Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro: I’ve been teaching my oldest two sons Levi and Titus how to play chess lately… and it’s really been fun... we’ve been playing A LOT.

Levi’s plan is always to beat me in the first three moves… which he typically does the first round we play because I FORGET...

But then we play again and I get wise to his plan and so he’s still learning how to win AFTER that point...

And a few week’s ago we were playing and I kept countering his moves and attacking, and all of the sudden he says, “OK, time to go to plan 'L'!"

Apparently he had moved WELL BEYOND plan A, B and C and was now on plan “L.”

And a lot of times people think that this is how it goes with God...

We think of God like some Master Chess player who is just a few steps ahead of his opponents…

So people.. or maybe Satan make a strong move against him... and God counters… and it just goes back and forth like that...

but often people think that when God’s first plan isn’t going so well, he’s ok to switch plans...

Like God is saying, “My plan for Israel didn’t go so well… I’m going to go to plan B… the church...

And then we think, “Well, the church doesn’t look like something God would want… it’s so broken and messy and full of sinners… maybe we should start looking for plan C or D...”

Some people think, “The church failed in reaching the lost… we should replace it with parachurch organizations...”

Other’s think, “The church failed to influence our culture morally… we should try to start focusing on political or legal solutions through the government.”

Still others think, “The church failed ME, so maybe I’ll just try to live out some personalized version of the Christian faith by myself... just me and Jesus… and maybe I’ll talk about him with some friends for coffee when it’s convenient...”

But it’s been said by many people before me… and they are right... "The Church is God's plan A, and there is no plan B."

Even when God was choosing a specific nation in Israel, the CHURCH was his ultimate plan… he was just setting all the pieces in place.

And even when the church doesn’t quite LOOK like we think it should from our perspective, God is still using his work IN the church to reveal his glory and wisdom THROUGH the church to the furthest reaches of the heavenly places...

He is still working “plan A”… and it’s going to be the demonstration of his ultimate victory to angels, demons, and humanity alike.

So we need to learn to see GOD’S PERSPECTIVE on the church… HIS VISION for the church if we are going to bring him glory IN the church...

That’s the whole purpose of the book of Ephesians and the whole reason we are studying it here today...

We want to see the church from God’s point of view so that we can understand our role in it…

and expand our WONDER and PASSION for what God is doing in the church along the way.

So here’s our Big Idea for today:

Big Idea: Let God's revelation enlarge your perspective of his all-wise plan for his church.

Your Bibles are open to Ephesians 3...

Just to remind you of the context… Paul is in a section of this letter where he is revealing how Gentiles (the nations… non-Jews) came to be included in God’s people.

In chapter 2:1-10, he looks at this from an INDIVIDUAL perspective… that each of us are DEAD in our sin… and in an act of unfathomable grace, God made us alive together with Christ…

and this is true for all those who have put their FAITH in Christ… Jew and Gentile alike.

Then in chapter 2:11-22, he looks at the our inclusion into the church from a CORPORATE identity perspective… that we GENTILES have been brought together with the Jews to create ONE NEW MAN… one NEW BODY… which elsewhere he calls the CHURCH.

And in that church, we are citizens of a NEW Kingdom...

We are members of a NEW family...

We are building blocks in a NEW temple... a DWELLING PLACE for God by the Spirit.

The church is created as this new humanity in Christ to be an echo of the Garden of Eden and a foretaste of heaven where the dwelling place of God is with man.

And Paul is totally enraptured by this reality… and he seems now to want to return to his prayer in chapter 1… that they would “get it.”

But then he pauses.

Look at Ephesians 3:1 “For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—” [and then most of your Bibles have a hyphen or at least a comma]...

There’s a clear pause in Paul’s train of thought...

He’s about to go down a LONG rabbit trail before getting back to his prayer in verse 14.

And everything that we are studying today is a rabbit trail off of this thought…

You know what those are like if you’ve ever been in a small group discussion or Sunday school class, right?

Someone just goes off for a little while… and everyone is sitting there thinking, “How in the WORLD did we end up HERE?!?!”

But remember… this is scripture… so this is a Spirit-inspired rabbit trail…

(I’ll bet you wish some of those small group rabbit trails were Spirit-inspired)...

This is a Spirit-inspired rabbit trail… we know because it is part of Holy Scriptures.

And I’m so glad it is… because here we get an explanation of Paul’s ministry that helps us understand SO MUCH about the New Testament and the letters of Paul...

We get some clarity and perspective into what God is doing through the church that is unrivaled in the rest of scripture.

So read with me in Eph.

3:1-13.

Big Idea: Let God's revelation enlarge your perspective of his all-wise plan for his church.

God's all-wise plan for the church is...

1) A once-hidden mystery now revealed (v.

2-5)

Look at verse 2 again: Paul says, “[I’m] assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly.

He’s like, “I know that I’ve told you about this before… but just to make sure you remember… I want to get my unique job description is in the front of your mind...

“I’m going to go down this rabbit trail for just a little bit so that you remember what God has done in me and through me...

God has given me the particular job of STEWARDING… ADMINISTRATING… his grace…

Paul was uniquely entrusted with a certain message of grace (which he outlined in chapter 2) to carry SPECIFICALLY to the Gentiles.

Paul says he is the STEWARD… the GUARDIAN... of this message…

He needs to make sure that it is used for the purpose for which God intended.

And this particular message of grace is described as a MYSTERY that was made known to him by revelation (by the DIRECT breaking through of God into his experience).

Now this word MYSTERY is a very important one to the Apostle Paul and he uses it a lot...

The word, at it’s most foundational level, means something that was hidden that is now revealed [you see where I got the wording for point 1 then… creative, I know…]

But it’s not just something that was hidden that we could go out and find on our own if we looked hard enough… like some buried treasure or something...

The word implies that this information was NOT FINDABLE by normal human wisdom or insight or intelligence.

During Paul’s day there were all these “mystery religions” and they believed that there was this hidden knowledge about the keys to human existence that only a select few people could find if they searched hard enough.

And Paul is saying, “I know the mystery… I have the KEY… but I did not FIND it… I did not DISCOVER it… it was given to me by DIRECT REVELATION of God.

“God had to break through my deadness… my blindness… to make me see it.”

This was a mystery that even PAUL, with all his extensive training as a Pharisee… as a student of the law… could never perceive on his own just by reading the Old Testament.

But Acts 9 gives us the backstory on Paul: one day while he was riding his donkey to Damascus to go beat up some Christians, and God broke through… Jesus Christ himself appeared to him… and he said, “Why are you persecuting ME?”

In other words… Jesus revealed himself as the one who died and rose again and is now glorified...

AND He revealed that he is VITALLY connected to his CHURCH…

To persecute the church was to persecute Christ because the church IN CHRIST…

And in that moment of revelation, all of the pieces of the puzzle came together for Paul...

All of his study of the Old Testament suddenly made sense in a whole new way.

So after this revelation, Jesus sent Paul into Damascus… and he told him to go find a guy named Ananias… who was to lay hands on Paul and restore his sight…

and through Ananias, God revealed that Paul was his chosen instrument to carry the name of Jesus specifically among the GENTILES.

(that’s very important to understand this section of scripture).

That is the PARTICULAR stewardship of God’s grace that was given to Paul… that he was to carry the rich treasure of the gospel… not just to the Jews… but primarily to the Gentiles...

This is Paul’s unique insight and contribution to the revelation of the mystery of Jesus Christ.

That’s why Paul says, “When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 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.”

Paul has a unique insight into what Christ is doing that has never been understood before:

That the gospel of Jesus as Savior-King is going to the Gentiles… with ALL of it’s rights and privileges… and as a result, that God is creating a whole new humanity IN CHRIST that is called “The Church.”

That’s the mystery that was hidden that was now revealed… he explains that in verse 6...

But we’ll come back to the content of that mystery more in a moment, but for now I want to focus on this fact:

That this is something that was not known to ANYONE who lived before Christ.

It was completely hidden.

Not findable.

Now, they got hints at it.

They were given enough to put their faith in God’s covenant and find salvation.

But they were not given the whole picture like we are today.

In fact, the book of Ephesians is Paul’s clearest presentation of this mystery that was revealed to him by direct revelation from God.

What we are studying NOW was not available to the rest of the world… even to Israel… for GENERATIONS!

And so it’s at this point we should stop and realize: WHAT A PRIVILEGE WE HAVE TO STUDY THIS BOOK!

What we are reading in these chapters is something uniquely given to US in the present age… and we must BELIEVE it!

Apply: So don't squander the privilege.

Paul was given the revelation of the gospel and the church as a unique stewardship…

But if your eyes have been enlightened to the truth that is in Jesus…

And if you have understood this word about his plan for the church… then you TOO are a steward of this truth.

WE have been entrusted with the glorious treasure of the gospel… and with the unveiled purpose of God for his church.

We are the ones who know the mystery!

We have the key to how all this is going to play out!

Now maybe you are like, “Pastor Ben, you keep talking about knowing the mystery… I’m still a little fuzzy on what you are even talking about!