Mystery of Christ
Ephesians • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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Transcript
Brief recap
Chris J-
To the Gentiles: You are made alive together in Christ (5). You are saved by grace through faith.
To the Jews: The Gentiles are in Jesus the same way as the Jews: by faith. It is a gift from God (8) that no one should boast (9).
Ryan S-
To the Gentiles: You are not only made one with Christ, but are one (Jews and Gentiles together) as a Church (14).
Remember the five words Ryan highlighted: Separated, alienated, Strangers, No Hope, and Without God. Eph 2:13
13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.
To the Jews: Those who were once far off, we now fellow citizens (2:19). All this is for His purpose, was the plan from the beginning (2:20), and both peoples, in Christ, are a holy temple in the Lord.
Overview of the Passage
Overview of the Passage
Paul’s Aside
Paul’s Aside
Eph 3:1 begins Pauls aside/digression (prisoner-captive/sufferer language).———
Eph 3:2-8, explains Paul’s apostleship, the mystery of Gentiles participation in the Church.
Eph 3:9-12 Shows the Church’s role in God purpose for the cosmos.
Eph 3:13 Rounds off the digression neatly (closes with sufferer language).
Sermon Outline:
Sermon Outline:
The Mystery of Christ
Mystery and Mankind
Mystery and the Cosmos
Illustration
Illustration
Scooby-Do and the Mystery Machine
Main Idea of the Passage: The Mystery is revealed.
The Mystery of Christ (2-6)
The Mystery of Christ (2-6)
1 For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—
For this reason - we see the other “for this reason” in v. 14. A nice bookend for his little aside.
Prisoner - this is a play on words. He is literally a prisoner of Jesus - his heart has been captivated by the gospel. He has a life sentence. He is not his own.
He is also a prisoner of the state due to the preaching of the gospel. “on behalf of you Gentiles” (he is writing from prison as he was arrested for preaching to Gentiles)
Christ Jesus - This isn’t Jesus’ name in reverse. Paul is referring to whom he is a prisoner. Messiah Jesus. The Chosen One. The Seed of Jesse (Isa 11). Redeemer of Jews and Gentiles. Uniter of peoples.
2 assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you,
Check out the phrase “stewardship of God’s grace.”
Paul doesn’t say, “I assume you’ve heard of me and what I’m about,” but “I assume you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you.” (“You are sitting in my seat!”)
Colossians 1:25 highlights this as well. “of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God that was given to me for you, to make the word of God fully known,”
Stewardship assumes ownership of someone else.
It says, “I’m trusting you to do well with this thing.”
We all trust someone as a steward of something. We trust our doctors, our financial advisors, our government officials.
My neighbor showed how they steward their lawn care a month ago on FB. They wrote a post that said, “Anyone know of a good lawn guy? I just had to fire mine.”
Being a good steward says, “You are known and trusted and understand why and what you are supposed to do.”
Notice this stewardship is from God. In Acts 9, God came directly to Paul and gave him a direct command and we see the stewardship with which he is to follow…
15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.
to carry my name…
He was stewarding the gospel.
In this context, it’s important to remember that , Paul calls this stewardship his ministry of reconciliation. 2 Cor. 5:18
18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;
Paul’s ministry of reconciliation is seen in the previous chapter of Ephesians 2:15–16 …
15 by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, 16 and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility.
Paul’s stewardship of grace, his ministry of reconciliation…is a gospel proclamation ministry that unites both Jew and Gentile into what Paul calls a holy temple with one people, one church, serving God by the Spirit (2:22).
The “stewardship of God’s grace (3:2)” isn’t new to the New Testament or to Paul.
Ryan alluded to this last week.
He cited Deut 10:14-19
14 Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. 15 Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day.
Before Deut., or The Law, all peoples of the Earth were given by Him and for Him and received His grace and were to be fruitful and multiply in His goodness.
Let’s briefly look at a couple more examples in God’s initial mandate to people in Gen 1 and where things really got separated in Gen 9.
26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
It didn’t take us long to see separation from God.
In Gen 3, man sinned, yet God still desired to covenant with His people.
1 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.
18 The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.)
From here we see an immediate breakdown. Noah’s son’s are Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Shem produces Abraham and the Jewish people. Ham and Japheth produce all other people groups-namely the Canaanites through Ham and traditionally the Gentiles through Japheth.
What an amazing stewardship Paul was entrusted with!
Verse 3 brings us to the meat of this part of the outline: The mystery of the Gospel.
3 how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly.
These Ephesian readers would have understood the word play Paul is using around the word “mystery.”
This word would have reminded the Church of the magnitude of spiritual warfare that they were facing in their city.
The church would have been familiar with both the erotic and knowledge-based versions of cult mystery.
Just about every town and nearby city had their own god or goddesses and within each were a “mystery cult” who performed secret rituals and passed around secret knowledge about life and the universe.
We’ll see in just a few verses that Paul isn’t very good at creating a secret inner circle regarding the mystery of Christ.
In fact, Paul is terrible at hiding the mystery. It’s seen 20 times in Paul’s epistles, and it’s presented 6 times in Ephesians.
Paul continues in v. 4 with more “mystery” language.
4 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ,
When you read this, you can perceive…
Paul is saying, the gospel is available. It’s not hidden any longer.
5 which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.
The mystery was not made known to the sons of men in other generations…
Jewish people in the OT were, for the most part, ignorant to the blessing that would come to the Gentiles.
The Gentiles of old were ignorant to the fact that one day the Jewish Messiah would welcome them into the Kingdom in the same manner as their Jewish brothers and sisters; by grace through faith.
Paul continues in verse 5; “as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.”
In this context these are appointed, or sent, ones from Christ and those who are prophetically sharing the mystery of Christ with the lost throughout the known world like we see in Acts 13.
What did these apostles and prophets do with the mystery?
Let’s look at verse 6.
6 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
They shared it! And shared it with Gentiles!
The mystery isn’t so hidden!
Verse 6 tells us what the mystery is:
6 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
Gospel sharing time!!
3-Circles Visual!
Mystery and Mankind (7-8)
Mystery and Mankind (7-8)
7 Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. 8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
I really like how the ESV again highlights, of this gospel… Many of the modern translations have us assume this in verse 7.
But the ESV says, of this gospel… I like that!
Of this gospel I was made a minister…to preach to the Gentiles!
The Good News that once was dead to this people is now alive!
The Good Tidings of victory over sin!
of this gospel I was made a minister…
The Greek word here is diakonos.
We see it in other parts of scripture as deacon, or servant.
Paul uses it often to describe himself and others.
5 What then is Apollos? What is Paul? Servants through whom you believed, as the Lord assigned to each.
7 Tychicus will tell you all about my activities. He is a beloved brother and faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord.
Paul wasn’t made a minister by his great knowledge or his speaking ability.
Verse 7 tells us it was according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power.
Paul further exerts a biblical example of godly stewardship, deacon-ness, servanthood, and proper ministering in verse 8 toward the Gentiles - or all of mankind.
though I am the very least of all the saints…
Paul remembers who he is and whose he is!
Like the Gentiles, he was saved by grace through faith.
Like those in Christ here today, Paul deserved punishment and received sainthood through the shed blood of Jesus.
The back end of verse 8 brings us to the meat of this second statement in our outline:
The Mystery and Man
to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.
You have a footnote in your ESV Bible at “to preach.”
This footnote sends us again back to
15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel.
Preaching is intended to publicly proclaim the gospel message.
…for the unbeliever, gospel preaching provides a clear explanation of the old nature natural to all men and the new nature found only in Christ.
…for the believer, the gospel is a constant reminder of who we now are in Christ and encouragement to both live in the new life and proclaim it as we have opportunity.
To whom is Paul preaching??
The Gentiles!
This Mystery of the gospel is for man! Specifically here, the Gentiles!
With the coming of Christ Jesus - the Jews have their long awaited Messiah - from Isa 9, the Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and Prince of Peace!
This Mystery brings salvation for all men, Jew and Gentile alike!
I shared earlier about my childhood affinity toward Scooby-Do.
I still like mysteries and adventure stories. I’m reading the Lord of the Rings trilogy right now for the first time.
Frodo and crew and trying to get away from the Black Riders and are heading into the dark forest.
What’s going to happen??!!
We all like an aspect of mystery and intrigue.
We even like it at church!
Sometimes us want our ears tickled with our own version of a specific theological view, but what we really need is to hear and apply the gospel!
I’ve shared with some of you the story of my friend Mark as he was sharing gospel tracts on a very busy street one day.
As he shared, and was saying, “Good Evening, did you get one of these?” someone stopped him and said, “I’m not even a Christian and I’ll bet you I could give away more of those than you!”
How?
“Put a smile on your face! You look miserable!”
Bridgeway, the gospel contains unsearchable riches of Christ!
The Mystery for Man is good news! It’s for all of mankind and it’s life-changing!
Mystery and the Cosmos (9-13)
Mystery and the Cosmos (9-13)
10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
Mystery and the Cosmos -
these remaining verses encourage us that the mystery/the gospel is made known to all who oppose Him, even to the heavenlies.
We’ve hit one of the most important phrases in the NT. “So that…”
Paul wraps up his aside (vs. 2-13) by telling us why his stewardship of God’s grace (v.2) and the mystery of the gospel (vs. 3, 4, 6) are so imporant…
So that…
through the church - God’s purpose includes you and me.
Jew and Gentile.
Slave and free.
Rich and poor.
It’s through the church that the manifold wisdom of God is made known.
Bridgeway, this is one reason why you hear the language of togetherness, participation, belonging, community, and service.
…manifold wisdom…
The late Michael Heiser in the Faithlife Study Bible translates manifold wisdom as many-sided.
The NET translation says multifaceted.
A similar word is used in Gen 37 of Joseph’s multicolored coat.
Just like this coat set Joseph apart as special, the church has the special privilege of heralding the manifold/multifaceted wisdom of God - or the gospel - to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
Through the Church, the spiritual enemies of God will know that He has the victory.
11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.
Friends, this is the eternal purpose.
You and I are included in this eternal purpose.
Those here who are Gentiles have been grafted in, by grace through faith.
We’ve been adopted as sons and daugthers.
And verse 12 reminds us that in Him we have boldness and can access Him with confidence through our faith.
Application
Application
1. Steward the Gospel Message Faithfully
1. Steward the Gospel Message Faithfully
Paul was a steward of God’s grace and a messenger of the mystery (vv. 2, 7–9).
Application: Recognize that you, too, have been entrusted with the gospel—be intentional in sharing Christ and helping others understand His plan.
2. Embrace the Unity of the Church
2. Embrace the Unity of the Church
Paul reveals that Gentiles are fellow heirs with Jews in Christ (v.6).
Application: Seek to build bridges with believers of different backgrounds, valuing the diversity in Christ’s body and working toward true gospel unity.
3. Live with Boldness and Confidence in Christ
3. Live with Boldness and Confidence in Christ
Through Christ we have “boldness and access with confidence” to God (v.12).
Application: Approach God freely in prayer and walk with spiritual confidence, knowing your identity and access are secure in Christ.
