Ephesians 3:1-13 - The Mystery Now Revealed in Christ Jesus
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Introduction
Introduction
[READING - Ephesians 3:1-13]
1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles— 2 if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; 3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. 4 By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; 6 to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, 7 of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. 8 To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; 10 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. 11 This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. 13 Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory.
[PRAYER]
[CONTEXT] What was going on in the Ephesian church?
After praising God for all the spiritual blessings we have in Christ and then marveling at God’s grace in bringing us to Christ, the Apostle Paul begins to explain how God has reconciled Jews and Gentiles to one another by reconciling them to Himself through Christ.
Did Paul begin to explain this just to further marvel at God’s grace?
Or did he begin to explain this because Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians in the Ephesian Church were having trouble getting along?
Or maybe it was that Gentile Christians in the Ephesian Church were unconcerned about reaching Jewish people with the good news of God’s grace in Jesus, the Jewish Messiah.
Or maybe it was that Jewish Christians were making Gentile Christians feel like they weren’t really included in the people of God because they weren’t Jewish.
Or maybe it was that Gentile Christians in the Ephesian Church had gotten the idea that they replaced the Jewish people as the people of God.
Whatever the reason, Paul wanted to be crystal clear—the people of God—Jew and Gentile alike—are one people in Jesus Christ.
Paul continues to talk about this as we come to Ephesians 3.
In our passage this morning, Paul refers to this reconciliation of Gentiles and Jews in Christ as a mystery…
…a mystery hidden in the purpose of God in ages past…
…but a mystery now revealed in Jesus Christ through the Gospel.
[TS] Let’s look at the way Paul explains this in Ephesians 3:1-13…
Major Ideas
Major Ideas
#1: The Mystery Now Revealed (Ephesians 3:6)
#1: The Mystery Now Revealed (Ephesians 3:6)
6 to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,
[EXP] This is mystery that is now revealed in Jesus—Gentile believers are fellow heirs of God along with Jewish believers, fellow members of the body of Christ with the Jewish Christians, fellow partakers of the promise of God in Christ Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, through the Gospel.
As verse 11 says, this was not some change in the plan of God, but the eternal purpose of God that He carried out in Christ Jesus.
But be sure to note that word ‘fellow’ in v. 6.
It means there are no second-class citizens in the Kingdom of God. It means that we are all on equal standing in the Kingdom of Heaven because we all stand on Jesus!
We receive the same inheritance—the blessings of God!
We are members of the same body—the body of Christ, the Church!
We are partakers of the same promise in Christ Jesus—the same promise that God made to Abraham so long ago, I will make you a great nation; I will bless you; And make your name great; You shall be a blessing; And I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed (Gen. 12:2-3)!
There are many specific promises that God made to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3, but they make up one big promise—and we all-Jew and Gentile alike—are partakers of that promise through the Gospel!
Now, be sure to notice that as well—that phrase ‘through the Gospel’ at the end of v. 6. This is how we all get in! This is how we become fellow heirs, fellow members, and fellow partakers—through the Gospel of Jesus Christ!
What is the Gospel?
Well, ‘gospel’ is a word that means ‘good news’, but we won’t understand the good news as truly good unless we first understand the bad news.
So Here’s the bad news.
The bad news is you are a sinner.
Now, you are not the only one but you most certainly are one. You’ve lied. You’ve lusted. You’ve stolen. You’ve coveted. You disrespected your parents. You’ve sinned in many ways.
Now, that wouldn’t be a big deal except that God, the Author of Life, is sinless and can’t be in the presence of sin, so the price for sin is death—eternal separation from God.
Listen to how put it in Ephesians 2:12…
12 remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
We had no hope because as sinners we were separated from, excluded from, and strangers to God.
But God is gracious and He didn’t leave us separated, excluded, and strangers! He didn’t leave us condemned, dead, cut off!
Here’s the good news!
God the Father sent His Son Jesus to pay the price for our sins on the cross so that by believing on Him alone for salvation we are now reconciled to God, included in the people of God, and partakers of the promise of God to His people—the promise of God to bless His people with every spiritual blessing in Christ Jesus.
[ILLUS] Every now and again, you’ll hear a verse like Jeremiah 29:11 quoted by Christians who are looking for encouragement. There God says to His people…
11 ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
Others, however, will say that verse isn’t applicable to Christians because God made that promise to His people in the Old Testament.
But through the Gospel of Christ, that promise and all the promises of God belong to Christians! As 2 Corinthians 1:20 says…
20 For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us.
[APP] So, brothers and sisters, when we read the Old Testament and take encouragement from its promises, we do so rightly! That is our family history and those promises were made to our family—the family of God!
That’s the family that we’ve been adopted into through the Gospel!
When we read the Old Testament we are not reading the story of some other people, we are reading the story of our people!
We Gentiles who have trusted Jesus as Savior and Lord are fellow heirs, fellow members, and fellow partakers of all that God promised to His people!
This is the mystery now revealed in Jesus Christ!
[TS] But now let’s notice the ministers of the mystery now revealed in Jesus Christ…
#2: The Ministers of the Mystery Now Revealed (Ephesians 3:7)
#2: The Ministers of the Mystery Now Revealed (Ephesians 3:7)
7 of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.
[EXP] Paul says that he was made a minister of this mystery now revealed—this Gospel of Jesus Christ—by God’s grace and worked as a minister of this Gospel by God’s power.
Paul was a chosen one.
In vv. 2-3 he refers to the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to him for the Gentiles, the revelation made known to him by Jesus Christ.
In Galatians 1:11-12…
11 For I would have you know, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. 12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.
Paul was also a verified one.
In Ephesians 3:4, he invites the Ephesian believers to read what he has previously written about the reconciling Gospel of Jesus Christ to examine it for themselves.
In his letter to the Galatians he had the Gospel he preached examined by some of the other Apostles because Paul wanted to make sure that he got it right.
They, of course, said that he did.
But Paul was the last one anyone would’ve thought should’ve been a minister of this Gospel. In v. 8 he refers to himself as the ‘the very least of all the saints’. In 1 Corinthians 15:9 he refers to himself as…
9 For I am the least of the apostles, and not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
But the resurrected Jesus appeared to Paul and called him to preach the unfathomable riches of Christ Jesus…
…and He called Paul to suffer.
Jesus said, “I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake,” (Acts 9:16).
And Paul was a suffering one.
Even as he wrote these words, Paul was—as he says in v. 1— ‘the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles’—that is, Paul was presently imprisoned because of the Gospel that he preached to the Gentiles, the Gospel that said the Gentiles were included in the people of God through faith in Jesus.
At the end of this passage, in v. 13, we see that the Ephesians were concerned about Paul suffering during this imprisonment, but Paul doesn’t want them to be discouraged.
He wants them to understand that this suffering for this Gospel is for their glory—their good, their encouragement, and their praise of God!
But Paul was not the only one.
In v. 5, Paul referred to this Gospel that he preached as being revealed to not only him but to all of God’s holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit.
As Paul said in Ephesians 2:20, the church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.
While Paul is busy preaching this Gospel, so is Peter… so is John… so is Matthew… so is Phillip… so are all the holy apostles and prophets in the early church whom God called to this task by the Spirit.
All of these are chosen ones, verified ones, last ones (i.e., great sinners like Paul), and suffering ones like the Apostle Paul.
All of them have been changed by this mystery now revealed—by the Gospel of Jesus Christ—and all of them have been called to proclaim this good news!
There is peace with God!
And there is peace with fellow men!
Through the death and resurrection of God’s Son, Jesus Christ!
[ILLUS] I want you to imagine that at the Jerusalem Council, Paul and Peter are talking together. They are together on the Gospel—they know that salvation is by God’s grace through faith in Jesus Christ for Jew and Gentile alike—but Paul says to Peter, “I can’t believe that God would save me! I can’t believe that God would use me to preach His Gospel! I’m the chief of sinners! I persecuted the church, my fellow followers of Christ!”
Then Peter replies, “You are!? What about me? I can’t believe God would save me and use me! I’m the chief of sinners! I denied my Lord Jesus three times as He went to the cross!”
And then one of the others speaks up and says, “You know, I think he can use anyone, but I think he likes using real bad ones like you two.”
Don’t miss that these men weren’t just proclaimers of grace, they were also recipients of grace.
[ILLUS] Perhaps you remember those old ‘Hair Club for Men’ commercials were the president of the hair club for men would come on the TV and say, “I’m not just the president of the hair club for men,”—then he hold up a picture of himself bald—and then he’d say with a full head of fluffy hair, “I’m also a client.”
In the same way, Peter, Paul, and all the rest could say, “We’re not just ministers of this Gospel, we also partakers of this Gospel.”
“We all used to be deniers.”
“Some of us used to be persecutors.”
“But now we all have been saved through faith alone in Jesus Christ—the mystery now revealed.”
[APP] No matter who we are, how bad we’ve been, there is salvation available to us in Jesus Christ.
And if we’ve been saved by Him, we are to be used by Him to tell others of this salvation we’ve found in Jesus.
If he can save one like me, he can save one like you.
If he can use one like me, he can use you too.
[TS] …
#3: The Mission of the Mystery Now Revealed (Ephesians 3:10-12)
#3: The Mission of the Mystery Now Revealed (Ephesians 3:10-12)
10 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. 11 This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.
[EXP] So here is the mission of the mystery now revealed; here is what the Gospel does: it glorifies God by bringing us to God through faith in Christ.
Verse 10 speaks of God being glorified in the Gospel because the Gospel puts the multi-faceted wisdom of God on display.
Speaking of God’s Gospel-revealed manifold wisdom and knowledge in Romans 11, Paul breaks out into praise…
33 Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! 34 For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? 35 Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? 36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.
This wisdom is put on display through the church, the body of Christ, not only as those saved but also as those who proclaim this mystery now revealed—those who proclaim the Gospel.
And this display of God’s wisdom in the Gospel through the Church is made known to rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
As the Apostle Peter said, “These are things into which angels long to look,” (1 Pet. 1:12).
The wisdom of God in reconciling Jews and Gentiles to Himself through the death and resurrection of Jesus is to the glory of God here on earth and in heaven above.
All creation stands in awe of His saving power.
All creation stands in awe of His amazing grace.
God is glorified in the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Now, as I said, God is glorified in the Gospel as we are brought to God through faith in Jesus Christ.
That being brought to God through Jesus is what v. 12 is talking about when it says, “…in whom (i.e., in Jesus) we have boldness and confident access (i.e., access to God) through faith in (Jesus).”
This boldness is not rudeness but open-freedom to come before God anytime we have need.
This confidence is not in ourselves but in the perfection of Jesus who lived perfectly as we should have, died for our imperfections, and rose to make us perfect before God.
[ILLUS] I’ve been reading about the late great evangelist, George Whitefield. He was so popular that he often preaches to tens of thousands at a time. He became something of celebrity, and was one to such an extent that he couldn’t possibly meet with everyone who desired to meet with him.
But some of those that desired to meet with him had letters of introduction, and, of course, the right letter from the right person meant that you would get to meet with the famous evangelist.
Likewise, if we would meet with God, we need a letter of introduction—and the only letter that will get us access to Him is the letter of the Gospel written in the perfect blood of Jesus Christ.
Be we Jew or be we Gentile, it is only through Jesus that we gain bold and confident access to God!
[APP] This is the mystery now revealed in Jesus Christ.
[TS] …
Conclusion
Conclusion
[PRAYER]