Sermon for Jan. 5, 2020

This morning I’ll be reading Ephesians chapter 3 verses 1 through 12.

And I’ll be reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

Ephesians teaches that Jewish and Gentile believers are one in Christ, which is demonstrated by their love for one another. This love can come only from God. Possibly Paul, realizing they were starting to forsake their first love, wrote this epistle to encourage them to love both God and their fellow saints.

Ephesians 3:1-12

Ephesians 3:1–12 HCSB

1 For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— 2 you have heard, haven’t you, about the administration of God’s grace that He gave to me for you? 3 The mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have briefly written above. 4 By reading this you are able to understand my insight about the mystery of the Messiah. 5 This was not made known to people in other generations as it is now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: 6 The Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and partners of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. 7 I was made a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the working of His power. 8 This grace was given to me—the least of all the saints—to proclaim to the Gentiles the incalculable riches of the Messiah, 9 and to shed light for all about the administration of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things. 10 This is so God’s multi-faceted wisdom may now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavens. 11 This is according to His eternal purpose accomplished in the Messiah, Jesus our Lord. 12 In Him we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.

God bless the reading and the hearing of your word this morning.

Let us pray:

Dear Lord, as we begin this morning, we ask that you open our ears to hear and our hearts and minds to receive the message that you have for us today,,, In Jesus' name I pray,,, Amen.

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This is the first Sunday after New Years Day.

It's a new year and I'm praying for a new awareness of Jesus as we begin this new year together.

An awareness of Jesus beside each of us as we go through our day,,, and the ability to listen and obey,,, to help us make the right decisions each and every day.

The decisions that we cannot make on our own without His help.

Along with that awareness,,, comes the realization that we as a church must spread the knowledge that we have been given.

And to spread that knowledge,,, we must understand what we have been given.

That's why going to church, Sunday school, Bible study, prayer and a personal relationship with God is so important!

It's all of these things together that gives us the faith we need to get through everything going on today and the knowledge we need to pass this on to others.

(3:37)

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Beginning in verse 1 it says: 1 For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—

In the beginning of this verse,,, the words "for this reason" specifically point back to 2:11–22, which dealt with the Jewish and Gentile believers being raised to a new plane.

But they also more generally refer back to all of the first part of the letter in which Paul discussed God’s grace to the Gentiles.

Paul considers himself a prisoner of Jesus Christ,,, even though at this time he is in prison in Rome.

At least that seems to be the most likely place from the Bible Commentaries that I have,,, but some think that he might have been in prison in Caesarea.

Regardless of where he was actually at when he wrote this,,, the important thing to remember was the fact that he considers himself a prisoner of Jesus Christ.

They might have him in prison but Paul knows that God is in control and they,,, (the ones that have him in prison),,, are only allowed to do what God will let them do.

Paul is in prison because of his ministry for Jesus and his ministry to bring the good news to the Gentiles.

(4:52)

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In verses 2 and 3 it says: 2 you have heard, haven’t you, about the administration of God’s grace that He gave to me for you? 3 The mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have briefly written above.

Paul is talking about the revelation that was made to him by God to take the good news to the Gentiles.

This all began in Acts where Paul had been blinded by Jesus on the Damascus road and Ananias was told to go to him because he was chosen as God's instrument.

In it says: 15 But the Lord said to him, “Go! For this man is My chosen instrument to take My name to Gentiles, kings, and the Israelites.

Paul was given the responsibility of telling the Gentiles that Jesus has died,,, raised on the third day and ascended into heaven,,, which has allowed us,,, as Gentiles,,, to be brought into the family of God.

The wall that had been between the Jews and the Gentiles was removed by Jesus' sacrifice.

Paul is listening,,, and obeying,,, instead of just "doing" what he thinks is the right thing to do.

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Verses 4 and 5 says: 4 By reading this you are able to understand my insight about the mystery of the Messiah. 5 This was not made known to people in other generations as it is now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit:

There had been prophecy about the world being saved through the Israelite prophets in and .

There are also other scriptures that describe a lot of the information about Jesus,,, his birth,,, life,,, death,,, etc.,,, and by looking at all of these verses together,,, we can see a lot.

But these scriptures speak of the general view not the specifics of the hidden mystery.

We are able to see a general idea of what God was intending to do now,,, by looking back and seeing,,, but without the knowledge that we have through the written words in the Bible,,, it would have been hidden and almost impossible to see before it was revealed to them by Jesus,,, and then given to the Jews and Gentiles.

And we have this information today through the written word in the New Testament.

(7:28)

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Verse 6 says: 6 The Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and partners of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Paul is explaining that now the Gentiles and the Jews are partners.

They aren't separated because Jesus has opened the door where they,,, Jews and Gentiles,,, and now us,,, are sharing equally in the family of God.

Paul is talking about the church as we know it today where we are all saved by the life,,, death,,, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Not because of anything that we have done,,, but only through God's love for each of us!

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In verses 7 - 9 it says:

7 I was made a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the working of His power. 8 This grace was given to me—the least of all the saints—to proclaim to the Gentiles the incalculable riches of the Messiah, 9 and to shed light for all about the administration of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.

In these verses,,, Paul says that he was made a servant of this gospel,,, the gospel of Jesus Christ who made it possible for everyone to be saved through His sacrifice on the cross!

It was given to him through the power of God,,, and here as several other times in scripture,,, Paul refers to himself as the least of all saints.

Once Jesus confronted him on the Damascus Road,,, Paul fully realized just how small and insignificant he was compared to Jesus.

This humbled him throughout his ministry.

Paul continues to explain that he is given the task of explaining to the Gentiles the incalculable riches of the Messiah and to open the eyes of "all" to the mystery which before now has been hidden.

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In verses 10 and 11 it says: 10 This is so God’s multi-faceted wisdom may now be made known through the church to the rulers and authorities in the heavens. 11 This is according to His eternal purpose accomplished in the Messiah, Jesus our Lord.

Through the message that Paul is giving them,,, according to my Wesleyan Commentary,,, this refers to the relationship that believing Jews and Gentiles share as one body.

Which as I told you earlier,,, is the church as we know it today.

Its purpose was that angelic beings might see God’s wisdom.

This whole plan was in accord with God’s eternal intent which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.

(10:10)

This plan has been in place all along,,, even before the beginning of our world as we know it.

This is another of those things that we cannot understand,,, but through faith,,, we press on.

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In verse 12 it says: 12 In Him we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.

Paul is saying that through Jesus Christ,,, we have the ability to be bold and confident through our faith in Him.

We have the privilege of being able to have a personal relationship with God because of all that Jesus has done for us.

We are able to go to Him in prayer and expect a response.

We as believer's today also have the Holy Spirit to help and guide us through each day.

This should help us to be bold and confident about our faith.

(11:59)

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It's this type of boldness we as Christians will need today and in the days to come as we again deal with the many problems of this world.

It's also what we will need,,, to be able to spread the knowledge that we have been given by Paul and others about the saving grace of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Knowledge that Paul is giving in these scriptures to the Gentiles that he expects them to share with others and through that message,,, we are expected to do the same.

The faith that we should have from reading and studying the Bible each day.

And through our personal relationship with God that allows us to see these things at work in our world today,,, even though Satan would love for us to see otherwise!

It's a new year and with it we are given a fresh start.

As I said at the beginning,,, I'm praying for a new awareness of Jesus and hopefully through our time spent in prayer,,, Bible study,,, relationship with one another and our individual,, personal,, relationship with God,,, we will achieve that awareness and be able to share that joy with others.

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So as we prepare our selves to participate in our communion service this morning,,, I want us to remember these scriptures from Paul as we go about our week.

Remember that it's through the knowledge that we have been given that we are required to spread that "good news" to others.

Remember that it's through the life,,, death,,, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we have everything that we need,,, to come before God in confidence that He loves each one of us.

And it's through that love that we have for Jesus and the chance to remember the sacrifice that He made for us so many years ago,,, that we have communion today.

(12:45)

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Pastor: We come before you this morning praying for a new awareness of Jesus in our life. And that awareness begins with our thanks for all Jesus has done in our life as we participate in Holy Communion. As we begin a new year,,, you are invited to Christ’s table here and now. Coming to Christ’s table is a way to experience the grace of God. Therefore it is open to all. The only requirement is a sincere heart. The only barriers to the table are created in our own heart. So we come together as a people to confess our sins to God. We confess as a people because we all fall short of God’s plan of perfect love. We do not confess to avoid punishment. We confess to free our own hearts and minds, so we may remove the barriers we build between ourselves, our God, and our brothers and sisters.

As we begin, I want to remind each of you that this is the Lord's supper, not ours, and Christ that invites you.

As our ritual puts it: “Christ our Lord invites to his table all who love him, who earnestly repent of their sin and seek to live in peace with one another.”

We do not refuse any who present themselves desiring to receive. Whether you should receive Communion with us is between you and God.

Let's take our hymnals and turn to number 892.

And we will begin reading the bold print together at the top of the page until we get to the red writing where it says all pray in silence,,, then I'll begin with prayer,,, then we will have a short time of silence,,, to give each of us a chance to speak to God silently,,, then I'll close the prayer,,, then I'll begin reading the lighter print below that and we will read the last line together that's in the bold print.

Then we will come and gather around the alter,,, If you can kneel that's fine,,, but if you can't or unable,,, that's fine also. Standing will be just fine.

Let's stand as we begin reading together at the top of the page - #892

Our Heavenly Father,

Who by thy love hast made us,

And through thy love hast kept us,

And in thy love wouldst make us perfect:

We humbly confess that we have not loved thee with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, and that we have not loved one another as Christ hath loved us.

Thy life is within our souls, but our selfishness hath hindered thee.

We have not lived by faith.

We have resisted thy Spirit.

We have neglected thine inspirations.

Forgive what we have been;

Help us to amend what we are;

And in thy Spirit direct what we shall be;

That thou mayest come into the full glory of thy creation,

In us and in all the people;

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

(Pray in silence) Bow our heads in prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father,,, we come to you this morning and thank you for all the blessings that we have received. We thank you for your Son who died on the cross for our sin's and made it possible to come to you in prayer. I ask for forgiveness for my sins and I know that the Holy Spirit will put before you any that I miss. Now we will take just a few moments in silence to allow everyone to speak personally to you, then I'll finish,,,,. ,,,,

(silence)

Most Gracious and Holy God,,, again we thank you for this opportunity to come before you. Now we ask forgiveness as a church family together,,, for any sins we've committed before we take of your Holy Communion. These things and all others we ask,,, in Jesus' name,,, Amen

The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

If any one sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;

And he is the expiation for our sins,

And not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Thanks be to God.

Now you can come together,,,

Communion:

Closing Prayer:

Eternal God, as we come before you on this first Sunday of the new year,,, we give you thanks for this holy mystery in which you have given yourself to us. Grant that we may go into the world in the strength of your Spirit, to give ourselves for others, in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.