Sermon Tone Analysis
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1. Our Enlightenment (3:1–9)
a. Paul as a Prisoner for the Truth (3:1)
“For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles.”
The stewardship of the revelations Paul received had been costly to him.
These revelations are not to be taken lightly.
Paul staked his life and liberty on them; he would die for these truths.
He was a prisoner because he had dared to proclaim them.
He was in chains because of the opposition of the Jews, but he considered himself a prisoner of Jesus Christ, not a prisoner of the Jews or Nero.
The Jews were infuriated when Paul taught that believing Gentiles were full members of God’s family and the fellowship of saints.
The Jews’ national pride was stung.
Even in the church many Jewish believers thought that Gentiles should become Jews in order to be Christians, or at least they should be regarded as second-class citizens in the kingdom.
Paul’s emancipating gospel annoyed many Jews, even within the church.
They disliked his wholehearted acceptance of Gentiles into the church, free from all Jewish laws, traditions, and customs.
They resented his vocal and tireless championship of the Gentile believers’ cause.
They felt threatened by his zealous, far-reaching efforts to bring more and more Gentiles into the church.
The vast majority of unbelieving Jews regarded Paul with horror and considered him a dangerous heretic.
Paul, however, did not criticize the Jews for opposing him.
He knew where they were coming from; he had been there himself.
b.
Paul as a Pioneer of the Truth (3:2–4)
(1) The Truth Entrusted to Him (3:2)
“If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward.”
The Greek word translated “dispensation” here comes from a word meaning “stewardship.”
God had entrusted Paul with great truths.
Paul was their custodian, their steward.
He was under obligation to communicate them to others.
He discharged this trust nobly through his preaching and writing.
Today we are living in an age—a dispensation—of grace, during which God deals with people on the basis of His grace.
God’s grace is reigning supremely.
This age stands in contrast to the age of law that preceded it and the age of judgment that will follow it.
When we speak of an age of grace, we do not mean that God did not demonstrate His grace in other ages.
Obviously He offered grace to men who were under the law; the entire ceremonial law illustrated God’s grace.
It is equally obvious that God will offer grace to men in the judgment age because millions will be saved during that period (Revelation 7).
It is also evident that during our age of grace, God’s law—that is, His moral law—still has a vital role (Romans 13:9) and at times God acts in judgment (Acts 5:1–11).
(2) The Truth Enlightening to Him (3:3–4)
(a) How It Was Communicated To Him (3:3a)
“By revelation he made known unto me the mystery.”
In Galatians 1:16–17 Paul told us that he did not receive his gospel from men; immediately after his conversion he “conferred not with flesh and blood,” but sought out the vast silences of Sinai.
There, alone with the Hebrew Scriptures and the Spirit of God, he thought through the Old Testament in the light of Calvary.
He had to discard much of what he had been taught while studying to be a rabbi.
He had been obsessed with the vain traditions of men, but the risen Lord now filled Paul’s vision and colored all his concepts.
The Holy Spirit came upon him and revealed new truths.
He went into Arabia with Genesis, Isaiah, and the Psalms in his luggage, and he came back with Romans, Ephesians, and Thessalonians in his heart.
Paul did not have the enormous advantage of being Jesus’ constant daily companion.
He did not sit at His feet like Peter and John.
The great truths of the New Testament that Paul so gloriously preached were given to him through God’s direct revelation.
(b) How It Was Communicated By Him (3:3b–4)
“As I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ.”
Perhaps Paul was referring to a previous letter in which he had briefly mentioned the mystery (for instance, Romans 11:25; 16:25–26; 1 Corinthians 2:7; 15:51–52).
Perhaps he was referring to earlier remarks in this same letter to the Ephesians (Ephesians 1:9–10).
In any case, he communicated the great mystery, the great secret, in writing.
It was far too important to be passed on simply by word of mouth.
Because Paul communicated in writing, all of us can study the mystery and benefit from his reflections on the revelations given to him.
The revolutionary truths Paul wrote about were not his own spontaneous ideas.
They were the product of divine inspiration and personal insight.
The word translated “knowledge” in Ephesians 3:4 is sunesis, which refers to natural insight and reflective thought.
Paul was one of the greatest intellectuals of all time, but mental ability alone did not conceive the mystery.
God revealed it to him.
On the other hand, divine illumination alone did not account for Paul’s grasp of this new truth; he made the effort to think it through and write it down.
c. Paul as a Partner in the Truth (3:5–6)
(1) How the Truth Was Concealed (3:5a)
“Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men.”
It was no secret, of course, that God intended to bless the Gentiles, just as He had blessed the Jews.
His intentions were revealed in many Old Testament prophecies, including His first great promise to Abraham (Genesis 12:3).
Paul quoted some of these prophecies in Romans 15:9–12, drawing on all three sections of the Hebrew Scriptures to emphasize his point.
The promises to the Gentiles were often ignored by the Jews in their insular pride of religion and race.
It was no accident, surely, that the promised land was a bridge connecting Europe, Asia, and Africa, and that the great arterial highways of international commerce, communication, and conflict passed through it.
God had always intended that His chosen people would become a spiritual blessing to all mankind—a truth that had too easily been forgotten.
Even in the deportations and dispersal, God intended for His chosen people to have a redemptive impact on other nations.
The book of Acts makes it abundantly clear that Jewish communities around the world formed a natural springboard for global evangelism.
(2) How the Truth Was Revealed (3:5b–6)
(a) Its Custodians (3:5b)
“It is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.”
In embryonic form, the great truths of the Epistles were first revealed to the disciples by the Lord.
For instance Jesus announced the truth about the universal church and the local church to the disciples (Matthew 16:16–19; 18:1–35).
Jesus was also the first to teach the distinctive Pauline concept of being “in Christ” (John 15:1–8).
The Lord promised that the Holy Spirit would superintend the writing of the Gospels (John 14:26), the Epistles (John 16:13), and the book of Revelation (John 16:13).
But the Holy Spirit waited until after Pentecost to enlighten the apostles with the full measure of New Testament truth.
The apostles and the prophets—the custodians of this truth—had the foundational gifts necessary to produce and propagate the New Testament writings.
Chief among these custodians was Paul.
His giant intellect wholly yielded to the Holy Spirit became the human vehicle to discern and explain God’s great mysterious truths.
(b) Its Contents (3:6)
“That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.”
The new equality of the Gentiles was a bitter pill for most Jews to swallow.
For centuries they had prided themselves on being God’s chosen people.
They had nurtured a growing contempt for Gentiles and wallowed in religious and racial snobbery.
They had considered themselves to be God’s favorites.
Now all this superiority was shattered.
It turned out that all along God had loved the Gentiles just as much as He had loved the Jews (witness the events in the book of Jonah, for instance).
Now God was proving this truth in an astonishing way by bringing Jews and Gentiles together in a new body that ignored the special privileges the Jews had enjoyed for some thousand years.
Gentiles were not going to be added to the existing corporate body of the Jewish people, the nation of Israel.
There would be an entirely new body to which Jews and Gentiles would be added on equal terms.
Jews and Gentiles would share equally in the same legacy.
They would be “fellowheirs.”
There would be no double portion for the Jews.
Jews and Gentiles alike would receive the same blessing.
They would share equally in the same life too.
There would be one body, its head being Christ and its members believers.
Jews and Gentiles were all one in Him—all washed by His blood, all partakers of the same Spirit of life, and all equally dependent on Him and on one another.
Jews and Gentiles would also share equally in the same light.
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