The Riches of Christ
God’s Great Canvas
July 29, 2007
Ephesians 3:8-10
I’ve brought a painting from home, one which Robyn sent to us for Christmas from Scotland a few years ago. I want to use it as my message illustration. If you come close to the painting and look at each brush stroke the “big picture” will allude you. But from a distance, the “big picture” is seen. So, please come up and see for yourselves – as you get closer and closer, you see the brush strokes and paint, but that’s all it looks – paint brushed on to a canvas. But, the further back you move, the more an actual picture comes in to focus and you see the house and the landscape.
Today’s Scripture has already been read, but I am going to read verses 8 through 10 again. Please turn there in your Bibles and follow along with me. I am reading from the NASB this morning.
“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; in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.”
We are going to focus, this morning, on Ephesians 3:8-10. And we are going to move backward through this text like we did with the painting I brought, passing from the widest view to the most narrow view, or from the biggest picture of things to the smallest, or from the greatest goal of missions backward through three successively smaller means to reach this great goal.
Four Steps
So we will move first from the display of the wisdom of God to His innumerable angelic armies mentioned in verse 10; to the means that God uses to display this wisdom, namely, the church (v. 10a); to the preaching of the of the unsearchable riches of Christ (v. 9); finally to the means of this preaching, namely, you and me, the least of the saints (v. 8).
I go backward in this order because I want to end with you. God is not done with the work of missions. He said go make disciples of all nations in Matthew 28:19. And then he said, “I will be with you to the end of the age.” The promise is good till Jesus comes, because the Great Commission is binding till Jesus comes. Therefore you and I face the question, what is our role is in obeying the great commission to reach all the unreached peoples of the world with the gospel of the riches of Christ? I’ve said it before, it’s the Great Commission, not the Great Suggestion.
That is where I will end this morning, Lord willing. My aim is to awaken a sense of God’s leading in your life toward missions. So let’s pray now that God would be at work to awaken and confirm and encourage your own sense of his leading in your life.
A Picture of These Four Steps
Now I want to create a picture for you of these four steps. Remember we are going to move backward through our key Scripture passage from the display of God’s manifold wisdom (v. 10b), to the gathering of God’s global church (v. 10a), to the preaching of Christ’s unsearchable riches (v. 8b), to the service of God’s ordinary missionary (v. 8a).
The picture is this: Picture in your mind a great, wise painter, painting on a huge canvas with many brushes, most of them very ordinary and messy. The painter is God, so you can’t picture him. He’s invisible. But he intends for his painting to be the visible display of his wisdom. He knows people can’t see him, but he wants his wisdom to be seen and admired. His canvas is huge. It’s the size of the created universe. I know you can’t really imagine looking at that canvas because you are in it and it is endless. But do your best. And God is painting with thousands and thousands of colors and shades and textures—a picture as big as the universe and as old as creation and as lasting as eternity—a picture we call history – that is His Story!, with the central drama being the preparation, salvation, and formation of the church of Jesus Christ. And God is using thousands of different brushes, most of them very ordinary and very small because every minute detail is crucial in this painting. These brushes are God’s missionaries. They are us.
That’s the picture. Now there’s a reason in the text that I am encouraging to have a picture like this in your mind. It’s in the word “manifold” in verse 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.” This Greek word for “manifold” occurs in the Bible only here. It is very unusual. Half of it (poikilos) is used to mean, “wrought in various colors,” diversified, intricate, complex, subtle. It’s basic idea is of varied in color. Then Paul puts a prefix on the word that means “many” (polupoikilos). So the emphasis is very many colors and variations and intricacies and subtleties. I want you to think of the display of God’s wisdom as a universe-sized painting with innumerable colors and shadings and texture. It is unsearchably intricate.
1. The Display of God’s Manifold Wisdom (v. 10b)
Now let’s go to our four backwards steps and start in verse 10 with the greatest goal of history and missions. Verse 10 starts, “. . . so that . . .” You can see from the words “so that” God’s purpose and aim. It is like the word “therefore; you have to look at what it’s “there for”. God’s purpose is so that missions and the church go forward. The riches of Christ are preached to the Gentiles, the nations, and the church is gathered from all the peoples “. . . so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”
So this is God’s goal. He created the world, and he redeemed a people through the death of his son (see Ephesians 2:12-19), and he sends missionaries and gathers his church by the preaching of the riches of Christ “so that that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known. That’s the goal of all of history. That is the goal of missions, the central drama of history: to make God known!
This universe is about the many-colored wisdom of God. History exists to display the infinitely varied and complex and intricate wisdom of God. Missions is the means that God uses to gather the church to hear and see His wisdom. And that gathering from all the nations is the focus of this wisdom-displaying painting. You see that in the words “through the church”: “through the church the manifold wisdom of God might be made known.”
But stay with the display of God’s wisdom for a moment. The next point has to do with the church. Look who the audience is in verse 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.” This means that the painting, and the drama of history and redemption that it portrays, from creation to consummation, is meant to show angels—the good ones and the evil ones—the greatness of God’s wisdom.
Missions exists, and the ingathering of God’s elect exists, and the church exists so that angels would stand in awe of the wisdom of God. God displays his wisdom in history so that the worship of heaven would be white hot with admiration and wonder. The good angels marvel at the wisdom of God’s grace but from outside, so to speak as no good angel will ever sing Amazing Grace. “How sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.” They are not wretches and have never been lost.” But God wanted the angels to see the wisdom of his grace: the way he saves the church by justifying the ungodly (Romans 4:5) from all nations by faith alone on the basis of Christ alone. And the angels love to stoop down and get as close as they can to the painting of the wonders of redemption and how God prepared and saved and gathered his church (1 Peter 1:12).
And the demons (Ephesians 6:12)—the evil principalities and powers—must look at this painting and watch the wisdom by which they were defeated in the very moment they thought they had triumphed—in the death and resurrection of Christ, and in the blood of the martyrs. They may think they have won, but Scripture refutes this. Look at Revelation 2:10 in your bulletin insert: “'Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to cast some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.” Just when God paints a dark color of the death of his witness and the devils begin to gloat, God picks up another brush and with orange and yellow and red makes that dark death serve the beauty of his wisdom. And the demons gnash their teeth.
The final glory of the painting entitled “Missions” is that every brush stroke will add to the infinitely intricate display of God’s wisdom to the armies of heaven.
So let’s step back now from the display of God’s manifold wisdom to through. . .
2. The Gathering of God’s Global Church (v. 10a)
We have seen in verse 10 that it is through the church that the great divine Painter is displaying his manifold wisdom to the armies of heaven and hell. But now notice that the church is being gathered from all the nations. Verse 8-9, “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles [there is the first pointer, the “Gentiles” are the non-Jewish nations] the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light for everyone [there it is again: we are to spread the gospel to “everyone”] what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.”
The “mystery hidden for ages” is exactly this universal scope of the gospel to include Gentiles and not just Jews in the covenant people of God. Verse 6 makes this crystal clear: “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.” The nations share in the promise made to Abraham. They become part of the historic people of God. They become “true Jews” (Romans 2:29) ass we’ve noticed the last 2 weeks in our study of Ephesians.
We have seen all of this in Romans 11. Wild Gentile branches are being grafted into the tree of promise, and broken-off Jewish branches will be grafted in when the fullness of the Gentiles comes in. It’s the complex and strange and intricate way that God is saving his church from all the nations so that none can boast that brings Paul in Romans 11:33 to the exact place he comes in Ephesians 3:10, namely to the praise of God’s unsearchable wisdom: “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!”
That is what God aims at in heaven and on earth—the praise of his many-colored wisdom in the way he is saving and gathering his church from all the peoples of the world. There are twists and turns in history that no one ever dreamed would bring about what God designed. There are no wasted strokes on this canvas as God paints his wisdom in the history of missions.
Which leads us now to the means of this gathering process, the gathering of all peoples into His kingdom. How does missions advance? How is the church gathered from the nations to the praise of God’s many-colored wisdom? It is time to back step again. We looked at verse 10, now let’s look at Ephesians 3:8-9.
3. The Preaching of Christ’s Unsearchable Riches (v. 8b)
Ephesians 3:8-9: “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, 9 and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.” Missions happens by preaching to the nations “the unsearchable riches of Christ.” Missionaries lift up Jesus Christ and all that God is, and God gathers his elect from all the peoples of the world.
That term “the unsearchable riches of Christ” is worth a year of sermons. But I will give you one pointer to its meaning. In our study of Ephesians chapter 2, in verse12, Paul told the Gentiles—the converts from the nations—“Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” In other words, once, all that God had ever promised in the Old Testament for the glorious future of his people was not theirs. They were excluded from everything God promised. Now in verse 19 is the gospel message based on the cross of Christ: “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.”
That is what missionaries preach everywhere they go: you—you Uzbeks, you Maninka, you Kachin, you Shandai, you Swedes, you Germans, you Russians, you British—you who trust Christ are now part of the covenant made with Israel. You are fellow citizens. You are members of the household of God. You will inherit every promise ever made by God if you believe in Christ.. You will inherit the earth. You are heir of the world. You are children of the maker of the universe. All things are yours – unsearchable riches. And Jesus Christ is the sum of all those unsearchable riches, and all things will show you more of him and increase your joy forever. That’s why I said, I could easily preach for a year on the “unsearchable riches of Christ.”
Ephesians 2:7 says that it is going to take eternity for God to exhaust the unsearchable riches of his glory in Christ Jesus: “. . . so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” It will take ages upon ages upon ages for the riches of Christ to be searched out.
That is what missionaries say to the nations of the world and show them—that Christ died and rose again so that people from every nation might be one in this inheritance of unsearchable riches. They who trust Christ become part of God’s canvas.
Which leaves just one final question: Who are the brushes? If God aims to display his many-colored wisdom on the dramatic canvas of world history, what are the brushes God uses to paint this drama?
4. The Service of God’s Ordinary Missionaries (v. 8a)
The brushes he uses are messy, ordinary people who have seen the unsearchable riches of Christ and are willing, and often eager, to take these riches to the nations. In other words, you and me! The brushes are broken, sinning, ordinary missionaries—of whom the world is not worthy (Hebrews 11:38).
Verse 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.” There are two reasons Paul mentioned that he was the least of all the saints. One is because he was a hater and persecutor of the church and of Christ. He never got over that God had chosen him in spite of his horrible past. The other reason is to remind you today that he can do the same for you.
So here is one of the greatest incentives of all to draw you into missions. God intends to use ordinary, messy, small paint brushes on the canvas of the history of missions because every minute stroke of his brush matters. Every bright stroke of triumph and every dark stroke of suffering matters. He is an infinitely wise painter. He knows what he is doing with your life. Not one stroke will be wasted. You can trust him with your life. Yield to the wise hand that would paint with your life.
Oh, what riches we have to give!
Now, let’s close with this mission account from Gospel for Asia:
Traveling from village to village each week to work with local pastors, mobile team members face a new situation in each place. They spend a week handing out Gospel tracts and showing a film on the life of Jesus in areas surrounding the pastor's village, thus giving him an open door to return and do follow-up work. The week a pastor spends with a mobile team expands his ministry in ways that would take much time otherwise. People come out in crowds to see the team play music, act out the Gospel in skits and tell of a film show. later that night.
But the attention and crowds brought animosity to this team. The team members were distributing tracts with the pastor when they approached a group of young men. "The men grew angry when they saw what the literature was.
"We have already seen these tracts," they told the team members. "Why do you want to talk about Jesus? He is not from our country! He is not our villager or brother. It is wrong what you arc doing!"
The men tore the literature from the team members' hands and started beating them. It was the first time these young men had been beaten, and although gripped with fear, they knew that to fight back would be to destroy their message. No one else tried to stop the violence, but the gang finally let the team members leave the village with all their film equipment.
"We were afraid, but at the same time, we remembered the sacrifice Jesus made for us," shared a team member. "And we made a decision to go forward. Even though there are these problems, we want to reach villages."
Just two days later, still swollen and sore, the team members were in another village of hardened non-Christians, passing out tracts and telling people about the film show just as they were doing the night they were beaten. But while they were setting up the sound system to show the film, a group came and started throwing the equipment to the ground.
Several men grabbed the pastor they were working with and started beating him for bringing the team to their village. They also attacked the team members, but this time, other villagers gathered around to protect them.
Having faced violent opposition twice in three days, the exhausted team members retreated to the pastor's home. There, the emotions spilled out. They cried out to God, weeping—not for themselves, but for the people who didn't get to hear the Gospel.
"Their faces show they are without hope," one of the team members said, "and it is a heartbreaking feeling that we could not reach them with the Gospel. If they die, definitely they will go to hell, and I feel a burden to help them."
When the initial shock was past, the realization of just how hard a place it was started sinking in. At first, they were discouraged. Asking to be reassigned to minister in another area seemed tempting .. . but the fruit they knew was being reaped through the mobile team ministry kept them going.
"One village where we screened the film was a completely Hindu village, and nearly 100 families came to see the film," a team member recalled. "Afterward, 10 people wanted prayer for their families to see a miracle through Jesus
Christ. Because of stories like these, we don't want to quit. It challenges us to continue on." And their dedication has grown even deeper. Each one declared his desire to serve the Lord, even if it meant giving up his life.
"Let them finish me, no problem," team leader Bishal emphasized. "I will die there. At least through my death, maybe some will wonder why I would be willing to die for Christ—and they will receive salvation."
"One day, we have to die on this earth," said the team musician, Ramesh. "Let me die for Jesus. I may be afraid at the time. But I pray that God's will be done in my life. "Furthermore, they know what happened to them isn't rare. Every month, reports of opposition from other mobile teams come to the Bible college where the teams are based. But these young men are determined to keep trusting in the faithfulness of the Lord. "Even in a hard village," a team member shared, "God will do miracles, and He will use us continually in the days to come."
Jamie shared with us this morning, he mission trip to Uganda. She knew she was going to an area where resistance to Jesus is real. She went anyway. Cheryl and Kevin knew the risks too. They let her go. And she found out, as GFA missionaries do, that God will do miracles and He will use us continually as His brushes to paint His canvas. Are you a brush in the hands of the Master? I hope so.
Let’s pray.