It's a Mystery

Thanks guys, good afternoon everyone. Hasn't it been a tremendous service, real joy to be here.

And I think nothing I can say in the next few minutes will be nearly as powerful as what Sean said and what he did.

If you go in and forget everything I said and remember what Sean said, I'll be delighted.

But I was thinking, if Paul, who wrote the words we're going to be looking at today, had been here,

he might well have said that was exactly what I was thinking about when I wrote Ephesians 3.

Here's someone thousands of miles away from me, thousands of years later, wasn't born into the Jewish religion,

but he's come to know God and God's grace and he's come to love Jesus and know everything that comes through him.

So I think the passage we're looking at today is very relevant to what's happened this morning.

What's happened this morning is very much Paul's vision being realised.

Now we're looking at Ephesians chapter 3, so for those who haven't been around for the last few weeks,

Ephesians 3 · chapter mention

just a quick reminder of what Ephesians is all about.

Ephesus is a city in the south-west of Turkey these days.

Paul was there for quite a while when he was one of his missionary journeys.

He preached to them about Jesus and he helped them to grow as a church.

And a while later, when he was probably in prison in Rome, he wrote them this letter.

It has two parts to it.

Chapters 1 to 3 are all about what God has done.

All the great things that God has done and that God gives to us through Jesus.

And then chapters 4 to 6 are how we should respond to that.

What our lives should be like in church, in our families, where we work, in the battles of life.

Chapter 3 is the kind of bit in the middle.

Paul starts chapter 3, looking back in chapter 2 and saying,

because of this, and then he kind of thinks,

well, hold on, I've got something I need to say here before I go on to my prayer,

which comes up later in the chapter.

It's almost as if Paul thinks,

I've been so positive about my Christian faith, about all that God has done for us.

I'm going to be so positive about what God can do through people in the church.

But maybe they're sitting there thinking, as they listen to this letter,

well, how can he be so positive when he's in prison?

How can he think everything's wonderful when he's been arrested for being a Christian

and he's languishing in Rome?

And the first few verses of chapter 3 are effectively Paul saying,

this is what I'm about.

This is why it's so important to me that I'm able to go and tell people about Jesus.

And actually the fact that I'm in prison really doesn't matter to me.

Don't worry about me.

What's important is what God is doing.

So we looked last week with Peter Graindra at the first few verses of the chapter.

We're going to break in at verse 7 and go through to verse 13.

So Ephesians chapter 3 verse 7, and Paul writes,

Ephesians 3:7

I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me

through the working of his power.

Although I am less than the least of all God's people,

this grace was given me to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ

and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery,

which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.

His intent was that now through the church,

the manifold wisdom of God should remain known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms,

according to his eternal purpose, which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.

In him and through faith in him, we may approach God with freedom and confidence.

I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you,

which are your glory.

I pray God will help us to understand what he wants us to learn from him this morning.

I think most people like a good detective story.

I don't know what your favourite is of the ones up there, if any of them,

but we quite like to watch the telly or some of us read books

and to solve a detective puzzle through them.

Our preference, I suppose, depends on how gritty we like it to be,

how intellectual we like it to be, how difficult to solve the mystery,

and maybe for some of us how Scottish it is as well.

But I think there are four things that you get in just about every murder mystery.

First thing, obviously, is you get a death.

Someone dies and they don't deserve to.

So the first thing is a death, and then attached to that death, there's a mystery.

Who did it?

Who was it who did the murder?

And there are usually lots and lots of suspects,

and people are running around saying, well, who was it?

What's happened?

Then, towards the end, you get the revelation.

So, Fado or Rebus or whoever, they come up with the explanation.

They say, this is what's happened.

I've worked it out, and the criminal is caught.

And, of course, after that, they end up in prison, if not something worse.

I think when we're looking at the verses we're doing today,

having these four things in our mind will help us.

Now, it's a bit of a kind of topsy-turvy mystery that we're looking at.

There is a death that we're going to think about, but there's no corpse.

At least after the third day, there was no corpse.

There is a mystery, but it's not a whodunit.

Everyone knew who had done the deed,

but there's a mystery about why, what was really behind it.

There's a revelation, but it's a revelation that some people find really difficult to accept,

although it's clear enough the way Paul writes it.

Some people can't accept it.

Oh, no, in the prison at the end, it's not the person who killed that goes to prison,

it's the person who revealed what has happened is Paul, who's in prison.

But I think the four things, death, mystery, revelation, prison, if we can remember these,

will have the gist of what's in what we're looking at.

We're going to do them kind of in reverse order.

Peter Granger last week did things in reverse.

I'm going to repeat that as well.

So we're going to start with the prison.

Now, probably Paul wasn't actually in a dungeon in Rome.

Most likely he was under house arrest, so he wasn't able to go out.

He was restricted to his movements, but he was a prisoner of the Roman government.

And he could imagine the Ephesians thinking,

poor Paul, he's been put in prison, isn't that terrible after all he's done for the gospel?

And Paul says, don't worry about me.

And he says in the chapter four things about himself.

Back in verse 1, which you didn't read just now, he says he's a prisoner.

But he doesn't say I'm a prisoner of the Jews or I'm a prisoner of the Romans.

He says, I'm the prisoner of Christ Jesus.

In other words, he had been put in prison because of his faith in the Lord Jesus.

And he saw that as part of living for Jesus.

Sean talked a little bit about how difficult it can be to be a Christian sometimes.

And for Paul, it was difficult.

And it meant ultimately as part of living for and serving Jesus that he was in prison.

Second thing Paul says, and this is the start of what we read today, he says, I'm a servant.

I became a servant of this gospel.

You could never accuse Paul of wanting to build himself up.

He would talk about himself as being a slave or as being a servant.

And he saw his job as not being to be seen as the great leader that people really looked up to and respected.

What he saw was his duty to serve others and to serve Jesus by going and telling them all that God had done.

And that becomes even more striking in verse 8.

Because Paul says, I'm undeserving.

He says, I'm less than the least of all the Lord's people.

So in other words, Paul is saying, think about a Christian.

Think about the Christian who you think least deserves to be a Christian.

Someone who's done some really terrible things.

Sort of a mass murderer, a really immoral person, something like that.

Think about that person and you might think, well, how could they become a Christian?

And when you've thought of that, think of me.

And I'm less deserving than they are.

I don't deserve anything from God.

Now we look at Paul and we think, Paul's great.

Paul was the first real leader of the church, certainly among the Gentiles.

He was the one who took the church from Israel and through God's help, he took it throughout the known world.

He's one of the great leaders of church history.

Paul says, don't think about me like that.

Think about me as being less than the least of all God's people.

Now maybe when he said that, he was thinking about his history.

Because Paul started out persecuting Christians.

He held the coats when Stephen was stoned to death.

He got letters to go and to arrest other Christians and put them to death.

And maybe he was thinking, well, that was a dreadful thing to do and most people wouldn't have done that.

That makes me the worst of the worst before I became a Christian.

But maybe also it's just Paul thinking like all of us should.

That I don't really deserve anything that God has done for me.

I don't know if you've thought, I know I certainly have.

I don't deserve to be a Christian.

Even though I might sometimes do my best.

Some of the things I do, I think, how can I do that and be part of a Christian church?

And if you think that, then you've got absolutely the right idea of what Christian faith is all about.

Christian faith isn't about me saying, I'm good, I can do things that will please God.

Christian faith is recognizing that there's nothing I can do that would deserve anything from God.

Anything that God gives me is only through his goodness and his grace.

Like Paul, I'm undeserving.

Like Paul, perhaps I could say it myself, that I'm less than the least of all God's people.

And then finally, Paul says he's suffering.

That's right at the end of the passage.

I'm suffering for you, my suffering's for you, which are your glory.

Interesting thing he said, my suffering's for you, which are your glory.

I think he's saying that because he's suffering in the way he is,

that shows how important it is that people hear the gospel

and that the Ephesians and others who come to trust the gospel,

their glory is revealed from the fact that they have come to know Jesus

and that Paul is the one who has done it and so Christ is glorified through him.

So Paul's position.

Paul says, I don't matter.

You may feel sorry for me because I'm suffering.

I'm not feeling sorry for myself because what happens to me isn't that important.

I want just to have God's plan in my life and to follow that out

and to allow him to make sure things work out for me.

That's a tremendous attitude to have.

In our society today, people want to be important.

They want to be liked.

They want other people to think that they're people of some significance.

General election coming out.

That's what all the politicians want to think,

how great they are and how important they are.

For Christians, we shouldn't be thinking that way.

For Christians, the important thing is that Jesus is glorified

and we really don't, in that sense, matter.

But if Paul says, I'm not important,

he also says, what I'm doing is really, really important.

So I've called it Paul's passion.

And Paul says, although I'm insignificant,

God is doing the most amazing thing through me.

And a number of things he says about how God's doing that.

He talks about God's grace, talks about God's grace twice.

Grace means God giving us something that we don't deserve.

So we deserve one thing and God gives us something else.

And Paul's saying, I really didn't deserve to be the person

to do the gospel throughout the world

and to preach about Jesus to others.

But because God loved me so much

and because God called me and gave me a purpose in life,

by God's grace, I'm going to go out and fulfill that purpose.

He then talks about God's power, the working of his power.

The power of God that changes people's lives,

that takes us from people who really don't know God

and have nothing to do with God

and would want to do things that were wrong before God

and transforms us into people who can live for Jesus

and be his servants and disciples.

That's the power of the gospel,

that God changes lives and makes us different

from what we'd otherwise be.

And then two tremendous things that Paul talks about.

He talks about the boundless riches of Christ.

The fact that if we know Jesus, if we are trusting in him,

as he said earlier, we are heirs of all the good things

that God has given us.

And in this life, we can never stop finding out more

about the greatness of Jesus and all that he has done for us.

And better translation than boundless

might have been the infinite riches of Christ.

So much that we can never understand everything that Jesus is

and has done at least not until we get to heaven

and we understand a bit more.

And then finally, he talks about God's wisdom

and God's purpose, the manifold wisdom of God.

The word manifold is kind of slightly old-fashioned words,

but maybe think of it as multicolored.

The word that's used here is more or less the same word

that's used in the Greek Bible for Joseph's coat of many colors,

a multicolored coat.

Or it's the word that you'd use if you had a diamond.

And you looked at a diamond,

you saw all the colors of the rainbow coming out and sparkling,

and you think, wow, that's fantastic.

That looks brilliant.

And Paul's saying the more and more you look at what God says

and at his wisdom,

the more and more you realize just how wonderful it is.

That he could take people like us,

that he could send his son to take our place

and to change our lives

and he could make us into something potentially beautiful for him.

So Paul says,

I don't matter,

but I'm really passionate about what God has given me to do.

Again, it would challenge us,

do we have that kind of attitude?

The attitude that says,

me, I'm not important,

but God has given me something to do.

He's called me by his grace.

He's allowed me to serve him.

And I really, really want to do that in the best way I can.

A lot of Christians are kind of Sunday morning Christians.

We come along to church

and we may do one or two things in our Christian life and in the church,

but really it's just a small part of what we do.

We couldn't be called really passionate about it.

Some of us perhaps are a lot more involved.

We do lots of things in the church,

but in a sense we do things because they're there to be done

rather than we have a real sense of God having called us to do them.

Paul's real sense was that God had called him

to reveal to the world what he had done through Jesus to the Gentiles,

the non-Jews, as well as the Jews.

And I would challenge all of us, if we're Christians,

if we know and love the Lord Jesus,

what is our real passion?

What is the thing that God has called us to do

and said, Ian, this is what I want you to do for me

and I will really bless you if you do it.

And if we really seek for what God wants us to do,

he will direct us and will enable us to do great things for him.

I spent quite a long time on that first point.

It won't be so long on the others,

but I felt it was really important to think about

Paul doesn't matter,

but Paul's calling really matters to him.

Let's move on and we're going to think about the revelation.

Now, a lot of what Paul's writing here is to explain to the Ephesian church

that his job is to reveal the mystery that God has brought.

And he has two main groups that he's going to reveal it to.

So the first thing he says,

it is being revealed to the whole world.

So in verse 6, he says,

the mystery is through the gospel.

The Gentiles are ears together with Israel,

members together in one body and so on.

That is the mystery.

And then in verse 8, he says,

the grace was given me to preach to the Gentiles,

the boundless riches of Christ,

to say to people who weren't born as Jews,

God is still interested in you through Jesus.

And then in verse 9,

to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery.

Whether you're born as a Jew in the Jewish faith

or whether you're born outside the Jewish faith,

Paul says,

what I have to say is relevant to everyone.

That's why I put a multicultural picture up there.

The church isn't just a select group of people.

Originally, most of them were Jews

because it started in Israel.

But it's gone throughout the world.

And you can look around the church today

and you can see people of lots of different ages.

You can see people of different races.

You can see people of different social standing

and wealth and so on.

And we all come together

because we know that God welcomes all of us in Jesus.

Whatever we are, whatever we've done,

whatever our background,

God wants us to know Jesus and to love him.

God's revelation is to the whole world.

But it actually goes beyond that.

It goes also to spiritual beings.

So in verse 10,

Paul says,

in 10th was now through the church,

the manifold wisdom of God

should be made known to the rulers and authorities

in the heavenly realms.

Now let's not get into too much detail

about who these rulers and authorities are.

Let's just recognize that there are spectators

outside our world,

those spiritual beings who are looking on

and observing what's happening in our church.

Maybe good,

they may be bad,

but they can see what's happening.

And Paul says for them,

what's being revealed to them

is not through what I say.

It's not through the explanation that I give.

What is being revealed to them

is through God's people.

It is through the church.

And they can look on and say,

isn't this an amazing thing

that God has done?

It's a kind of show and tell

that people can look,

or these beings can look,

and they can marvel

at all that God has done

in bringing so many different people

from different walks of life

and different backgrounds together

and revealing to all of them

his love for them.

So Paul's revelation

to the whole world

beyond that as well.

What about the mystery?

Now we looked at the mystery

in quite a lot of detail last week,

those of us who are here,

so I'm not going to go into

a great deal of detail about that.

But just a reminder,

the key I think is verse 6.

The mystery is that the Gentiles,

the non-Jews,

are heirs together with Israel,

so they inherit the same things

the Israelites did

if they trust in Jesus.

Mystery, second part,

is that we're all members of one body

if we know Jesus.

And the third part is

we share together

in his promises.

And then Paul brings it

a bit together again

in verse 12.

And he says,

In him,

through faith in him,

we may approach God

with freedom

and confidence.

That is the root

of what Paul is saying.

Now if you go back

to the Old Testament,

the Jews were God's special people,

but they really couldn't

approach him with freedom

and confidence

in the way

that we can.

Only once a year

is anyone able to go

into the most holy place

in the Jewish religion,

in the temple,

in the tabernacle,

the high priest,

with a great deal of ceremony

to go into the presence of God

once a year.

If we know Jesus,

if we love Jesus,

we can go any time

into God's presence.

He is there listening for us,

waiting for us,

interested in us,

and we can do it

with freedom

and confidence.

There is no barrier

if we know Jesus,

if we love Jesus,

to going into

God's presence.

And it doesn't matter,

let's repeat,

it doesn't matter

what our background is,

doesn't matter

where our home is,

doesn't matter

race,

creed,

whatever,

if we know Jesus,

if we love Jesus,

we can come into

God's presence.

So that's the mystery.

So we're going to end

with the death.

Now Paul doesn't really

talk about the death here,

but it's kind of overall

and it's assumed

that his people

who are listening to him

or reading this

will understand

what the death is about.

It's the death of Jesus,

of course.

It's the death of Jesus

on the cross at Calvary.

And that is the thing

that brought Jews

and Gentiles together

and gave everyone

the opportunity

to know God

and to have a relationship

with him.

Just two things

I want to point to

about the cross.

Two key things

I think we need to know

about what happened

through the cross

of the Lord Jesus.

The first thing is

when Jesus died

on the cross,

he was taking my place.

I've talked a bit

about the sin,

the bad things

that we all have in us

and that because God

is just

and because God

is holy,

we should be punished

for all the wrong things

we've done.

When Jesus went

to the cross,

when he died

on the cross,

he took all these

wrong things

on himself.

So my sins,

all the wrong things

in my life

that I've done,

Jesus took the punishment

for them.

People may have thought

that he was being

cruelly executed

by the Romans,

that he'd been betrayed

by the Jews,

both of them true,

but the real purpose

of Jesus going to the cross

was so that he could

take my place,

so that he could

take my sins,

so that I wouldn't

have to be punished

for all the wrong

things I've done.

Jesus took my place

on the cross.

Then the second thing

that the cross tells us

is that Jesus

is the only way

to God.

There is nothing

that I could do

myself

that would

cancel out

all the wrong things

I've done.

I could try to live

as good a life

as I possibly could,

I could try to be good

to other people

and be a real

humanitarian type person

and really concerned

about everyone else

and I wouldn't begin

to scratch the surface

of all the wrong things

that I've done.

There is no way

I myself

can find my way

to God.

The only way

to get to God,

the only way

to enjoy all the things

that Paul's talking about

in these verses

is through the Lord Jesus

and through his death.

Recognize that if I

am inadequate,

that Jesus died

on the cross

to take my place,

that my sins

were laid on him

and that he was buried

and he's risen again,

that he's alive today

and that he is able

to bring me

to God.

So two things

about the death

of the Lord Jesus.

Remember he took our place

and he is

the only way

to God.

So let's just finish

by reminding ourselves

what we've talked about.

We thought

first of all

about the prison,

Paul the prisoner

and the fact

that for him

he wasn't important

but the gospel was.

The task that God

had given him to do

was vitally important.

And the challenge there

for those of us

who know Jesus

is have we got

a real passion

for serving the Lord

or are we just

doing our bit

and are we perhaps

trying to be seen

to be important

when actually

we're not as committed

as perhaps

we should be.

We thought about

the revelation

about the fact

that all around

the world

people have come

to know Jesus

on the same basis

of putting their

trust in him

and even those

who are outside

this world

can look on

and can marvel

at what God

has done.

We thought about

that great mystery

of God bringing

the Jews

and the Gentiles

together

and giving them

something that was

much more wonderful

than the Jews

ever had

in the Old Testament

and we thought

of the cross

of the Lord Jesus

of how he took

our place

and of how

only through him

can we find

a way to God.

If you know

Christ this morning

if you know

the Lord Jesus

be challenged

by what Sean

has done

and by what he said

by someone

who has said

I am fully

committed to Jesus

and want to show

everyone that

and consider

your commitment

and your passion

for serving Jesus.

If you don't yet

know Jesus

if you're not a Christian

again think of

what Sean has done

and the differences

made in his life.

Think about

the cross of the Lord

Jesus' death

for us

that he took

your place

that he's the way

to God

and come and put

your trust

in him.

I invite you

as John did

if you want

to look further

to take the book

the 3 to 1 Gospel

or talk to one of us

who have been involved

in the service today.

If God's been

speaking to you

make sure

that you respond

and that you go away

knowing and loving

the Lord Jesus.

let's just pray together.

Our Father

we thank you

for your word to us.

We thank you

for this tremendous

truth that Paul

brings to us

that everyone

without exception

can know the grace

of the Lord Jesus

if they simply

put their trust

in him

and accept

what he has done

for them.

We thank you

for the church

which is the visible

evidence of that

that spiritual being

can look on

and can marvel

at the wisdom

and the riches

of God.

Help us to

understand

what you have

to say to us

help us to respond

appropriately.

We again thank you

for Sean

we thank you

for his very clear

testimony

about the Lord Jesus

and we pray

that you will continue

to be with him

as he would seek

to live for Christ

and to serve him.

We thank you

for your presence

and our time together

we commit ourselves

to you now

in Jesus name.

Amen.