My Tribulations Are Your Glory
Notes
Transcript
To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory.
To me - grace was given
very least
grace
was given
Paul is void of focus on self.
The Eph were worried about him! (naturally)
but he wanted them focused on Christ.
HOOK:
there is a wrong way and right way you can accomplish the very same thing.
Vacuum.
There is a right way to suffer for Christ and a wrong way.
the wrong way is to make a show.
“I’m standing strong for Jesus”
“I won’t back down”
“I may fall but I can do all things through him who strengthens me”
The thing is, this all sounds well and good - even applaudable! - but it is not what Paul does.
It makes a good show of giving glory to God, but it keeps the focus on you.
In other words, it picks the big stuff off the top of the floor, but all inside the carpet is still dirty.
the right way to suffer is what Paul will show us here.
This gets down into the fibers and works foreal!
And that is, he shrinks - as much as he can as the author of this letter - to make Christ shine.
The focus is on the working of God in Christ - as it has been this entire book - and he finishes with that phrase
“My tribulations are your Glory”
A wonderful phrase and one that we will see the impact of as we go through the message today.
In fact, that is the title of the message: “My Tribulations are Your Glory”
He will give us 3 compelling reasons why he is able to say that:
The Riches of Christ are Unfathomable
The Manifold Wisdom of God is Made Known
We Have Boldness and Confident Access Through Faith
All of these work together to show how Paul would define the Purpose of his ministry and to direct the focus of the church in Ephesus to their glory in Christ.
+ + + + + +PRAY+ + + + + +
The Riches of Christ are Unfathomable (8-9)
The Riches of Christ are Unfathomable (8-9)
Paul says there are functionally two components of his preaching.
to make known the unfathomable riches of Christ
To bring to Light the mystery of the Administration
Now, I would say that the second is a subset of the first.
These are not equal in our thinking - The Riches and Mystery.
BECAUSE
The mystery being revealed - as has been said twice in Ephesians already - is that BY JESUS CHRIST the Gentiles are brought into the Fold of God.
Eph 1:10.
Eph 2:14.
Eph 3:6.
So to call these equal doesn’t really work.
Because part of the Riches of Christ being that Paul preaches is that the mystery is revealed.
Another way to know that the Riches of Christ are more important to Paul than the mystery being revealed is that he uses the phrase “In Christ Jesus” 30 times in the letter and he talks about the mystery 3 times.
You might think that this is too much nitpicking
But
We have a real issue in the church for making unequal things equally important.
We tend to raise certain things to levels they ought not to be at.
What to wear
What to sing
What to argue about.
All sorts of doctrines in the Bible are given too much weight and they end up meaning more to people than Jesus does.
We don’t want to do that here.
Word Baptist ought to be a place where Jesus is held with supreme importance, and all secondary things kept secondary.
Not unimportant
but appropriately designated.
So, the focus is on Christ.
Paul says “the Unfathomable riches of Christ.”
This has been the point of Ephesians from the very beginning.
The riches of Christ.
the text says it is “unfathomable”
that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, but it does mean we shouldn’t be surprised when we can’t quite see it all at once.
You were dead in your trespasses and you were made alive - Eph 2:5.
You were once far off and excluded, but you’ve been brought near - Eph 2:13.
Before the world was even made, God chose you - Eph 1:4.
You have a glorious inheritance - Eph 1:13.
God’s Power is revealed and working in you!! - Eph 1:19.
And not one of those things is true except by Christ Jesus.
No Jesus, No Life.
No Jesus, Far Off
No Jesus, Not Chosen
No Jesus, No Inheritance
No Jesus, No Power.
Jesus is all in all!
He Means everything to us!
We are called Christians for a reason - Because Christ is everything to us.
That’s what I ended up telling the Jehovah’s Witness that last time I spoke to them.
Jesus Came and Died for my sins?
Jesus rose to life so that I can have life?
Jesus made peace between me and God?
Why wouldn’t I praise HIM?
Firefighter v. Dispatcher.
We Praise Jesus and We Praise God and that isn’t at Odds because they are the same!
Jesus said “I and the Father are one”
( ( JW will say “well he just means on the same page or in one accord”
To which you ask “Then why did the people get rocks to stone him for Blasphemy?” ) )
We Praise Jesus’ name for the Riches of who he is and what he’s done for us.
We Praise - should - praise the Spirit for who He is and what He’s done for us
And we Praise God for who He is and what He’s done for us.
Now, Paul does something here in v.9 that made me take a pause.
he says the mystery was hidden in God, who created all things.
Why mention that?
Why throw that tidbit in there? that God created all things?
It doesn’t, as far as I can tell, add to the specific point of the text - except in maybe* one way which we will see in v.12.
But I get the sense from my reading of Ephesians that this is more about the entire letter than this specific passage.
One thing I like to do which helps in me in writing sermons is I like to read through the entire book each week.
(I didn’t do that with Matthew, but I have with Ephesians)
And something happens when you do this -and you should do this periodically.
You get the spirit of the text when you do this
the Flavor.
You notice, for instance, that Paul spent the first almost half of the letter talking only about what God has done in Christ before even mentioning himself.
What that does is it puts Jesus on the front burner, The Spirit of God on our minds, before ever dealing with the other stuff.
It also helps you see the way Paul communicates.
Multiple times in the letter he has mentioned the GRANDNESS of God
He’s talked about Jesus being above all Rule Authority Power and Dominion
He says he Fills all in All.
in v.15 he is going to say that it is in our Heavenly Father that every family derives it’s name.
What you get when you attend to these flourishes in Paul’s writing is a symphony of doctrine about God.
Stan Plays one note
a couple notes
a chord
a few chords
A song
So Paul is talking about grace and talking about Power and talking about the mystery and he says it was hidden in God who created all things!!!
Suddenly, the drums which you hadn’t even noticed weren’t there - they kick in and now we have a song!
Paul is assembling a symphony about God and Son and Spirit that stretches out over all the letter.
The Manifold Wisdom of God is Made Known (10)
The Manifold Wisdom of God is Made Known (10)
And that phrase brings us into v.10 which is heavy with the greatness of God.
so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.
God’s Manifold wisdom is on display in Paul’s preaching the gospel.
If the Riches of Christ is the Message of the Gospel, God’s Manifold Wisdom is Reason for the Gospel.
That wisdom being unsearchable - that’s what manifold means.
Paul is expressing that as the riches of Christ are unsearchable, the wisdom of God is multi-farious, multi-faceted, literally in greek “extremely varied”
And it is, isn’t it?
Why was the purpose of Jesus hidden for ages as v.9 says?
Why, if God created all things, did He choose a people in the Israelites?
Why, if God is above all authorities and powers (on earth and in hell) , why does he use the church to show His wisdom? (v.10)
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
You can’t read Ephesians without getting the sense that God is beyond comprehension, and His wisdom is Manifold.
But that helps us!!
If God’s wisdom is to be trusted in his planning and saving the world through His Son… EVEN IF YOU DON’T GET IT! . . . then can it not be trusted in matters of ‘prison sentences’?
Isn’t that what we’re talking about here?
If God’s wisdom can be trusted in matters of sin and salvation, can we not also trust him in matters of finances?
Family?
Politics?
Cancer?
Alcoholism?
EVEN When we don’t get it?
My Boys have no idea what I do to keep the lights on in our house - they wouldn’t get it if I explained it to them.
But they live in the house.
and they depend on me to feed them.
I can be both for them - working inscrutably for their good in way they cant understand and don’t even see.
And giving them their daily bread. ( ( Or, in their case, their daily pack of Gummies ) )
Jesus talked about this in the sermon on the mount
“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? “And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? “And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will He not much more clothe you? You of little faith! “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
God is holding all things together - he created it all - and he asks us to bring our tiny matters to his feet as well.
Matthew 11:28 ““Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.”
He cares for you greatly.
You have access to him…
We Have Boldness and Confident Access Through Faith (11-12)
We Have Boldness and Confident Access Through Faith (11-12)
This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.
If the Riches are the Message
And the Wisdom is Reason
then This is the Result of Paul’s ministry of the Gospel.
“We have access to God”
That Grand God we’ve been talking about!
You have access!
How?
By Faith in Jesus!
You place your hope and faith in Jesus, and God’s great power is displayed in raising you out of your dead sin and giving you new life.
Glorious Life!
See how this helps us in our walk?
We ned not fret and worry.
God is Powerful, Jesus has brought us near by his blood, the Spirit seals us in Him
that gives us BOLDNESS and CONfident Access!
Like children approaching a loving Father , we enter in with confidence.
Hebrews 4:16 “Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
I have been trying to cultivate this mentality in my prayer life.
Praying to God as my Heavenly Father
Grand
and Lovingly Close.
By Faith in Jesus, you have bold and confident access to God.
Therefore, do not lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory.
Nothing That he is facing and nothing that they are facing or will face undermines in anyway these truths.
The Riches of Christ are unfathomable.
It is my Joy to preach this message to you and pray that God will awaken that truth in you.
The Wisdom of God has been made known, if only in part.
We can trust that wisdom and our God no matter if the sun is shining or if sea billows roll.
And we have confident access to him in Faith in Jesus.
nothing that can happen to us can change that.
Be bold therefore, in Christ, for this light and momentary affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of Glory beyond all comparison.
This tribulation is your Glory.