Gospel Revelation

Ephesians 3:1-6

Something old and something new

Mazda died. Apparently it isn’t good when the piston is slamming into the valve. It “isn’t good” on the order of you need a new engine… and that’ll cost more than the car is worth. Bye bye, Mazda.

So we are in the market for a car!

New is exciting. We like something new, it is exciting.

New has a cost. I don’t like cost, cost is scary.

I may have a solution, I am at least going to try it. New wheels on the old truck. The truck is old, but putting new wheels on it may make it possible for it to take me to new places.

There are some really cute connections there to the sermon, I’m going to let you connect those dots.

Paul’s Gospel Revelation

To the Gentiles

Recap of last week. Paul, a Jew of Jews, announces the removal of the fence, the barrier between Gentiles and Jews. And this word “Gentiles” identified the outsiders among the group, the “everyone else.” Paul writes that the Gentiles are every bit as welcome in Jesus as the Jews, that the Messiah came to make one, to break down barriers with a sledgehammer, and Paul takes this up as his cause.

And he starts into a thought, a little sentence fragment about his imprisonment in verse 1… but it’s like he just has to make absolutely clear that HE is the guy when it comes to this Gentile thing.

Ephesians 3:1-6

1 For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— 2 assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you,

He, Paul, is steward of God’s grace. This is a radical statement, Paul is in charge of something, he has been given the responsibility, the management of God’s grace.

3 how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. 4 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 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. 6 This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

The mystery was revealed to him by revelation. What was the mystery? Simply this: that the gospel extends to the Gentiles, that they are full members of the body, fellow heirs. That they are One. The saving gospel of Jesus applies to them to. That was a Secret (a mystery) before… now it has been revealed to Paul who has the stewardship of it.

It was new. And Paul seems really passionate, kind of interrupting himself, to talk about how new it is. And he isn’t done in verse 6, we are just stopping there to deal with the idea of “new revelation” in the gospel of Jesus… that’s a dangerous word.

Something radically new

“New” could (and should) be a scary word in theology. “I have a new message from God” is what someone says right before they ask you to drink the Kool-Aid.

New… but something “new” and “true” turns out to be grounded in what came before. There is a Divine Trajectory, so that in retrospect, you can see what God was doing all along.

Paul isn’t really preaching a new gospel, He is announcing the radical new availability of that same gospel to those he was encountering in his ministry. More about that in a moment.

And he then appeals to the confirmation of the church to which he is writing.

You can perceive my insight – the nature of revelation

This was copied and passed out to other churches. Passed out throughout Europe and Asia, down into Northern Africa. A new revelation of gospel.

This was then adopted by the early church as reliable testimony of revelation. Scripture.

Local Revelation in Antioch

How did this actually go down? How did this begin? When did Paul get his revelation?

But those are huge issues. Large issues. Global issues. And Paul was writing to churches spread out… but I don’t think it started that way. I think for Paul it started in Antioch. He heard the gospel applied to him and it changed his life. And then, in Antioch (or maybe even before), he started to preach the gospel and he noticed most of the people around him in Antioch weren’t Jewish… but they were putting their faith in Jesus and the Holy Spirit was evident in them.

And he asked, is God doing something new here? And perhaps he had heard Jesus’ words and ministry to Gentiles. Perhaps he thought of the Messianic prophecies and how all nations would be blessed. Perhaps he had a prophetic vision, a direct revelation of God.

But he obtained the sure conviction that the gospel that had saved him also could save that guy. And that woman. And that slave. And in Antioch the Gentiles flooded in and were united in fellowship with Jews and together showing love in Christ such that people didn’t know what to call them. So they called them Christians for the first time in Antioch.

They needed a new word. Because “nobody loves like that.” No group unifies such diversity! Jews and Gentiles simply don’t mix… except that they are!

And this new thing became a wild fire. No wonder Paul was a little passionate about this!

God’s Revelation of Gospel

Is God doing anything new today? Is He revealing Himself? Is He revealing more and more of His same gospel?

Is revelation possible today? Remember that word revelation? This isn’t the first time Paul has used the word. The very same thing that he received here, he prays unceasingly that the Ephesians would receive the same.

Ephesians 1:17

17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

The new thing He is doing in me may be the very same thing He has done in you. It’s not new to you… and that’s not a problem, in fact it is confirmation. Peter has his dream, his vision about the gospel extending to Gentiles, and the church in Jerusalem commissions Paul to preach to the Gentiles and Paul is like “that’s what I’m already doing! (and by the way, I was doing it first).”

The Gospel Made New (still True) in You?

The gospel is rooted in unchanging truth, but it is good news that meets culture and individuals and creates something radically new.

What new true thing is He saying to you and through you?

Who is He calling you to? Is there anyone you are as passionate about reaching as Paul was passionate about reaching the Gentiles? Is there anyone your heart just responds to? Is there anyone you see as an outsider, or that others see as outsiders, that others look at and think “I guess the gospel just isn’t for them?”

Do you see lost causes in our culture? In your neighborhood?

There are no lost causes in God’s eyes. There are no excluded labels. Whatever the label, whatever the culture, whatever the lifestyle, the gospel of Jesus offers freedom and life. It isn’t easy, it always requires change, but it is available.

Is God making his gospel new through you?

It probably isn’t “Gentiles” as a people group, we don’t think of that as a people group. That isn’t controversial.

It probably isn’t tax collectors like Zacchaeus. That was scandalous when Jesus reached out to a worse-than-a-sinner thieving nation-betraying tax collector… but the gospel was for him too.

We do have some categories of people it could be. Maybe it is the atheist, the so called “new atheism” movement in America. Maybe, as scandalous as the tax collector, it is the Lesbian/Gay/Bi-sexual/Transgender community. The gospel is for them too!

Maybe, and this has been on my heart, it is those who have already “heard it all.” The one who has heard “just enough Jesus” to roll their eyes when the conversation starts… but God hasn’t given up on them.

But it doesn’t start with a category. It starts with a person, as it happened in Antioch. And God reveals to you that His gospel, that old story, is brand stinking new for your neighbor two doors up. It is new for the girl in the office next to yours.

God is making his gospel new through you. May God give us His revelation to see it, to be passionate for it.

God gave Paul the “stewardship” of God’s grace to the Gentiles.

What if God has given you “stewardship” of His grace to your neighbor? There is responsibility there… but there is also something new and exciting.

May He reveal himself to us. May He start something new in us. The gospel of Jesus always creates something new. It does it in us. It does it through us.

The gospel can be new in and through you.

The gospel can be new in and through you.

Put some new tires on that. Go some new places. Meet some new people. May God reveal himself and his plan and his gospel to you.

It can be new… even to those who have heard it all before. That is my prayer.

It can be new… especially to those we have traditionally written off as ineligible: too far gone or too sinful or too “outside”. It can be new to the Gentiles among us.

The gospel can be new in and through you.

The Gospel – Communion

The gospel is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. It is the accomplished activity of Jesus for our salvation. But it creates something new within us and among us. We proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes in… communion.

And we call it communion because it unites us, we are one in Christ, we are in com-unity – community together.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.