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Ephesians 3:1-13
We have in the last few weeks seen a developing idea in this letter. First we had you were dead, now you are alive, last week you were aliens now you are citizens. This week we have a religious motif. You were outside but now you have been initiated. This takes us back to verses 15-23 where knowing is key
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. 18 I pray
that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the
hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance
in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who
believe.
The overriding message is that being ‘in Christ, transforms everything about you and your perception of the world.
Three times in this paragraph Paul uses the
word ‘mystery’: how the mystery was made known to me by revelation
(verse 3) … you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ
(verse 4) … to make all men see what is the plan of the mystery (verse
9). It is a key word for our understanding of the apostle Paul. We need to
realize that the English and Greek words do not have the same meaning. In
English a ‘mystery’ is something dark, obscure, secret, puzzling. What is
‘mysterious’ is inexplicable, even incomprehensible. The Greek word mystērion is different, however. Although
still a ‘secret’, it is no longer closely guarded but open. Originally, the
Greek word referred to a truth into which someone had been initiated. Indeed it
came to be used of the secret teachings of the heathen mystery religions,
teachings which were restricted to initiates, much like the Free Masons of
today. But in Christianity there are no esoteric ‘mysteries’ reserved for a
spiritual élite. On the contrary, the Christian ‘mysteries’ are truths, which,
although beyond human discovery, have been revealed by God and so now belong
openly to the whole church. It is a curiosity of human nature to like
mysteries. We have mystery guests in a
Question of Sport. We watch detective plays on TV, do our Sudoku’s , crosswords.
It satisfies our intellectual curiosity. As a result, religious leaders have
got in on the act. Initiation ceremonies and rituals are created to make
religion more interesting. Like the date of Easter, which has more to do with
astrology than Christianity. We actually celebrate the birth and death of Jesus
each Sunday as we gather round the Lord’s table and eat bread and drink wine in
remembrance that Christ died for us and rose again for us. The church has done
the religiosity bit so successfully that sometimes you cannot see Jesus for all
the ritual and mystery surrounding us. But God’s revelation is not like that. I have no special powers or
direct link. We have no special priestly caste. The Holy Spirit moves freely
among the people of God, revealing the truth, revealing Jesus. And that is what
Paul calls a mystery. But unlike the
mumbo-jumbo world of religion, In Christ the mystery is revealed. – God in
Christ reconciling the world to himself.
The key mystery that is revealed here is that the gospel is
for Gentiles, not just Jews. It may be a surprise to us that this needs
revelation but the early church had not spotted that Jesus included Gentiles in
the blessings of healing and faith. They assumed that Jesus was the Messiah,
which was correct, but that the Messiah was the Messiah of the Jews. It needed
direct intervention by God in a very important incident in Acts 10 & 11 to
show Peter that the gospel was to break out of the narrow bounds of Jewish
Messianic hope to a hope for the world. And that includes you and me. You may
have sometimes thought it strange that we read the Jewish Scriptures and tell
the great stories of the people of Israel. But that is because Christianity is
rooted in Judaism. We are heirs together
with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise
in Christ Jesus.
This passage begins with “For this reason…” and then look down to verse 14. “For this reason…” The original text is not divided into paragraphs, in fact it is without punctuation at all, so the sentences, paragraphs and even the division into individual words we make are entirely based on our understanding of the text. And this is one of the clues. Today we consider “For this reason…” which seems to only make sense in verse 7 ‘I became a servant of this gospel’. So we think that the bit between is a digression about how he became a Christian and an explanation of the mystery. He then explains his calling, rounding off with a plea to not be distressed by the fact he is in prison when writing.
Next week we see another calling in his life – to prayer.
“For this reason I kneel before the Father
So we start with For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—, and the rest of what he is saying about himself comes in verse 7
7 I became a servant of this gospel….
So verses 2-6 is a digression, explaining the mystery we are talking about. In addition verse 3 refers to Paul having written about his call which appears in Galatians 1:11-2:21. These letters were distributed around; they were never intended for just one church. In fact some think they were copied and topped and tailed for each specific church. They are messages from God to the church, not just one particular church.
So lets move on to verses 7-13.
What is Paul’s calling?
It is:
1. to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ,
2. and to make plain to everyone the
administration of this mystery
3. through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms,
Unsearchable
riches in Christ.
So the gospel is for Gentiles, for everyone and to the
Universe. That is a repeat of what we came across in chapter 2:6 And God raised us up with Christ and
seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, 7 in
order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his
grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. Have you noticed
that here we have unsearchable riches of Christ and incomparable riches of his
grace. We can’t help using extreme language, superlatives when is comes to
writing about Jesus and the salvation he offers.
Of course there is a
contradiction here. The mystery is revealed but the riches are unsearchable.
Our calling , like Paul , is to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. But
like all things we have to start somewhere. They are beyond our understanding
but God has revealed to the key elements and that is what we preach. That God
loves us in spite of our sin, that Jesus died for us to bring forgiveness of
sin and that the Holy Spirit enables us to understand our limited minds can
comprehend. Just when you are overwhelmed by the glory of our salvation, the
Holy Spirit opens up new vistas of that glory. That is what heaven is all about
- an ever-expanding understanding of the riches of God’s grace to us in Christ
Jesus.
Administration has turned up here twice and possibly needs
explaining. After all Administration is what the office does, isn’t it? The word the NIV translates administration
is a word for stewarding. Its what the servants in the house do. Here it
carries the sense of how it is carried out. You have heard how God’s grace came
to you in verse 2; in verse 9 it is how the mystery of grace is applied to all
people. So our task is not only to tell about the grace of God in Christ Jesus
but to explain how people can receive it. So along with our telling what God
has done we explain that God invites you to respond in repentance and faith.
That you turn away from sin and trust him for salvation, new life and victory
over sin and death. That you invite the Hoy Spirit to enter into your life and
transform it into a place where Christ reigns supreme.
How is the mystery revealed?
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.
Paul has already said that the revelation comes from the Holy Spirit in verse 5.
it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets.
As always, throughout history, the Holy Spirit speaks through prophets Hebrews 1:1.
In the past God spoke to our
ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2
but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son,
We are to speak as representatives of the body of Christ. This is God’s chosen way of communicating the mystery to the world. It may seem a crazy notion to us, we can see how the church is often anything but a good example to the world but this is God’s way. To use you and me to tell the good news. And get this, when you share Jesus with a friend or neighbour, a colleague or relation, you are part of God’s eternal purpose. That purpose centres of what he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. So does our message. It is all about Jesus.
But we move on.
12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
In Christ we have freedom and confidence to approach God. Faith is essential because we are constantly bombarded by the devil with alternative answers. Freedom and confidence to pray and to rest in his love