Sermon Tone Analysis

Ephesians

Good morning church!

I want to welcome you all here this morning, we are very glad you are here.

Before we go too far into our service, I want to invite you back on Wednesday evening for our midweek study.

At 6pm we are having an Agape Supper, lovingly bring something to share with your brothers and sisters.

If you’re not able, show up anyways and let us love you by sharing our meal with you.

At 6:30 we begin our time of worship and the Word, and I know you guys are all excited about Isaiah 14 as am I, but this Wednesday evening, I was able to arrange for a special guest speaker to be with us to share what I truly believe to be a timely message for this church and the work the Lord is doing in and through us, so again I want to encourage you not to miss it.

Do you guys want to know who it is?

Cool! I’ll expect to see you see Wednesday night.

Open your bible’s with me to Ephesians chapter 3 and pray with me…Our Father in Heaven....

I want you to see something in our text this morning.

Verse 14 begins…Eph 3:14

For this reason....when you read those words....what do you want to know?....What reason, right.

What happened?

Verse One of our chapter starts the same way, Eph 3:1

So it begs the same question, what reason, what thing, what happened before this…Now if everyone of you attended every single Sunday, I might not review the ground we’ve covered and just keep plowing ahead.

Yet again, I still might because repetition is often our friend.

Paul has spent much of the first two chapters talking about the blessings we have in Christ.

Not future bank or payoff, or Heavenly reward, but the incredible riches that we have right now today.

Paul tells us that we were chosen, we have full adoption status, Acceptance in the Beloved Jesus, we have redemption, we have forgiveness from sin!, He has given us the revelation of the mystery of His will, We are sealed, and the Holy Spirit in my life and in your life, is the down-payment that guarantees that we will be in Heaven!

HE made us alive, we who were once dead in our trespasses and sins.

He saved us by grace through faith.

Christ because our peace, He took down the wall of separation between us and God.

We used to be far from God, separated from God, but now we can call Him Abba, Father, because of Jesus.

Not only was the wall of separation removed between us and God, but also between Jew and Gentile because through Jesus we both have access by one Spirit to the Father."

No longer Jew and no longer Gentile, but now Christians through the Cross of Christ...

SO Paul begins....for this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles....Eph 3:2-4

Tell us Paul, what is this mystery that you already wrote about briefly?

Just to clarify something Paul says in Verse 1…because in my introduction to this book I told you that Paul wrote this letter as a prisoner in Rome…and He says here that he is Eph 3:1

a prisoner of Christ Jesus…Paul is probably on house arrest.

If that was indeed the case he would have had some freedom to move about the house during the day, but still would have been guarded by Roman soldiers, 4 different shifts a day, and then often times they would have been chained at night.

Paul’s perspective was that his life no longer belonged to Him, his life belonged to Jesus.

So if he was a prisoner, then who is he to question?

He’s not the boss, he’s not in charge.

If he was in jail then God wanted him in jail, so he was a prisoner of Christ Jesus.

If he is set free, then God wanted him to be free to use him somewhere else, so he would be an Apostle - or one sent on a mission by Jesus Christ, slave or free, prisoner or missionary Paul belonged to Jesus.

He goes on Eph 3:2

Dispensation is not a word we use commonly today.

Well it’s used often in theological circles, perhaps you’ve heard the term dispensationalism, or maybe someone has asked you if you are a dispensationalist, and probably you didn’t really know, or you punched them because you thought they were insulting you.

Theologically, it is basically the belief that we interpret the Bible literally...

That God deals with humanity in a series of dispensations or administrations of time.

That He has a unique dispensation for Israel, and another for the church age, that the church has not replaced Isreal.

That God deals with people uniquely in the different dispensations of time.

It all works out in the theology books, but for us, today.

Do we all know what a snack machine is, or a soda machine?

Those things dispense stuff.

When you put the money in and push a button, you receive a particular dispensation.

A bottle of Pepsi as opposed to a bottle of Coke, because you have good taste.

Paul is describing his ministry as a dispensation, or a particular revelation of a mystery that he received, was dispensed to him for us....Eph 3:3-5

When Paul talks about a mystery, it is a bit different than what we think of a mystery today.

We might think of Sherlock Holmes, or depending upon how old you are…Scooby Doo and the Mystery Machine…In the Greek language here what Paul was talking about when he uses the word mystery is not the idea of being something for us to try to figure out or a puzzle for us to solve.

A mystery is something that isn’t know, and can’t be known, unless it is revealed by God.

So even when God reveals something it is still defined as a mystery as it can’t be know without that revelation from God.

But then Paul reveals what that mystery was, the mystery that was concealed in the Old Testament.

Eph 3:6-7

Paul calls himself a minister here, that is not a title of status of prestige, it simply means servant.

We get our word deacon from it.

And that is the roll of a deacon, they are to see the needs of the congregation.

The world literally is like a table waiter.

Minister, just means you should be serving even more people.

Back in 1 Corinthians, we read that Paul considered himself the least of the Apostle, look what he writes of himself here....Eph 3:8-9

Paul calls himself less than me, less than you…I don’t think this was false pride at all.

Consider again who he had been.

Born a Jew, a teacher of the Law, a Pharisee.

No doubt, felt and believed just as the other Jews did that the Gentiles were dogs, suitable only to flame the fires of Hell.

And now he was given this grace, to be able to share the Gospel with them that they might be saved.

That there would be fellowship between Jew and Gentile that they would become the church.

This mystery of the fellowship that God has now revealed, but why has this been hidden and why is it now revealed?

Verse 10 Eph 3:10-11

Understand what Paul is saying here, because it’s mind blowing.

To the intent, God always intended this, you being a part of the plan was not a mistake, not a surprise, and you didn’t get picked because someone else bombed out.

And it was so that the manifold wisdom of God, not just regular wisdom the manifold wisdom that of incredible intricacy, might be made know by who?

Who’s that?

You! Us.

That the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by you to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places.

Those spiritual forces around us Heavenly angels and fallen angels.

That is part of the your work of the ministry.

Don’t believe me, turn the page to chapter 4 where he starts talking about spiritual gifts.

Chapter 4 verse 11

"11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ," - Ephesians 4:11-12 NKJV

So my job is to equip YOU to do the work of the ministry, and part of that work is to glorify God by making known His manifold wisdom to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished (past tense, already did it) in Christ jesus our Lord!

Sound intimidating?

No way, verse 12 Eph 3:12

Paul now encourages them not to get too bummed out that he is in prison…Eph 3:13

He gang, it’s for your own good that I’m here.

I get to slow down and write to you, I get to encourage and build up the church…Paul wrote Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon all from jail.

Now do you guys remember Paul’s prayer for them in chapter one?

I hope so, I prayed it for you guys.

He prayed…Eph 1:17-20

Now Paul prays for them again…before I read it, I want to talk to you for a few minutes about prayer.

God tells us to pray without ceasing.

To be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication make your requests known to God, so that we can have peace that surpasses all of our understanding.

But why do we have to make our requests known, if God already knows everything?

He wants to talk to us and us to Him!

He uses it to make our will like His will.

It is a tool he gives us in warfare against the Devil…R.A. Torrey

When the devil sees a man or woman who really believes in prayer, who knows how to pray, and who really does pray, and, above all, when he sees a whole church on its face before God in prayer, he trembles as much as he ever did, for he knows that his day in that church or community is at an end.

Prayer changes things and it changes us!

Think about the human that you love the most and how much you treasure your relationship with them.

How close of a relationship would you have if you never ever or rarely ever talk with them?