Sermon Tone Analysis

Good morning and welcome to Dishman Baptist Church.

What a glorious fall weekend we have been treated to - I even got the privilege of seeing snow fly yesterday as Hayden and Richard and I tromped around the Colville National Forest looking for wildlife.

It is amazing to think how far gone the year is and that soon we will be talking of the hope and possibility of a New Year.

As we saw last week Paul has been delivering to the Gentiles the greatest news of hope that they could ever have received - that they have indeed been included into the family of God as a part of the Gospel.

That they were no longer separated from God, from Christ or from the Jews but had, through Christ’s sacrificial death on the cross been brought near.

Now we turn to Ephesians 3 as Paul further explains this hope.

Please turn in your Bibles with me to Ephesians 3.

Paul should be a balm, a source of hope to anyone who has ever been diagnosed with ADD.

Attention Deficit Disorder.

Because he so readily exhibits this condition in his writing.

He will frequently begin a thought only to diverge or digress or completely change his course of direction onto another thought.

He does so in Philippians 3. The NASB captures his words best.

He says finally but then goes on for another 2 chapters - in a four chapter book - with such great truths as the sacrifice of everything in the pursuit of Christ, the citizenship of the believer, the unity that we should be pursuing in the faith, the peace of mind that can be achieved as a blessing of faith in Christ and the contentment that we should all experience as believers.

Yes, he diverges but oh so gloriously so as he delivers such important teaching through his diversion.

He also does this in 2 Corinthians writing in 2 Corinthians 2:13

This is a thought that he will return to in 2 Corinthians 7:5

In the intervening chapters he discusses the trials and tribulations that he has faced in his ministry on behalf of the Corinthian church.

He spends time teaching the Corinthians of the challenges he has endured as a result of his ministry of the Spirit and righteousness.

Here again, this morning, Paul is going to begin one thought only to digress into a further explanation of what he has just explained in chapter 2.

He is going to start a thought in verse 1, really it is the beginning of a prayer that will close out this first section of the book on the makeup of the church, and then return to the thought in verse 14.

In the intervening verses he will continue to explain the nature of the church.

Look with me at Ephesians 1:1-13

We will be breaking this down into two sections.

This morning we will be looking at verses 1-6 under the title of the explanation of a mystery - as we will see Paul further explaining and clarifying this mysterious and new entity called the church.

Next week we will see the steward of the mystery - examining Paul’s role in the delivery of the mystery to the church.

Four times in chapter 3 Paul will use the word mystery in reference to the church.

This is really a clarification of what he had already written in Ephesians 1:9-10 regarding the mystery of God’s will

What he began to discuss in chapter 1, Paul will now develop in greater detail here in chapter 3.

He will develop the doctrine of the unique character of the church, building on what he has written in chapter 2 and that we have just finished our study of.

We will examine this mystery under a mystery delivered, a mystery revealed and a mystery explained.

A Mystery Delivered

Paul begins - For this reason

In light of all that I’ve said so far, in light of what I’ve just written in chapter 2 specifically and in the entire letter generally.

Paul is drawing our minds to recall all that he has written so far.

He will repeat this exact phrase when he returns to the train of thought that begins this section of the letter saying

Here in verse 1 he continues saying “I Paul,” nine times in the Pauline epistles Paul will use this phraseology in order to drive home an important point.

Twice in his letter to Philemon he uses this to drive home the appeal to Philemon’s christian love on behalf of the runaway slave Onesimus.

Paul’s heart seems deeply troubled by the need to drive home the truth of what he had just taught and so he emphasizes to these readers who it is that is writing - but not in a manner that would garner him any real credibility under normal human standards.

The prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles - this is not the way to emphasize your human authority by highlighting that you are a prisoner.

But Paul knew what Thomas Aquinas put into words

“God can direct evil to good”

Notice the wording here

Not of the Jews - even though they were the protagonists of his arrest.

Accusing him of taking Trophimus the Ephesian into areas of the Temple in Jerusalem that were forbidden to Gentiles

Not of Rome - even though they were the prosecutors of his arrest.

He was kept in jail by Felix in the hopes that Paul would offer him a bribe for his release and then as a favor to the Jews.

He was kept in prison by Festus until he could determine what to do with Paul with the help of King Agrippa.

Not of Caesar - even though he was the proliferator of his arrest.

Caesar had the human authority to mediate Paul’s case and dismiss it entirely.

Paul had appealed to Caesar and was in Rome at Caesar’s tribunal.

Paul recognized that his imprisonment was orchestrated and ordained by Christ for two purposes

Paul was enduring the animosity of the world that could not be heaped on Christ on behalf of the church.

Paul’s imprisonment had actually led to the furthering of the Gospel - to further ministry of the Gospel even into the very house of Caesar.

What view do you have of your current circumstances?

What are you going through that you are preventing God from getting the glory in because of your point of view or your actions?

300 Quotations for Preachers (Assurance without Regard to Circumstances)

God sometimes marvellously raises the souls of his saints with some close and near approaches unto them—gives them a sense of his eternal love, a taste of the embraces of his Son and the inhabitation of the Spirit, without the least intervening disturbance; then this is their assurance.

But this life is not a season to be always taking wages in.

Our work is not yet done; we are not always to abide in this mount; we must down again into the battle—fight again, cry again, complain again.

Shall the soul be thought now to have lost its assurance?

Not at all.

It had before assurance with joy, triumph, and exultation; it has it now, or may have, with wrestling, cries, tears, and supplications.

And a man’s assurance may be as good, as true, when he lies on the earth with a sense of sin, as when he is carried up to the third heaven with a sense of love and foretaste of glory.JOHN OWEN

The Christian life is not meant to be all rainbows and easy days - but this doesn’t mean that what is happening to you is outside of the purview of Christ.

Nor is it outside of His capacity to use it for His glory and for your good.

No matter what situation you are facing in your life right now, no matter what situation I may be facing in my life right now - no matter how hard it may seem - this is the question that we must all ask - are my current actions/reactions allowing the Gospel to flourish and the glory of God to be demonstrated in this situation?

Paul does not dwell on his circumstances and we mustn’t either.

He continues on.

“Assuming you have heard” the NASB again is more helpful in understanding this phrase.

Paul is not questioning whether or not his readers had heard of what had happened to him

What he is saying is that since I know you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace

The word for stewardship, translated administration in the CSB, is oikonomia.

It is most correctly translated stewardship.

In the first century the role of a steward in a household was very important.

They oversaw the daily running of the house, made sure the finances were taken care of, made sure that maintenance if necessary was completed.

A good example of a steward in Scripture is Joseph.

He wasn’t in charge of Egypt but he oversaw the administration of all daily activities on behalf of Pharoah.

Paul was made a caretaker of God’s grace with the charge to carry this grace to the Gentiles.

He wasn’t in charge of the message or the source of the message.

He was required to carry the message to the people.

Notice how unlike Jonah Paul is. Jonah went to the city of Ninevah under compulsion and after preaching there - a message that had unfathomable results that would make any modern day evangelist faint - he sat on a hill sulking.

He basically said “God, you’re so God.

I knew you would save those people.

How could You do that.”

Paul was faithful to his calling.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians that he also is under complulsion

But he does so with joy.

At no time during his ministry does Paul ever question what God has called him to do.

This was a man who was at the pinnacle of his religious career as Saul.

Saul, named for the first king of Israel who was chosen for his strength, bearing and stature over his peers, has become Paul which means small.

He was a Pharisee charged with upholding the purity of the Jewish religion against all those who would seek to dilute it and yet here he is doing the very thing that would dilute that false religious practice the most - including the Gentiles into the body of Christ.

Paul truly sacrificed everything - why?

Because of the revelation that had been given to him.

Following his conversion Paul tells us in Galatians that he spent three years in the desert receiving this revelation from Christ.

Paul writes more about the mystery regarding the makeup of the church than anyone else among the apostles.

There may be principles delivered - the importance of repentance to faith by John in 1 John 1:9, the importance of faith and works by James, but none of them elucidate the truths of the establishment of the church as Paul does here.

This is not to say that it was given to him alone - he will tell us in verse 5 that this mystery had now been revealed to the holy apostles and prophets - but Paul is the most prolific writer and explainer of this great truth.

This mystery revealed.

A Mystery Revealed

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