Sermon Tone Analysis

In other words, he says the fact that we are one building, built on one foundation, one household, one kingdom, one Spirit in us, one body, one new man.

In other words, because of our unity, that’s what he’s saying.

For the reason of our unity I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles.

A mystery is a secret of God hidden from the foundation of the world and finally revealed in the church age.

Now one of those mysteries, and there are many of them, one of them is the mystery that the church would be made up of Jew and Gentile, bond and free, male and female, Greek and Barbarian, and that everybody all inclusive would be one in Jesus Christ.

That was a mystery.

You can’t apply what you don’t comprehend.

Confined for the Mystery:

Connection

Verse 1 identifies Paul as “a prisoner”.

The word refers to “one held in bonds.”

By the time Paul wrote the book of Ephesians, he had been in prison for five years.

He was originally arrested by the Jews and charged with taking a man named Trophimus, a Gentile companion of Paul’s, into a forbidden area of the Temple in Jerusalem, Acts 21.

Paul did not do this, but the Jews believed he did.

They tried to kill him, but he came under protection of the Roman soldiers.The Jews wanted Paul dead.

The Romans were obliged to protect him since he was a roman citizen, and there was no proof of his guilt.

Eventually, Paul was sent to Caesarea, where he spent two years in prison.

While there, Paul was examined by the Jewish Sanhedrin, Roman governors Felix and Festus, and before King Agrippa.

If Paul had not appealed to Caesar, Agrippa would have released him.

However, since Paul had appealed his case to Caesar he was sent by ship to Rome.

The voyage took nearly a year to complete.

When Paul arrived in Rome, he remained under house arrest for the next two years.

Paul lived in a rented house.

In that house, he was free to move about during the day, but at night he was chained to Roman soldiers to prevent him from escaping.

Paul’s life was not one of luxury.

He was a prisoner and his circumstances reflected that fact.

This is just a reminder that life does not always go how we plan it.

I am sure that Paul never thought he would end up in prison.

I would imagine that he saw himself going to Rome to stand in the Forum preaching to huge crowds.

I am sure he thought that he would preach to Caesar and the Senate of Rome and see great numbers of Romans converted.

But, here he is, in prison because he dared preach Jesus crucified and resurrected.

No, Paul’s ministry did not play out the way he surely thought it would.

Cause

Paul says, “For this cause I Paul … for you Gentiles.”

Paul wants his readers to know that he is where he is for their sakes.

God had taken this strong, prejudiced, powerful Jewish man.

God saved him by his grace, and sent him out to take the Gospel to the Gentiles.

The Jews hated Paul for this.

They saw him as a traitor to God, to the Law, to his birthright, and to God.

They wanted him dead!

Thus, they did everything in their power to rid themselves of him and his preaching.When Paul was arrested and carted off first to Caesarea and then to Rome, the Jews probably assumed they were finished with Paul forever.

They probably believed they had silenced this troublesome preacher.

They might have stopped Paul from traveling around the world preaching, but their hatred against Paul had a surprising effect.

Because he was locked up in prison, Paul had a lot of time on his hands.

He used that time to write many of his epistles.

He also used that time to tell people about Jesus Christ, and some, even some in Caesar’s household, were saved.

God used Paul to lay an incredibly important foundation of theology for the church.

God actually used Paul’s imprisonment to expand his ministry.

If Paul had been free to do as he pleased, he would have traveled around and preached from place to place, but because God was directing the course of his life, Paul ended up right where God wanted him.

He ended up in the place he could do the most good.

Certainty

The Jews had arrested Paul, but he did not see himself as their prisoner.

They charged him with blasphemy and wanted him killed.

He had been detained for his own protection, and sent to Rome, at his own request, by the Romans, but he did not see himself as their prisoner either.

He was waiting to appear before Caesar to face examination by the most powerful man in the world, but he did not consider himself to be Caesar’s prisoner either!

Paul says that he is “the prisoner of Jesus Christ.”

Paul saw himself as a man who lived under the sovereign control of God.

He saw all the events of his life, the good and the bad, as being part of God’s divine plan.

He knew that the Romans could not hold him; the Jews could not stone him; and Caesar could not execute him, unless it was part of God’s plan for his life.

Paul saw himself as “the prisoner of Jesus Christ.”

That phrase suggests the idea that Paul saw Jesus Christ as the ultimate cause behind his imprisonment.

He knew that unless God had ordained it, he would not be where he was.

The Romans may have kept him chained, but Paul was bound to Christ by the very fact that Jesus had redeemed him from the deadness of his sins and given him a new life.

Paul was the prisoner of Jesus Christ, bound to Him forever, regardless of where the Lord might lead him, or cause to happen in his life.

Commissioned with the Mystery:

Paul says that he was given a “dispensation.”

This word means, “Stewardship, administration, or management.”

This word refers to a person who was responsible to take care of the business of another.

Another person to manage a household, a business, or some other concern trusted this individual.

This person would have the oversight of all the responsibilities that pertained to the business of the one who employed him.

In Paul’s case, he was given the oversight of taking the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles.

He was tasked with telling them about God’s live, His salvation, His grace and the place they had been given in His kingdom,

Paul did not choose this ministry for himself, he was appointed to it by the Lord,

Paul wants his readers to know that he was not some self-appointed preacher.

He was who he was by the grace of God,

In 1 Cor.

9:16–17

Paul was compelled to preach the Gospel because the Lord had chosen him for that task.

He had been given a dispensation of grace, and it was his duty to faithfully preach the Gospel wherever he went.

He fulfilled his duty to the very end of his life, 2 Tim.

4:7.

If ye have heard - Because of Paul’s management of the gospel you have the gospel.

The question becomes will the next generation have the gospel since the administration of the gospel falls now to us?

Communication of the Mystery:

Paul makes it clear that he has been given a “revelation” of a “mystery.”

The word “revelation” refers to “an uncovering.”

The word “mystery” refers to “a hidden thing.”

It speaks of “the secret counsels of God, or to things beyond natural knowledge.”

In other words, Paul is saying that God has lifted the veil away from truths that were hidden with God.

What Paul has been writing about is a divine secret.

It is a truth that was hidden from the ancients.

People like Moses, Abraham, David, Isaiah and others did not possess this knowledge.

It was hidden from them in the secret counsels of God.

In Gen. 12:3, God promised Abraham,

Genesis 12:3 (KJV 1900)

3 And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

“… in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

No one fully understood that truth until Paul was allowed to understand the mystery and write,

No one fully understood that truth until the revelation of the mystery was given to Paul and he explained it this way,

In verse 4 Paul says that he wants his readers to understand his “knowledge in the mystery of Christ.”

In other words, Paul is telling us that he has been given special “insight” into God’s secrets, and that he has been called to share those insights with us.

Thank God for that.