Preaching to Angels and Demons

Ephesians 3:7-13

Awkward Evangelism

An evangelizing, preaching preschooler

So, now, a true story of me as a five year old. My son Dylan just turned 5, so you can imagine him for your visual. Apparently, according to my Mom, they always knew that I would be a preacher one day. Because I would take my Bible to preschool with me, and on the playground, preach the Word of Jesus! (or whatever we had talked about in Sabbath school that week).

I was your typical preschool street preacher.

Here is the funny truth. For most of my life, that has represented the only “evangelism” that I ever did: purposefully preaching the gospel to people outside the church.

We have been talking about Paul and we know him as the Great Evangelist and Church Planter. We have been talking about the gospel, in particular the gospel to the Gentiles, and how it is good news to Outsiders.

And Paul is excited and passionate about his call, his ministry, his stewardship/management of the gospel to the Gentiles. And we sought to connect with his passion. Who are the outsiders among us? Who are the outsiders in our lives?

It doesn’t start with a category, it starts with individuals that we care about. Who are they? Is it possible that God could do something new in them through me?

And then, perhaps, you feel the weight of this heavy word: evangelism.

Growing up a non-evangelizing evangelical

For me, this has been a guilty word… because it is something I didn’t do. In fact, I think of preaching on a street corner, handing out tracks, door to door, I still don’t do these things. In college we learned about walking someone through the Roman Road… but I didn’t actually do it!

Evangelism in my life was one of the many things that I “should do but don’t.”

Why not? Why is sharing the gospel not a natural part of my life? It was when I was in preschool. Why isn’t it now?

I am unmotivated. “The lost” is a category, it’s hard to get passionate about a category.

I can feel inadequate.

I don’t know what to say.

Unmotivated. Inadequate (or insecure). Speechless.

Some of you are fantastic at this, sharing the gospel with people left and right, gifted at it. That is fantastic. But I suspect, for many of us, you are with me.

Why is sharing the gospel not a natural part of our lives? Maybe we are unmotivated. Maybe we feel inadequate. Maybe we simply don’t know what to say.

Paul the Least, Paul the Lens

Well Paul, can’t shut-up about his call to preach the gospel, even when he is actually trying to talk about something else. He has interrupted his sentence in verse 1 to make it clear that the extension of the gospel to the Gentiles was new revelation, entrusted to him. God was doing something new then (and we hope maybe he is doing something new among us now too).

Paul continues to speak about His calling to proclaim the gospel of Christ.

Ephesians 3:7-13

7 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. 8 Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, 9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. 10 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11 according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. 13 I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.

Paul’s Call

So Paul has his call to preach to the Gentiles “the boundless riches of Christ.” To make plain that great mystery he was talking about. It was hidden but Paul gets to share it: Gentiles are in. He has this huge vision for where his call fits into history too:

Paul’s call was part of God’s purpose to change heaven and earth. More about that later.

Paul’s Content

Paul had this huge call and such clear content. He was to preach, to “proclaim”, simply to “tell people” the good news. Not just people, he was to tell the outsiders, the Gentiles, and I love this formulation of the gospel. It is so clear. We often quote John 3:16 as a summary of the gospel:

For God so loved the world that he sent his only son that whoever believes in him will not die but will have everlasting life!

I love that one, but I had never picked out this verse as a stand-alone message of the gospel before. Add it to your memorized verses right now. It’s simple. It is clear. It is so directed at someone who feels outside, trapped or insecure:

The gospel: In him [Christ] and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

In him [Christ] and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

That’s the content. That is Paul’s message. And thinking back to my hesitations in sharing the gospel, we can adopt those words too. These are good words, simple words, but God’s Words and they have power! If we need words, these can be our words.

But where did Paul get the courage? Who did he think he was preaching to these people out of nowhere?

Paul’s Humility – Paul the Least

He says this: “I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people…”

I read that as false humility. What if it wasn’t? What if it was a true expression of Paul’s deep insecurity. A true feeling of inadequacy! He of all people knew what it took to save him and what Jesus’ saved him from. He and God alone knew the depth of his sin.

How about this: we talked about our sinful nature and how every desire springs from it. Paul speaks of the interplay of his sinful desire and what it wants; I bet Paul had ulterior motives for absolutely everything he did, just like you and I do! He knows he is a broken vessel. He knows doubts and questions and sin so looking around at all the Christians, just like we often do, he sees everyone else and says “they look a lot better than me.” I am the least of all Christians, for I know how much work Jesus had to do and has to do in me.

That is inadequacy. Insecurity. Unworthiness. Paul the “Great Evangelist” could have been crippled by a deep insecurity.

Paul’s Effect – the Lens of God’s Grace

Paul knew himself, thought himself the least of God’s people… and yet KNEW that he was the lens of God’s grace. A focal point. Focusing God’s saving grace, accomplished in Christ Jesus, to build His church and that church would then be a multiplier, such that the “Manifold wisdom of God should be made known…”

To rulers and authorities? So governments would hear the name of Jesus, rise and fall by it? Yes.

But to rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms. So angels? Yes, Peter would say that angels long to look into the mysteries of the gospel, the same kinds of mysteries which Paul has received revelation.

To governments? Yes. To angels? Yes. But later in Ephesians, in chapter 6, Paul is going to use this same term and there he unambiguously refers to dark spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms!

You Are Not an Apostle… Are you called to “preach” the gospel?

What is the connection to you? You are not Paul the apostle. You aren’t even a pastor. Only four of you have been invited to preach here at Next Step in the last decade.

Preach – to Proclaim

This word preach makes us think of preachers. But it is that old heavy word. Evangelizo. Evangelize. Announce good news. Proclaim the gospel.

Mark’s version of the Great Commission uses this same word:

Mark 16:15

Go into all the world and [evangelize] preach the gospel.

Proclaiming good news, gospel news, to people that God calls you to… just as Paul was called to preach to the “Gentiles.”

It doesn’t start with a category, I think, that’s way too abstract. It became a category of “Gentiles” for Paul as he was called to minister to person after person, and this category emerged, particularly in his day as this was the theological church crisis. But I think it started with individuals in Antioch. It continued with individuals he met in one city after another. Titus. Luke. Probably Tychichus who carries Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and another to the Colossians. Looking back on all these individuals, he sees the category and claims it proudly.

Perhaps you have been entrusted with the stewardship of God’s grace to someone you love.

Telling someone that you love who is on the out that they can be in. In with God. In with freedom and confidence. In with eternity and life. They can be in.

Telling someone that you love who is on the out that they can be in.

This isn’t a tract… this isn’t awkward evangelism, street evangelism, Billy-Graham style stadium evangelism. There is place for all of that, there have been seasons for all of that.

This is the very simple idea that God has put someone in your path and entrusted the “administration” or “management” of His grace to that person to you.

God trusts you with showing His grace to Chris at work. To your neighbor two doors down. You see that they are outside. Outside of God’s love. Outside of community. Outside of love. Outside of gospel.

And even if you feel insecure. Even if you feel like the worst Christian, worst talker, worst sinner, the least of all of God’s people. If God has given you the administration of His grace to someone, He has also given you the grace to preach it.

Unmotivated, Inadequate and Speechless

It is hard to get motivated to “reach” a category. Reach an individual. Not “the lost”. Not even “the outsider.” Speak to Shawn. That particular individual whom God has already placed in your path, already connected your heart, you aren’t motivated for everyone, but you are motivated to help them if you can help them.

You feel inadequate? Good, Paul did too. In your weakness He is made strong, He wants to use your weakness. If God calls you to this, he puts His grace for them into play through you, giving you the stewardship of His grace, even if only for one conversation, but maybe for your whole relationship. You then are the lens of His grace.

What if you are the lens of His grace?

Then it isn’t so much about the quality of the lens as the power of the Son shining through it. I can buy a cheap magnifying lens from the dollar store and use it to start an inferno. You become the lens of His grace, just as Paul was to the Gentiles in his day.

What do you say? I love this expression of the gospel in Ephesians 3:12 because it speaks so powerfully to the outsider, to the insecure, to the lost:

In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

His intent – to rock the heavens through the church

Through Paul sharing with Gentiles, God would focus that through his church to rock governments, not just governments but angels, even forces of spiritual darkness. God’s wisdom, his manifold wisdom, reaching to all places and corners of the spiritual realms.

Paul, insecure, knew that God could and was doing that through him.

God continues his work today. He still has that kind of power. He is still that kind of light. I can be that kind of lens. You can be that kind of lens.

10 His intent was that now, through the church

The church eternal and universal, but certainly also through Next Step Christian Church in Thornton, Colorado,

the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11 according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.