I know a secret pt II

Ephesians 3:9-13

There was a news story reported in July 2011 that a well-known Hindu temple in southern India revealed vast treasures and hidden secrets. The temple itself was well known and previously unguarded. (The Sree Padmanabhaswamy Temple in Trivandrum, India)

The temple had been there for hundreds of years and was open to the public. But about 12 years ago there was a decision to "explore" the temple's hidden vaults and secret chambers.

The vaults had not been opened in about 150 years and the treasures span some 500 years. India's Supreme Court ordered that the vaults of the temple be inventoried after a man filed a suit that worried about how the trust was caring for the riches.

A huge treasure was found — gold, diamonds, silver, jewelry, and precious stones ... worth over 24 billion dollars! Yes billion! It is believed that the valuables have been accumulated in the temple over several thousands of years, having been donated to the Deity by various Dynasties and Kings.

Offerings by the many worshipers making pit stops there along the global trade routes probably also contributed to the treasure.

The Supreme Court of India and its seven-member committee have already opened six of the secret vaults. Vault A contained 2,000 pounds of gold coins, dating to around 200 B.C. plus a pure golden throne with hundreds of diamonds, as well as many other precious stones found in the chamber.

Metal detectors were hurriedly installed at temple entrances after six days of searches revealed a treasure trove of artifacts, statues and temple ornaments made of gold and embellished with jewels.

A hidden treasure vault was discovered beyond the already well-documented Vault B. Adding to recent treasure findings in several other vaults, the researchers are estimating it could total over one trillion dollars.

But that is where the problem starts, nobody wants to dare open the hidden inner sanctum. Chamber B has long been considered by Astrologers of India as highly mysterious, sacred, and too dangerous to unveil it.

The enormous steel door of Chamber B has two massive cobras painted on it, and has no bolts, latches or any other means of entry. This is mystery straight out of an Indiana Jones movie.

This chamber is historically believed to have thick walls made of solid gold, and it is where the mystery really exists and could contain the largest undiscovered treasure find in the history of the world.

And for hundreds of years, thousands of people have gone into and out of that temple building unaware of the riches in contains. And today, far too many people are unaware of the unsearchable riches available to them. For them, it remains a mystery.

But it is revealed in Ephesians 3:1-13. There the apostle Paul makes known what had been a mystery in ages past and tells of the glorious riches that come to those who uncover it.

Last week we saw that Paul explains the mystery—the Gentile believers are now united to the Jewish believers in one body, the church (Eph. 3:6).

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. Ephesians 3:6

He had mentioned this new work of God, so his readers were familiar with the concept (Eph. 1:10; 2:11, 22). But now Paul explains the tremendous impact of this “sacred secret” that had so possessed his own life and ministry. This explanation is almost a parenthesis in the letter, for Paul begins this section with the intention of praying for his readers. His use of the words “prisoner” and “Gentiles” leads him into this important explanation of the “mystery of the church,” and in this explanation, Paul shows us that the “mystery” is important to four different groups of people.

Last week we discussed the first two groups, Paul, And the Gentiles. This week we will follow it up with the last two, The Angels and today's Christians.

1. It Was Important to Paul (Eph. 3:1–5)

2. It Was Important to the Gentiles (Eph. 3:6–8)

3. It Is Important to the Angels (Eph. 3:9–10)

4. It Should Be Important to Christians Today (Eph. 3:11–13)

Point III

It Is Important to the Angels (Eph. 3:9–10)

Ephesians 3:9–10 (NIV)

9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. 10 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,

Perhaps at this point, you are asking yourself the question, “Why did God keep His secret about the church hidden for so many centuries?” Certainly, the Old Testament clearly states that God will save the Gentiles through Israel, but nowhere are we told that both Jews and Gentiles will form a new creation, the church, the body of Christ. It was this mystery that the Spirit revealed to Paul and other leaders in the early church, and that was so difficult for the Jews to accept.

1. Paul tells us that “the principalities and powers” are also involved in this great secret.

a. God is “educating” the angels by means of the church!

b. By “the principalities and powers,” Paul means the angelic beings created by God, both good and evil (Eph. 1:21; 6:12; Col. 1:16; 2:15).

c. Angels are created beings and are not omniscient.

i. In fact, Peter indicates that during the Old Testament period, the angels were curious about God’s plan of salvation then being worked out on earth (1 Peter 1:10–12).

1 Peter 1:10–12

10 Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, 11 trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of the Messiah and the glories that would follow. 12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things.

ii. Certainly, the angels rejoice at the repentance of a lost sinner (Luke 15:10).

iii. “We are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels,” Paul writes (1 Cor. 4:9).

1 Cor. 4:9

9 For it seems to me that God has put us apostles on display at the end of the procession, like those condemned to die in the arena. We have been made a spectacle to the whole universe, to angels as well as to human beings.

2. What, then, do the angels learn from the church?

a. “The manifold wisdom of God” (Eph. 3:10).

b. Certainly the angels know about the power of God as seen in His creation. But the wisdom of God as seen in His new creation, the church, is something new to them.

3. Unsaved men, including wise philosophers, look at God’s plan of salvation and consider it “foolishness” (1 Cor. 1:18–31).

a. But the angels watch the outworking of God’s salvation, and they praise His wisdom.

b. Paul calls it manifold wisdom, and this word carries the idea of “variegated” or “many-colored.”

i. This suggests the beauty and variety of God’s wisdom in His great plan of salvation.

4. But there is another facet to this truth that must be explored. What are the evilangels learning from God’s “mystery”?

a. That their leader, Satan, does not have any wisdom!

b. Satan knows the Bible, and he understood from the Old Testament Scriptures that the Saviour would come, when He would come, how He would come, and where He would come.

c. Satan also understood why He would come, as far as redemption is concerned.

i. But nowhere in the Old Testament would Satan find any prophecies concerning the church, “the mystery” of Jews and Gentiles united in one body!

ii. Satan could see unbelieving Jews rejecting their Messiah, and he could see Gentiles trusting the Messiah, but he could not see both believing Jews and Gentiles united in one body, seated with Christ in the heavenlies, and completely victorious over Satan!

iii. Had Satan known the far-reaching results of the Cross, no doubt he would have altered his plans accordingly.

5. God hid this great plan “from the beginning of the world,” but now He wants “the mystery” to be known by His church.

a. And this is why He made Paul a “steward” of this great truth.

b. Ephesians 3:9 should read, “And to make all men see what is the stewardship of the mystery.”

c. Here is an amazing truth: Now all believers are to be faithful stewards of this great truth! This “sacred secret” that was so important to Paul, and to the Gentiles, and to angels, is now in our hands!

Point IV

It Should Be Important to Christians Today (Eph. 3:11–13)

11 according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.

12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. 13 I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.[1]

When God saved Paul, He deposited with him the precious treasures of Gospel truth (1 Tim. 1:11).

1 Timothy 1:11 NIV

that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.

Paul in turn committed these truths to others, exhorting them to commit the truths to faithful men who would guard them and share them (2 Tim. 2:2).

2 Tim. 2:2

2 And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.

“Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to your care.!” (1 Tim. 6:20)

At the close of his life, Paul would say, to the glory of God, “I have kept the faith” (2 Tim. 4:7).

During those apostolic days, the truths of the Gospel and “the mystery” were guarded, preached, and handed down to faithful men.

1. But a study of church history reveals that, one by one, many of the basic truths of the Word of God were lost during the centuries that followed.

a. God had His faithful people—a minority—at all times, but many of the great truths of the Word were buried under man-made theology, tradition, and ritual.

b. Then, God’s Spirit began to open the eyes of seeking souls, and these great truths were unveiled again.

c. Martin Luther championed justification by faith.

d. Other spiritual leaders rediscovered the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the glorious truth of the return of Jesus Christ, and the joy of the victorious Christian life.

e. In recent years, the truth of “the mystery” has again excited the hearts of God’s people.

2. We rejoice that we are “all one in Christ Jesus.”

Most of us identify Napoleon Bonaparte as the would-be conqueror of Europe. But not many would name him as a patron of arts and sciences. Yet he was. In July 1798, Napoleon began to occupy Egypt, but by September 1801, he was forced to get out. Those three years meant failure as far as his military and political plans were concerned, but they meant success in one area that greatly interested him—archeology. For in August 1799, a Frenchman named Boussand discovered the Rosetta Stone about thirty miles from Alexandria. This discovery gave to archeologists the key to understanding Egyptian hieroglyphics. It opened the door to modern Egyptian studies.

3. “The mystery” is God’s “Rosetta Stone.”

a. It is the key to what He promised in the Old Testament, what Christ did in the Gospels, what the early church did in the Book of Acts, what Paul and the other writers teach in the Epistles, and what God will do as recorded in the Book of Revelation.

b. God’s program today is not “the headship of Israel” (Deut. 28:1–13), but the headship of Christ over His church.

c. We today are under a different “stewardship” from that of Moses and the prophets, and we must be careful not to confuse what God has clarified.

4. The reason many churches are weak and ineffective is because they do not understand what they have in Christ. And the cause of this is often spiritual leaders who are not good “stewards of the mystery.”

a. Because they do not “rightly divide the Word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15), they confuse their people concerning their spiritual position in Christ, and they rob their people of the spiritual wealth in Christ.

5. This great truth concerning the church is not a divine afterthought. It is a part of God’s eternal purpose in Christ (Eph. 3:11). To ignore this truth is to sin against the Father who planned it, the Son whose death made it possible, and the Spirit who today seeks to work in our lives to accomplish what God has planned.

a. When you understand this truth, it gives you great confidence and faith (Eph. 3:12).

b. When you know what God is doing in the world, and you work with Him, you can be sure that He will work in you and for you.

c. All of His divine resources are available to those who sincerely want to do His will and help Him accomplish His purposes on earth.

6. The early church thought that the Gospel belonged to the Jews because it had come through them and to them first.

a. Until Peter, by divine direction, went to the Gentiles in Acts 10, the Jewish believers thought that a Gentile had to become a Jew before he could become a Christian!

b. God’s Spirit gradually revealed to the churches that God was doing a new thing: He was calling out a people for His name from both the Jews and Gentiles (Acts 15:14).

c. There are no national, racial, political, physical, or social distinctions in the church! “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).

7. But an understanding of God’s program in this present age not only gives the believer confidence toward God. It also gives him courage in the difficult circumstances of life.

a. Paul’s sufferings for the Gentiles would mean glory for the Gentiles.

b. In the Old Testament age, when God’s people obeyed, God blessed them materially, nationally, and physically (Deut. 28); and if they disobeyed, He withdrew these blessings.

c. This is not the way He deals with the church today.

i. Our blessings are spiritual, not material (Eph. 1:3); they have all been given to us completely in Christ.

ii. We appropriate them by faith; but if we disobey God, He does not revoke them.

iii. We simply lose the enjoyment and the enrichment of them.

d. Paul was certainly a dedicated, Spirit-filled man; yet he was suffering as a prisoner. Paul made it clear that physical, material blessings are not always the experience of the dedicated Christian (2 Cor. 4:7–12; 11:23–12:10).

Another story from Warren Wiersbe. He was driving to a preaching engagement, trying to follow a map he had found in the glove compartment of his car. (He is a very poor navigator, so his wife is usually the navigator in their family.) For some reason, he could not locate the interstate highway he needed, so he stopped to get directions at a filling station.

“You’ve got an ancient map there, Mister!” the attendant told him. “Here’s the latest map. Follow it and you’ll get where you are going.” He was right. He followed the new map and arrived in plenty of time to preach.

Warren Wiersbe

8. People who do not understand God’s “mystery” in His church are trying to make spiritual progress with the wrong map.

a. Or, to change the figure, they are trying to build with the wrong blueprints.

b. God’s churches on this earth—the local assemblies—are not supposed to be either Gentile culture cliques or Jewish culture cliques.

c. For a German church to refuse fellowship to a Swede is just as unscriptural as for a Jewish congregation to refuse a Gentile.

d. God’s church is not to be shackled by culture, class, or any other physical distinction.

e. It is a spiritual entity that must submit to the headship of Jesus Christ in the power of the Spirit.

Conclusion:

Yes, God had a “secret”—but God does not want it to be a secret anymore! If you understand your wonderful position in Christ, then live up to it—and share the blessing with others. This “secret” was important to Paul, to the Gentiles, and to the angels—and it ought to be important to you and me today.[2]

[1] The New International Version (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2011), Eph 3:11–13. [2]Warren W. Wiersbe, The Bible Exposition Commentary, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1996), 26–30.