Battle Ready: " Mystery Solved": Ephesians 3:4-6 Pastor Daniel Reese

If you have your Bibles, we're gonna be in Ephesians chapter three

We're gonna knock out three more verses today. We'll start in verse four here in just a minute

A mystery lover took took his place in

The theater for opening night, but his seat was way far in the back back row Baptist if you will

He's far from the stage. So this man he calls the usher forward usher to him and he whispered listen

I love a good mystery. I

Been looking forward to this night for for so long. However in order to really

Appreciate the play I need to be farther forward

Because I want to notice all the clues and all the nuances

So if there's any chance that you can get me closer to the stage, I'll give you a really good tip

Okay, and so the usher nodded and said he would be back shortly and looking forward

To a large tip the usher began talking to his co-workers in the box office hoping to find some closer seats

Within with just three minutes left before the play started

He found an open ticket at will call that was unclaimed

Returning to the man in the back of the theater. He whispered follow me follow me

I got you a better seat the usher led the man to the second row and

Proudly pointed out the empty seat in the middle

Thanks so much said the theater goer the seat is perfect

He then handed the usher a quarter

The usher looked down at that quarter leaned over and whispered the butler did it

Now most of us have a good mystery especially when the revelation of the mystery comes at the appropriate time, right?

There is a sense in which our walk with God is a mystery

And fortunately for us God reveals that mystery to us in just the right time

That's the point Paul makes here as he continues writing his letter to this church in Ephesus

Let's read our passage this morning. It says in verse 4 when you read this

You can perceive my insight into the mystery of the Christ

Which was not made known to the sons of men and other generations

And as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit

This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs members of the same body and partakers of the promise in Christ

Through the gospel

Last week we discovered that when Paul uses the word mystery

It means something quite differently than than how we might use it today

In addition to the seven times that he's going to use that word in this letter to the Ephesians

Paul uses this word eight other times in his other letters and in each case the word mystery is

Describing something that God has revealed in the past that he is now choosing to reveal more fully now

The specific mystery that Paul is writing about here is the fact that the Jews and Gentiles have been

Brought together in the church through Jesus Christ. It is a mystery because it was revealed

In the past there was a concept that it was revealed in part in the past

But had now been but it had been fully made known through other generations as we saw briefly

Last week Paul and his fellow Jews were completely

Were not completely in the dark in regards to the Gentiles being blessed through the Jews

It wasn't a mystery that that the Gentiles and the Jews would be together

We can trace that concept all the way back to Genesis 12 when God tells Abram now

The Lord said to Abram go from your country and your kindred in your father's house to the land that I will show you and

I will make of you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing

I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you

I will curse and in you all the families of the earth shall be

Blessed that's the promise and so it was always God's plan to bless all the peoples of the earth

including the Gentiles

Through the offspring of Abraham the Jews

But until Jesus came to the earth and he died on the cross and he rose up from the grave

There was no way that any human could have possibly understood how God was going to accomplish that

And so before Jesus Paul and his fellow Jews

Did believe that the Gentiles could receive the promise of God

but only by becoming Jews and observing all the Jewish laws including

circumcision

It was always God's plan to bring the Jews and the Gentiles together

Not not but not by requiring one group to convert to the other

But by creating an entirely new group of people called the church in which both groups would be identified

Not by the old labels of Jew and Gentile

But by the name of the one who made it possible for them to become one Jesus

So we've already seen in chapter 2 as we've gone through Ephesians that Jesus broke down all the walls that that divided us that

Divided the Jews from the Gentiles but Paul emphasizes once again in this passage

Just how completely Jesus has removed those barriers in Jesus

The Jews and the Gentiles are equal partners. They have equal access to God

Because of what Jesus has done for them. Now, I think when I use the words Jew and Gentile

That it might not resonate with some of you

It's important to understand what Paul is saying here because it affects all of us in this room

If you are not Jewish you are a Gentile

You have to understand that in the Bible there are two people groups. There's Jews and there's everyone else

And so when the scripture refers to Gentiles, it's referring to

Christians it's referring to Muslims Mormons Hindus Catholics Protestants and atheists

It's everybody else

Everyone that is not Jewish is a Gentile in this passage here

Paul describes three aspects of the mystery of joining together Jews and Gentiles in the church

And so this is what is revealed. We are heirs together

Paul seems to be thinking back to his prayer in chapter 1 where he prayed that his readers would know the riches of God's glorious

inheritance to the saints

You'll remember that when we looked at the passage we determined that inheritance that Paul wrote about

Includes both the idea that we will one day experience the complete fulfillment of God

Pouring all his spiritual blessings into our lives and the idea that we are God's inheritance

We were precious to him as his children and Christ both the Jews and the Gentiles share equally in the inheritance

If it wasn't for Jesus that would be impossible

We would have to convert to Judaism

men you would have to be circumcised or

If that happened to you in the hospital a long time ago when you were born you would have to be cut again

Ow

In Jesus we are coheirs with the Gentiles men should thank God for that. All right

We get to receive the inheritance

We are also members of the body together

We're members of the church the fact that Jews and Gentiles are members together in one body

Emphasizes not only that they share

In common but but their dependence on one another in Romans chapter 12 in 1st Corinthians chapter 12

Romans 12 · chapter mention

Paul goes into much more detail about the body of Christ and how it functions as God intended when every member

Fulfills the role within the body. It's not just up to one person or the other. We all work together. That's the church

We also understand that we share in together in the promise of Jesus Christ

In Ephesians chapter 2 verse 12 Paul had a reminded his Gentile readers that before Jesus that we had been foreigners

Ephesians 2:12

To the covenant of the promise

In both of these verses Paul uses the singular word of promise and not the plural as we might expect

You might remember if you think back to those weeks that when we looked at the verse in chapter 2 we determined that by using

The singular Paul was probably referring to the specific promise given to Abraham in Genesis chapter 12

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

A promise which has now been fulfilled for both the Jews and the Gentiles in Jesus

Now this passage this morning is pretty easy to explain

I've already done it

We could call it good

But the

Touché touché

Thank you Jim the passage this morning

But the challenge Jim

As is usually the case is how do we apply this to our life?

How do we apply this passage to our life?

Let me share with you four observations about this passage that we can take on our journey number one

We need to accept the mystery life is a mystery. We need to accept it

And you might be thinking tell me something. I don't already know like life is a mystery and although we all know intellectually

That life is a mystery the fact is that many of us don't live our lives

Like we really believe that

Now if you doubt that just look at our culture

Look at how many people are trying to take the mystery out of their lives by consulting psychics

Tarot card readers fortune tellers fortune cookies. I know what you do

Horoscopes

But the Bible is clear that we can't know exactly what is going to happen in the future because that's the way God ordained it

James makes that very clear. He says in chapter 4 of his book now. Listen you who say today or tomorrow

We will go to this or that city spend a year there carry on business and make money

Why you don't even know what will happen tomorrow?

What is your life you are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes we need to learn to embrace the mystery

I'm convinced that if we could really do that

If we could really understand that life is a mystery and we just need to worry about today and not tomorrow

It would eliminate so much frustration so much worry in our lives when we know that life is a mystery

We don't get so bent out of shape when things don't go exactly how we planned it

And we don't worry so much about what might happen today or what might happen tomorrow

Several years ago, she and I made a trip up to New England

Without our kids it's fantastic

We had planned it for months we booked some reservations we we outlined our routes

We we knew what states we were going to to to hit and where we wanted to stay

All those things that are involved in planning a trip

We flew into New York and stayed there for a couple days

Then we took a train up to Mystic Connecticut

Now the only reason some of you will understand this the only reason that we went to Mystic Connecticut was because my wife

Had seen the movie Mystic Pizza

And we had to go experience it. It's the only reason

But as we're planning our trip we had always heard about Cape Cod

And so we decided to make that part of our journey as well

Our thought process was that that we're coming all the way up from Texas

And so we might as well go to the end of the Cape and stay in a town called Provincetown

So we found an inn in Provincetown and we booked it. It looked like a good place

It was close to the ocean. It was within walking distance to several things that we could visit

So after we leave Mystic we get in our rental car and we drive up to Provincetown

And we go straight to the end to check in

As the guy is taking us around like they do

And showing us what the thing has to offer where we're going to eat breakfast, where our room is

Everything that the inn has to offer

He casually mentions that this place is clothing optional

I must have missed that part in my research

So needless to say my six month pregnant wife at the time

And I were a little surprised that this was clothing optional

So if you're ever in Provincetown, make sure you stay at Carpe Diem guest house

Now, if we hadn't looked at life as a mystery

That day it could have been ruined

My sweet wife could have been mad at me for missing that little nugget of information when I was doing my research

But we just kind of went with the flow and we had a very memorable time together

We still laugh about it today because unfortunately that was not the first time that we had ended up in a situation similar to this one

I don't know the situation, life is a mystery

Number two, God works on a need to know basis

God didn't reveal his identity

He didn't reveal his identity on a need to know basis

God didn't reveal his entire plan to bring the Jews and the Gentiles together in Christ until his people were ready to understand and apply the truth

He revealed it in part, certainly Abraham would have been completely unable to understand those details of God's plan

Since Jesus wouldn't even appear on the scene for a couple thousand years

So God revealed enough for Abraham the part of his plan that Abraham needed to know in order to be obedient to God and fulfill his plan for his life

God still works that way today

As much as some of us think we want to know exactly what the future will hold

The fact is we couldn't handle it if God did it that way

So God reveals as much of his plan for us each day as we need in our life to live out that day one at a time

Jesus made that quite clear in the Sermon on the Mount, chapter 6 of Matthew

He says, therefore, do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself

So efficient for the day is its own trouble

Jesus is telling us that life is a mystery

And that God unfolds in our lives one day at a time

One day at a time

God reveals to us today what we need to live our lives today

And when tomorrow comes, he'll give us what we need then

Now many businesses apply an inventory strategy called J-I-T

Just in time

That strategy calls for them to obtain raw materials only when they are actually needed for production rather than storing large quantities of items

The idea is that they can save on some costs

And they don't have to pay a bunch of storage fees for materials and they can avoid large outlays of cash to purchase supplies that won't be needed for some time

God uses the just in time method when it comes to revealing his plan for our lives

Because he knows it would be unproductive to give us more than we need right now

Let me give you an example

Let's suppose that God knows that you are going to have a heart attack and die six months from now

If God were to reveal that to you right now, what do you think would happen in your life?

Although there might be some benefit to knowing that right now so that we can put our financial things in order so we could lay everything out

But the overall effect of knowing that right now could be devastating

You wouldn't be able to think of anything else for the next six months

You'd worry

You probably wouldn't be able to sleep very well at night

You'd probably begin to develop a fatalistic viewpoint

But by not knowing that right now

God would allow you to go on with your life and enjoy the last six months

And when that heart attack finally came

God would be there to carry you home

To be with him and take care of those that you left behind

The third thing we need to understand is that God will not violate his word

He will not violate his word

Verse 4 begins with this phrase, when you read this

When you read this

Now although Paul's readers didn't realize it at the time

That they were reading right then and there

What would actually become possible

That they were reading right then and there

What would actually become part of the Bible

It would actually become part of God's word

And one of the main criteria that would be used to determine

Whether Paul's letter would in fact be included in the Bible

Is how Paul wrote and what he wrote

And how it lined up with the rest of Scripture

So as we've seen

This mystery of the Jews and Gentiles being joined together in Christ

Is certainly consistent with the rest of the Bible

Now we live in a culture today where many people claim to have some new

Or special revelation from God

Most of the cults that we are familiar with are based on such claims

Even in the church we have people who claim that God has spoken to them

And given them some sort of new revelation

But the problem with this kind of new or special revelation at times

Is that it isn't always consistent with what the Bible teaches

And so those same kinds of revelations were common in Paul's day too

And since Paul was concerned that the followers of Christ

Would be deceived by that kind of false teaching

He wrote some pretty strong words to warn against being deceived by false teaching

In Galatians chapter 1 he says, I am astonished, that's a strong word

Galatians 1 · chapter mention

That you are so quickly deserting him

Who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel

Not that there is another one

But there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ

But even if we are an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preach to you

Let him be accursed

As we have said before, so now I say again

If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received

Let him be accursed

So that revelation that Paul received from God

About the mystery of the church was completely consistent with everything that God had previously revealed in his word previously

It was merely a further revelation of what God had already made known

To his people and which had been recorded in the scriptures as we have clearly seen this morning

Today, God's revelation primarily comes through his word

It's true that as we read and as we study and meditate on the Bible

That God's Holy Spirit can help us better understand it

God's work can help us apply it at what is written down there

But we can be assured that we will never have a revelation from God that is not consistent with what is already written down in his word

Let me give you an example of that

From time to time I will have a young man, young woman, Christian man or woman

And they'll come to me and they are considering marrying someone who is not a believer

And I've even had them ask me

To pray that God would reveal to them whether or not they should marry this person or that person

But there's really no need to do that

Because God has clearly revealed his will in that area in 2 Corinthians 6 when Paul writes that believers are not to be yoked together with unbelievers

So I'm not going to pray for something that God has already revealed in his word

We have to go that way

God's revelation will not violate what he has already revealed in his word

And so we might try to manipulate it and we might not like that

But God will never violate his will ever

The fourth thing that we gain is we need to do life in community

We need to do life in community

And as he is consistently done through Ephesians he once again emphasizes that in living out this life of mystery

We are not alone

We can't do it alone

God intends for us to live out that life within the community of believers

We have to do it together

We've already seen how Paul even comes up with some new words to emphasize this idea of being together with other followers of Christ Jesus

Now I'm not going to belabor this point since we've already discussed this several times throughout our journey in Ephesians

But let me just say that there is absolutely no biblical precedent for trying to live out this mystery of life on our own

You cannot do it on your own

God intends for all of his children to be connected together with others in the body of Christ that we call the church

Life is a mystery

One in which God reveals that mystery at just the right time

A mystery that is consistent with what God has already revealed in his word

And a mystery that is to be lived out in community with other believers

If you struggle with fear or anxiety

I hope you will take this to heart

What do you need to get through today?

What do you see in his word that can bring you peace?

Proverbs says in chapter 15

To get all the advice that you need in order to succeed

Find other people who have walked the path that you were on right now and asked them how they did it

Listen, this goes against everything that I want to do on my own

Naturally, I want to figure things out on my own and I want to do it my own way

But I've learned that a wise man, according to Proverbs

Is one who listens to counsel, life is a mystery

So even when things don't go the way I think they should turn out

When things don't go a certain way

When I embrace that, I'm not surprised when they don't

And when they don't turn out the way I want

I trust the Lord had other plans. He revealed to me today how to get through today

There are still Jews today who have animosity towards Christians

Because they think that we should convert to Judaism

When we remove God's word and his wisdom from our lives

That's what's left

Animosity and fear and anxiety and a life that has no hope

If you struggle with fear, you struggle with anxiety, you hate the fact that life is a mystery

I'm going to encourage you strongly that you understand his word

That you walk and you do what you're doing

That you understand his word, that you walk and you do life in community

There are people in this room who are further down the journey than you

That will help you along the way

But you have to ask, right? You have to seek counsel

Like think about what you're anxious about

Think about what's troubling you

Think about what you're fearful of

And get in community

Get in a discipleship relationship

Get in a small group

Don't bolt out of here as soon as we say amen

And find somebody that you can connect with

We spend hours and hours and hours as a staff and as an elder board

Of figuring out ways to get you connected

Because it is so valuable for the growth of your spiritual life to do this thing together

Life's a mystery, life is hard

Do we agree to that?

Raising children is hard

Having, being in a marriage is hard

Walking with somebody who is sick is hard

Changing jobs is hard

Looking towards the future is hard

We need as much counsel as we can if we're going to be considered wise

We do that together

Amen

So I'm going to pray for us and we're going to sing another song

Just like we do every week

And we are going to have time for response

Now again, I don't have that planned out

And I don't know what that's going to look like for you

I'm not asking you to do anything

Except be obedient to what the Lord is calling you to do

I'm going to ask the prayer team to be up front

And if you are struggling with fear

If you are struggling with anxiety

If you struggle with the fact that these things are unknown

Then will you come receive ministry today?

Will you come receive prayer today?

And will you ask how do I get involved?

This is what I'm struggling with

How can I get help?

And I guarantee you

That we can connect you to somebody

I guarantee you

I don't throw out guarantees very often

That's a Daniel Reese guarantee

You can be helped today

You can begin a new life today

You just have to walk in obedience

Let's pray

Father, I pray

I pray right now that your Holy Spirit will

Speak to our hearts

I pray that your Holy Spirit will

Just be poured out on us right now

I pray God that we will be sensitive to hearing your voice

I pray for the person right now

Who is struggling with anxiety

And even struggling right now as I'm speaking

With even thinking about getting out of their chair

And asking for help

I pray God that you minister to their heart

I pray God that you minister to their heart

I pray God that you minister to their heart

I pray God that we will use this time

To understand and trust you

That we don't know what tomorrow holds

But we know that you're already there

We don't know what five years looks from now

But we know that you're already there

So God, I pray that you will give us the faith

To trust you today

I pray God that you will bring peace

I pray that you will remove anxiety from this room

That you will remove fear from this room

And I pray God that your voice will be heard

Louder than anything else today

So Father as we walk towards obedience

I pray God that people find healing

I pray that people find peace

And so I thank you for Jesus

The one that you will be able to see

And I pray that you will be able to hear

And I pray that you will be able to hear

And so I thank you for Jesus

The one that unites us all together

The one that brings hope

The one that brings peace

The one that brings contentment and today

So Father I pray that you move

It's your name you pray

Thank you.