EPHESIANS 3:8-12 - Life Together

Introduction

I want to introduce four different Christians to you this morning—each with a different attitude towards the church. First is John—John believes in Christ as his Savior, but isn’t really “into organized religion”. He much prefers going for a walk in the woods on Sunday morning with his Bible, where he can sit in the beautiful solitude and sense God’s presence in nature.

Then there is Leanne—Leanne is in church every single Sunday. She never misses. But she’s just not in the same church every week. She’ll attend one place pretty regularly for a few weeks or months, and then another for a while. Like the old Steve Taylor song, Steeplechase; she just keeps moving from church to church.

Or take Natasha—she found a church that has a terrific college and career class. She is there every Sunday night and really enjoys the group there and the teaching. Occasionally she will attend a Sunday morning service if the sermon topic sounds like it might be interesting, but her only real connection to the church is through the evening Bible study.

Then there’s Philip—Philip loves the preaching at his church; he is there every Sunday morning and takes part in the singing, Scripture reading and prayer, and is carefully engaged with the sermon. But as soon as the benediction is pronounced, he slips out the door. He doesn’t really stick around much or engage with anyone else there.

Now, every one of the individuals I’ve described would undoubtedly identify themselves as Christians. But for each one of them, the church plays almost no real role in their faith; and as a result they each have a fundamental misunderstanding about what it means to be a Christian.

For some of the newer members here at Bethel this illustration sounds very familiar, as it is taken from the membership curriculum that each prospective member studies as part of joining Bethel Baptist Church. But this morning we are beginning a new series about the crucial role that fellowship plays in the life and purpose of the local church. What I aim to demonstrate for you through this series is that without deep and meaningful relationships with other believers in the context of a local church, it is impossible to be a healthy Christian.

And what I aim to demonstrate specifically this morning as we lay the foundation for this series is that a church that does not display real, meaningful, Biblically-informed and Spirit-empowered fellowship will fail to accomplish the purpose for which God has created it. As Jesus Himself says to the Ephesian church in Revelation 2:4-5

Revelation 2:4–5 (LSB)

‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first. But if not, I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent.

When a church fails in its love for one another, it is failing in its purpose to shed the light of God’s glory. Our text in Ephesians 3 will lay this connection out more clearly, and so what I want to demonstrate for you here in these verses is that

The GLORY of God is at STAKE in the FELLOWSHIP of our church

The book of Ephesians is a majestic and glorious exposition of our salvation in Christ. In our text this morning, the Apostle Paul demonstrates how the relationships we pursue in the local church—the fellowship that we display between one another and between us and God—is directly tied to God’s glory in the church. Look with me at verse 10. Paul writes that the fellowship that is on display in this room was accomplished by Christ

Ephesians 3:10 (LSB)

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.

Do you see it? What Paul is saying—and what I aim to demonstrate from this text this morning—is that the relationships that we have with one another here in this church—the nature and health of the fellowship in this body is of massive cosmic significance for God’s purposes for this church. Fellowship is not a “value-added benefit” of worship; it is at the heart of why the church exists. Pursuing real, consequential, Christ-centered relationships with other believers here at Bethel is not optional. It is an indispensible part of what it means not only to be a church member, but what it means to be a Christian at all.

How does Paul demonstrate this in these verses? Let us trace his argument to see how he comes to the conclusion that the glory of God is at stake in the fellowship of the church.

First, Paul asks us to consider

I. The UNFATHOMABLE RICHES of our salvation (Ephesians 3:8; cp. 2:4-5)

See this here in verse 8 of our text:

Ephesians 3:8 (LSB)

To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to proclaim to the Gentiles the good news of the unfathomable riches of Christ,

Paul had been commissioned by Christ to take the Good News of salvation in Christ to the Gentiles:

Ephesians 3:6 (LSB)

that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,

He had a message of unfathomable riches to share with the nations—a message that says

Christ has RESCUED us from our TRANSGRESSIONS

Earlier in his letter, Paul reminds us of what we have received by God’s mercy:

Ephesians 2:4–5 (LSB)

But God, being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—

The unfathomable riches in Christ to us is found in our rescue from our desperate state before God. Consider your condition before Christ came to you in the riches of God’s mercy—dead in transgressions and sins, walking in disobedience and disregard for God and His righteous demands.

If it were up to you, you would still be dead in your sins. You would still hate Him or ignore Him or be utterly ignorant of Him; you would have no interest in Him at all. There was no reason in this world that God should have raised you up out of that spiritual death; there was no way you could have pleased Him or caught His attention by anything worthwhile in you. You were fit for nothing but His righteous wrath, but instead you were the recipient of the riches of His mercy in Christ, who made you alive together with Him!

The unfathomable riches of your salvation are seen in that Christ rescued you from your transgressions—and not only so, but Paul goes on to show that

Christ has RAISED us to His THRONE (cp. Eph. 2:13)

He made us alive together with Him, and verse 6 says He

Ephesians 2:6 (LSB)

...raised us up with Him, and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,

Don’t miss the fact that Paul doesn’t say that God will raise us up with Christ, or that someday we can look forward to being seated in the heavenly places with Him—the unfathomable riches of His mercy to you, Christian, means that you are reckoned to be in His presence even now!

Even now—while you are still battling through the entanglements of sin and the weakness of your flesh; even while you are in the midst of the trials and hardships and failures and disappointments of this broken world; even though the holiness you long for seems so out of reach and your progress in the faith seems so small—in Christ you are as good as home already. There is no condemnation for you in Christ (Rom 8:1); there is nothing that can separate you from His presence (Rom 8:37-39) or pull you out of His Hand (John 10:28) or stop Him praying for you (John 18:24). You belong—irrevocably and eternally—to God through the unfathomable riches of the work of Christ for you.

And as we move into verse 9 of our text, Paul builds on the unfathomable riches of our salvation in Christ by drawing our attention to

II. The UNSEARCHABLE MYSTERY of our reconciliation (Ephesians 3:9; cp. Eph. 2:14-19)

Paul starts by reminding us of how we have been reconciled to God through the unfathomable riches of Christ’s work, and now goes on to show how that reconciliation extends to our relationships with each other:

Ephesians 3:9 (LSB)

and to bring to light for all what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things;

The “mystery” that Paul is referring to is that the Body of Christ, the Church, is made up of people who had formerly hated one another:

Ephesians 2:14–16 (LSB)

For He Himself is our peace, who made both groups one and broke down the dividing wall of the partition by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, the Law of commandments contained in ordinances, so that in Himself He might create the two into one new man, making peace, and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, having in Himself put to death the enmity.

See here that

Our HOSTILITY is put to DEATH through Christ (Eph. 2:14-16)

How does Paul say that the longstanding hostility between Jew and Gentile was broken down? Christ abolished in His flesh the enmity—His death on the Cross killed the hatred between Jew and Gentile. Now how did that come about? How did Christ break down the ancient hatreds that had divided these two peoples? Consider Peter’s sermon in Acts 4, where he says of Christ

Acts 4:12 (LSB)

“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

In other words, there is no way to receive salvation except through Christ—so everyone who is saved, Jew or Gentile, comes exactly the same way. There is no room for hatred between two people who have received salvation through the same Savior. The saving faith by which you know and love Christ means that everyone else who knows and loves Him for salvation is also the object of your love. In the New Birth, Christ has made you into a new creation and has knit you together with those whom you formerly hated into one body. God is glorified and the Gospel is magnified when former enemies have been brought together as brothers in the Church.

This is why Paul so strongly opposed Peter in Galatians 2:11 when Peter stopped eating together with the Gentile believers when his Jewish friends showed up—by his behavior Peter was trying to separate what God had brought together into one body. He was risking reigniting the hostility between Jew and Gentile that Christ had abolished in His death.

Our hostility was put to death through Christ, and in verses 17-19 of Ephesians 2 we see that

Our FELLOWSHIP is brought to LIFE through Christ (Eph. 2:17-19)

Ephesians 2:17–19 (LSB)

And He came and preached the good news of peace to you who were far away, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have our access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and sojourners, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,

The image here once again is of a people who were once not welcome who are now being welcomed—strangers who are now family members; foreigners who now have citizenship; enemies who now belong to God’s household. The same Holy Spirit that dwells in you also dwells in your fellow church members; the same blood that sanctified you to salvation has also washed the person sitting next to you.

Take just a moment and look around this room. Consider for a moment—how many of these people would you ever have met if it weren’t for Christ? How many of these people would you ever have crossed paths with, how many of them would you ever have otherwise chosen to be friends with if it hadn’t been for your mutual love of Christ? The Gospel is magnified and God is glorified when a group of people who have nothing in common but Christ love each other in Christian fellowship.

The world around us is desperately torn and divided at the present hour. Enmity and strife and suspicion and bitterness and envy have our nation in a stranglehold of divisiveness. And so when the world looks on a group of people like this who come from all different social, economic, educational backgrounds—who have nothing in common but what Christ has done to save them and reconcile them to each other—the world looks on that and simply doesn’t know how to explain it.

But this is precisely what Christ is after in building His Church this way. This is why He said in John 13:34-35

John 13:34–35 (LSB)

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

This one family that Christ has brought together here in this place, filled by the same Spirit that indwells each of us to reconcile us to Christ and each other; this body that would have no other earthly explanation for our love and friendship and devotion to one another outside of a supernatural work of God—this fellowship on display here is meant to magnify

III. The UNLIMITED WISDOM of our God (Ephesians 3:10-12)

Now we can look back at the verse we started with this morning and see all these connections come together—Ephesians 3:10 where Paul says that this great mystery of the reconciliation between Jew and Gentile was carried out

Ephesians 3:10 (LSB)

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 aims to glorify His manifold wisdom on a cosmic scale—before the rulers and authorities in heavenly places. And how does He aim to showcase His wisdom? How does He intend to make His brilliance and His ancient secret counsels known?

Through. The. Church.

The glory of God is at stake in the fellowship of our church. God has ordained that His fame and the glory of His manifold wisdom are directly tied to the fellowship of His reconciled people in the Church.

The way we like to say it here at Bethel is that the local church—particularly in the way it fellowships and lives together as one body—is

An OBJECT LESSON of the Gospel

When this fellowship is on full display—when this life together as a church body is demonstrating the love and reconciliation and joy and peace and delight that God has designed for it—then we are a powerful cosmic witness to the manifold wisdom of God in the Gospel. When the world around us looks at this church family doing the impossible—loving one another with unconditional love, serving one another, extending grace to one another, forgiving one another, guarding and keeping one another accountable, submitting together to the authority of His Word and to each other—they are confronted with something that can only be explained by the supernatural power of God working through His Spirit to apply the salvation purchased by the blood of His Son to the eternal praise of His glory.

And verse 11 goes on to say that this cosmic display of His manifold wisdom in the life of the church was done

Ephesians 3:11 (LSB)

...in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,

Beloved, the fellowship and life together of this church family here in this little corner of Jefferson County—to the extent that we display this kind of life together—this fellowship is the aim of

God’s ETERNAL PURPOSE in Christ

The reason that Christ came to earth, truly God and truly Man, to live and suffer and die and rise again was to create a family of redeemed sons and daughters that would demonstrate the riches of His wisdom and grace and glory to the heavenly hosts and the nations of earth. Your fellowship with one another here in this room—the way you treat one another, the way you care for one another, the way you pray for and serve and guard one another, the way you invest in each other’s lives and bear one another’s burdens and confess your sins to one another and entrust one another with your heart and your life—this is what glorifies God before the world.

The glory of God is at stake in the fellowship of our church. His manifold wisdom is magnified when we love this way, when we fellowship this way, when we serve this way and care for each other this way.

But here is the thing—that kind of fellowship is hard. It is messy; it is uncomfortable. It is challenging and demanding. All too often, we do it badly. Over the years I have had conversations with people who visit Bethel who have spent all their time relating to me all the ways that their former church disappointed them. And I’ve taken to saying to those people something along the lines of “Well, give it time and we will disappoint you as well.”

Because forgiving one another the ways they have hurt you the way Christ forgave you is hard. Overcoming envy and pride, returning thoughtless remarks with grace, overlooking immaturities in fellow Christians is challenging. Allowing for your brother’s weaker conscience (or stronger conscience) in matters of indifference is demanding. Giving one another space to have different convictions about secondary issues without making everything into a question of their salvation is a stressful practice.

Beloved, consider that you glorify God to the extent that you love and cherish and serve and guard and bond with the people in this room. The sufferings of Christ are vindicated and the manifold wisdom of God is magnified to the extent that you are living together with these people. And when you hold grudges or keep them at arm’s length or neglect time together with them or separate yourself from this fellowship you are denying the eternal purpose that God the Father carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And so this is why Paul goes on in verses 14-19 of Ephesians 3—because when you realize how high the stakes are in the fellowship of this church, you understand Paul’s prayer in these verses:

Ephesians 3:14–17 (LSB)

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that He would give you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being firmly rooted and grounded in love

This, then, is the prayer of a body of believers who are seeking to vindicate the work of Christ and magnify the manifold wisdom of God in His work of reconciling us to Himself and to each other. As we seek to fellowship together according to His eternal purposes in Christ, we cannot look to our own strength—the power to live this way comes through the strength that is given to us through His Spirit. And that power comes to us so that Christ may dwell in us through faith. And when we have the Holy Spirit empowering us to love one another and Christ is dwelling in our hearts by our faith in Him, then we will be firmly rooted and grounded in love.

Do you want to cultivate this kind of fellowship in this church family? Has God revealed to you through His Word that you have been relying on your own flesh to get along with others and you’ve made a hopeless mess of things? Then look to God’s Word this morning and His Spirit that dwells in you—recall the unfathomable riches of your salvation, that Christ has rescued you from your sin and seated you with Him in the heavenly places. If He has shown such unfathomable mercy toward you, then how can you not show that kind of mercy towards your brother or sister in Christ? He has drawn you to Himself in love and forgiveness, and His own Spirit dwells in you to do the same for your brother in Christ.

Do you want to lay down the grudges and bitterness and envy and judgment that you have been harboring towards your fellow church member here at Bethel? Then turn your heart once again to the unsearchable mystery of the reconciliation that Christ accomplished in His own body for you. He has not only reconciled you to God, but He has torn down the dividing wall of hostility that divides you from your brother or sister in Christ. They have been brought to faith the same way that you have; the same Spirit that dwells in you by faith dwells in them. And so it begins by your repentance before God for your sin of division—even if you have only harbored that division deep in your heart, even if they don’t even know about it, you must repent of that sin before the all-seeing eyes of your Savior.

And from there, begin praying for that brother or sister that you have sinned against with your envy, your grudge, your bitterness. They dwell in the same Spirit that you do; if they have sinned, then commit them to their Savior in prayer. Pray for them—earnestly, truly and faithfully. It is impossible to stay angry or resentful towards someone you are faithfully praying for. So by the power of the Spirit that dwells in you, firmly rooted and grounded in the love of Christ that resides in your heart, lay hold of the breadth and length and height and depth of Christ’s love for your neighbor, and lay hold of the promise that in doing so you will be “filled up to all the fullness of God” with the love of your Savior, Jesus Christ!

BENEDICTION

Ephesians 3:20–21 (LSB)

Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or understand, according to the power that works within us, to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

QUESTIONS FOR REFLECTION AND DISCUSSION

What are the four attitudes toward the church represented in the opening illustration? Can you identify any of those tendencies in your own attitudes towards the fellowship of the church?

Why is fellowship between believers in a local church said to be essential, and not just an “extra” for those who wish to commit to it? What does Ephesians 3:10 say about the purposes of God for the church regarding fellowship?

Why is it essential to understand the mercy God showed you in salvation in order to rightly practice fellowship with other believers? How does God’s forgiveness of your sins through Christ equip you to love your fellow Christian as you ought?

How does this passage speak to how you should respond when you feel disappointed or disconnected from the life of the church? What are some ways you can strengthen your fellowship with others this week?