Ephesians 3:1-13

Rachael and I want to thank you for the way you have welcomed us to Phoenix and to Whitton Avenue Bible Church. From help unloading the truck to a large basket full of practical goodies you have made us feel at home and like family. We are very thankful to be here, and look forward to getting to know you all.

As you get to know me you will discover various quirks mingled with general goofiness, but one particular habit I have that drives Rachael nuts is my propensity to interrupt myself. It’s not that I—even though sometimes I might—seriously, though, you shouldn’t—well, let’s just say my mind works faster than—not that I’m extolling my mind—faster than my mouth.

Even though this habit of mine drives my wife batty, I take great comfort in knowing that I am in good company, as this morning’s text shows. The apostle Paul begins his sentence with “For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—” then he goes off on a rich, weighty self-interruption. Then look at verse 14: “For this reason…” and he finishes his sentence this time with a beautiful prayer that Stevo will open for us next week.

So what is it that made Paul interrupt himself? Read the words with me again, “For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—”
If you read Paul a certain way, you might get the impression that he is saying “Hey, you Gentiles, this is all your fault! It was because of you that they threw me into prison!” Now, it is true that Paul was put in prison by zealous Jews because he preached to the Gentiles salvation by grace through faith, apart from the works of the law. Yet the last thing Paul wanted to do was make the Ephesians feel guilty about this, so he goes to great pains—12 verses’ worth—to convince the Ephesians not to feel bad about his situation. Verse 13 sums it up best: “So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.”

So how does Paul put the Ephesians at ease about his imprisonment on their behalf? Better yet, how did Paul think about his imprisonment? How would you if you were Paul? You may be relieved to know that I have never been in prison before, but if I were, I think I would ask questions like, “Was it worth it? Was the crime I committed worth the consequences? Are there some things that are move valuable than my freedom?” These must have been the types of questions that Paul was asking himself, because his explanation to the Ephesians went straight to the heart of what got him imprisoned in the first place: his gospel ministry to the Gentiles.

Asking questions like “was it worth it?” introduces the issue of scope. And
Paul’s understanding of the scope of his ministry was crucial to how he coped with suffering and persecution. Paul had a Rocky Mountain-sized view of his ministry. I assume most of you have seen the Colorado Rockies, either in pictures or in person. We had the privilege of coming through Colorado and New Mexico on our way here from Minneapolis, and it we enjoyed a spectacular sight as we traveled south on I-25 with the Rockies to our right. And it’s that kind of grandeur—like a range of gigantic mountains—that Paul saw in his gospel ministry to the Gentiles.

I want to look at three words in this morning’s text that explain why Paul had such a grand sense of scope of his ministry: mystery, gospel, and grace.

Mystery

The first aspect of Paul’s ministry that stood as tall as a mountain in his mind is this word, mystery. Read with me verses 2-5, where Paul’s self-interruption begins, “assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 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.”

The word “mystery” sparks different connotations in different minds. Some may think of Agatha Christy novels or Perry Mason episodes—whodunits where the true murderer or thief remains a mystery until the sleuth puts all the evidence together and nails the culprit. For others mystery might call to mind points of intrigue or fascination, like UFOs, the Bermuda Triangle, or intuition between twins. But when Paul uses the word “mystery,” he is referring to something that was hidden that has now been revealed. A key verse in understanding the concept of mystery occurs earlier in Ephesians. Listen as I read Ephesians 1:9-10, “making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”

From Old Testament times God made it plain, specifically in the prophets, that he was redeeming a people for himself and that he would one day renew the earth, where his people would dwell with him forever. What was not plain was the manner in which he would do this, and now that has been revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. God became man, dwelt among his people, died for his people, and was raised from the dead, initiating a new creation, a new humanity, and one day, when he returns—a new heavens and new earth. Jesus is the center of the mystery—the plan that was hidden and has now been revealed. He is the one through whom God is accomplishing his eternal plan.

This morning’s text deals with one aspect of God’s plan, specifically, God’s plan to bring Gentiles into his covenant community. Read verse 6 with me: “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.”

From our vantage point of history we have a major disadvantage for feeling the incredible shock and weight of what Paul is saying. Most, if not all of us in this room are Gentiles, that is, we are not Jewish by birth. And many of us are descendants of generations of Christians. Being a Gentile and being a member of God’s Covenant community are not at odds for us.

But put yourself in the shoes of a first century Jew watching this unfold. For over two thousand years worshippers of Yahweh had one common ethnic identification: Jewish. For a Gentile to be a worshipper of Yahweh required that he be circumcised, obey Kosher food laws, observe Sabbath, along with all the other commands in Torah. But then this Jesus character shows up on the scene, challenges the Rabbis’ understanding of the law, and the next thing you know, the very Gentiles that you were taught to avoid are worshipping your God, using Jewish titles like Messiah, and calling you brother or sister. In today’s terms it would be like coming to church next Sunday only to find the sanctuary full of Middle Eastern men and women wearing traditional Muslim dress, sitting on the ground, and chanting prayers to Jesus. We might be excited about them coming to Christ, but we would certainly want to set them straight on how to do things around here! In short, uncircumcised, pork-eating Gentiles being a part of God’s covenant community was, for Paul’s day, a historical novelty.

There is another aspect of the mystery that gives it a grand, mountainous scope. Look with me at verses 9-10: “and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” This is one of the more astonishing verses in the Bible. When God chose to unveil his eternal plan, he didn’t send a memo to Satan and his minions or to the angels for that matter. He decided that he would allow the formation and growth of the church to tell the story. So when Peter saw the Spirit fall on Cornelius’ family, it was as much news to angels and demons as it was to Peter. The “rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” had no edge over humans in knowing what God was up to in sending his Son to earth. The church is the trumpet through which God said, “I am opening the covenant doors to all nations, not just to Israel.”

Do you see the grandeur that Paul saw in this? He knew that he was at a key turning point in history—not just the history of Israel or the history of religion—the history of the world. It was like the moment Guttenberg invented the printing press, or the first 12 seconds that Orville and Wilbur Wright kept an airplane in the air, or the moment it dawned on somebody to move the concept of a computer internet from the world of science and academia to the coffee shop and home. These were huge turning points in history, and these men felt the weight of what they were doing. But Paul wasn’t looking at a molehill of technology or politics or sports—he was looking at the Rockies of an eternity-impacting ministry: God’s covenant blessings and promises, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the unsearchable riches of Christ—ALL given now to the Gentiles! This for Paul was a jaw-dropping vista which made imprisonment a very small thing.

Gospel

The next mountain peak Paul was beholding from his prison cell is that of the gospel. Recall that verse 6 tells us that the mystery of Gentile inclusion happened “in Christ Jesus, through the gospel.”

How do the “mystery” and “gospel” relate? The gospel is the means by which the mystery takes place. In other words, the mystery is God’s plan—now made public—to include the Gentiles as part of his Covenant community. The way he carries out that plan is through the gospel, which is the good news that Jesus Christ died for our sins, rose from the dead to give us new life, and is returning to complete his new creation work.

For that reason, the significance of the words, “in Christ Jesus” cannot be overemphasized. It is in Christ Jesus that Gentiles become fellow heirs along with Jews, in Christ Jesus Gentiles become members of the same body as Jews, and in Christ Jesus Gentiles partake of the promise along with Jews. And not only this, it is in Christ Jesus that God is creating a new humanity and will recreate this earth and will establish a place of eternal harmony between God, his people, and his creation. All of this happens through the gospel—all in Christ Jesus.

I may add redundancy to my list of quirks by pointing this out, but let me make sure I keep one point clear. The reason Paul was in prison was because he preached to the Gentiles that they could be right with God through faith in Jesus Christ—not circumcision, not Sabbath observance, not being Jewish—only through the crucified and risen Messiah. This message infuriated Jewish religious leaders of Paul’s day, and when he wouldn’t let up with his preaching they incited a mob against him and would have had him dead if the Romans wouldn’t have stopped them and arrested Paul.

But Paul did not despise his imprisonment because Christ was precious to Paul. The gospel was sweet to Paul. And if loving Christ and preaching his gospel meant prison for Paul, then bring it on, because Christ is eternally glorious, and prison is short and easy if you are standing on the brink of and eternity with this Savior.

Grace

The final mountain peak we will explore in this morning’s text is that of grace. Usually we hear the word grace used in reference to our salvation, like the reference in chapter 2 that we are “saved by grace through faith.” One of the things grace means is “gift,” which we certainly believe our salvation is, but Paul uses “grace” in this context to refer to his ministry. In other words, he views his gospel ministry to the Gentiles as a gift that God gave him. Look again at verse 2, “assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you.” Now look with me at verses 7 and 8, “Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.”

One of the basic rules of Bible study is that if the author repeats something, it must be important. This is a prime example. Three times Paul references the grace that God gave him. One time he uses redundant language to drive home the point. If we inserted the word “gift” for “grace,” which would be in line with it’s meaning, the middle of verse 7 would read, “the gift of God’s gift which was given to me.”

For Paul, being in prison for preaching the gospel is like having to pay taxes on a house that was given to you. Sure you have to pay some property taxes, but you were given a house! Free! A house! Taxes are a small, albeit unpleasant, consequence for an extraordinary gift. For Paul, prison was a similarly small thing in light of the magnanimous gift of gospel ministry.

This is probably a good point to compare Paul’s attitude toward the gospel ministry to our own. Do we view the gospel as message of cosmic proportions—the means by which God will fulfill his plan to reconcile all of creation to himself? Do we view the gospel in mountain-range magnitude, realizing that the gospel affects commerce, nature, foster care, entertainment, social justice, parenting, and just about everything else of any significance? Or do we view the gospel in a narrow, individualistic, compartmentalized way as if the gospel ends when I don’t have to go to hell?

How do we view gospel ministry? Do we, like Paul, view it as a gift to be cherished at all costs—even imprisonment or execution? Do we feel the unspeakable honor that God would make us his ambassadors to our families, neighborhoods, workplaces, and even to the unreached peoples of the world? Does it baffle us why God would entrust to us a message so precious, so eternally impacting, so valuable as the gospel? Can we say with Paul “I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes”? Can we say it at the cubicle, the barber shop, the political rally, the parent-teacher meeting, or to the guy who asks us for five bucks at the gas station?

How do we view God’s saving activity in groups of people that aren’t like us? Do we extend the same flexibility that was shown to our Gentile ancestors? What if God began a massive spiritual awakening in the homosexual community, and dozens of born-again, former homosexuals visited our church? What if God ignited a revival in the homeless population and they chose our church to attend? Is our vision of God’s eternal plan wide enough and high enough and grand enough and glorious enough to embrace people who aren’t like us but follow our Savior?