of my own gospel? Not that I don’t believe that the gospel is true, but do I believe that it is the ultimate answer to this person’s problem? If the answer is “no,” then there are several reasons why, at least ones that I can think of: : 26 (1) Maybe I am ignorant of the riches of my own salvation. Several months ago, Lisa and I rented the DVD for our family movie night, The Prince and the Pauper. I think you know the story, about how Prince Edward, the son of Henry VIII, decides to trade places with a street urchin who looks just like him. The street urchin dresses in the Prince’s clothes, and the Prince dresses like a pauper. While outside the castle, the King dies, and the prince hears the bells ringing, and knows that he is now the rightful heir to the throne. He has received the riches of his inheritance. But he can’t convince anyone of that. The thing that struck me, is the prince, no matter how others treated him, ever responded like a pauper. He always acted like a king! He expected others to stand when he ate, and went around dubbing people as knights, demanding that people do this and do that. Why? Because he was the king! But the pauper, despite the fact that he was about to be crowned the king, and had people bowing to him all over the place, never saw himself as anything other than a pauper.
Maybe we don’t believe the truth of our own gospel is because we are ignorant of how rich we really are in Christ. Funny thing is, all the inhabitants of heaven, and even hell, have no doubt whatsoever about the truth of our gospel. When the church does its job, somehow, and I don’t understand how, it is a testimony to angels of God’s wisdom. Look at verse 10: 10so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
: 27 A second reason I might not believe the truth of my own gospel is that I haven’t experienced much of its power for myself. Not that I am ignorant of what the Bible says, but, for whatever reason: sin, lack of faith, lack of trying, fear, lack of encouragement, any or all of those things my personal experience of God’s power is very limited. I can’t witness to what I haven’t experienced. And in all integrity, I don’t want to proclaim a gospel in which I have not yet become engaged. The need there is not more knowledge, the need is to decide and do. Put one foot in front of another and transact with God. I mentioned last week how, from time to time, Lisa and I have “words.” Sometimes I will stew for a while, and we may even slip into a little bit of “silence.” But I am convinced that one aspect of leadership in our home is, regardless of how much I know that I am right, I will own up to my “little bit,” (which always turns out in hindsight as “a whole lot”) and be the first to break the silence. It is my responsibility as the man, to “live with my wife in an understanding way,” as Peter puts it. So, I determine and do. I open my mouth and get the conversation going. Whenever I have done that, I have always found God to be faithful, and He gives Lisa and I the grace to patch things up again. But until I “determine and do,” nothing happens.
: 28 Finally, in God’s sovereign will and way, sometimes He decides it’s “growing time” for us. He gives us a little “push” to get things done: Look at verse 13: 13 Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory. When that happens, when we experience tribulations in life, what do we do? Back up to verse 12: in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. Our needs must be brought before the Father, and God often allows tribulations to remind us that this world is not all there is, that we as believers do not function independent of Him. The result, when we depend upon Him by faith, is that God pours out His grace. The result is not always in renewed health and happiness or relief from the circumstances. : 29 But in my experience, it does always result in strength, significance, and confidence. And that accrues to God’s glory as we exult – boast to the world - in the magnificent power of our God.
You see, the gospel must be preached, and it must be preached by you and me. Whether it springs from the overflow of a full life, or because I have come to the point where I must “decide and do,” or if God, in his sovereign will, decides for me, that “it’s growing time,” the gospel must be preached.
