Transcript

Meet A Person of God

Ephesians 3:1-13
Sunday, December 4, 2016
Pastor Randy Smith

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The first half of Ephesians 3 is perhaps one of the most difficult passages to preach in this biblical letter. It's not because it is exceptionally hard to understand. Rather it's because it's difficult take the meaning of this passage and apply it to all of us this morning.

In Ephesians 3:1-13, Paul digresses. He just explained how Jew and Gentile have been brought together as one in the body of Christ in 2:11-22 (last week's sermon). And then in 3:14-21 he will pray for the church (next week's sermon). Yet in the middle of these two great sections is somewhat of a parenthesis. In 3:1-13, Paul digresses to tell us a little something about Himself. He wants to tell us about the uniqueness of his calling and His apostleship and His revelation. Yet it's a calling and apostleship and revelation that none of us presently or will ever experience.

So I am led to believe that the best way we can be true to this text is to examine specifically what Paul has to say about himself and then follow that up with three points of application as to how these words from God pertaining to Paul are the words from God that are applicable to our lives today. I have entitled this message, "Meet a Person of God."

Let's start out at the very beginning. Look with me at verse 1. "For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles."

So here's where we are given a clue as to Paul's place of writing. Paul indicates here that he was a prisoner. Most believe this refers to Paul's two-year imprisonment in Rome spoken of in Acts 28. He's in jail. Why? It's not that he committed any moral offense. He didn't kill anybody. He didn't take someone's property. Why is he prison? He tells us. He says he is "the prisoner of Christ Jesus." Simply put, he's in jail because He faithfully and boldly told people about Jesus - and the world doesn't like that!

Is he complaining, feeling sorry for himself? No, according to the passage he only seems to bring it up because it directly ties to the present point he is making to this Gentile church. He's a prisoner of Christ, verse 1, "For the sake of you Gentiles." In a very real sense, he's in jail because in his desire to be obedient to Jesus Christ he wants to minister to them. In other words, if there was no Jesus Christ calling him and no Gentile church needing him there would be no prison confining him.

If this is indeed his Acts 28 Roman imprisonment (and there is almost every reason to believe it was) do you remember what happened that led to his arrest? This is interesting!

Beginning in Acts 21:17. "When the seven days were almost over, the Jews from Asia, upon seeing him in the temple, began to stir up all the crowd and laid hands on him, crying out, 'Men of Israel, come to our aid! This is the man [Paul] who preaches to all men everywhere against our people and the Law and this place; and besides he has even brought Greeks into the temple and has defiled this holy place.' For they had previously seen Trophimus the Ephesian in the city with him, and they supposed that Paul had brought him into the temple" (Ac. 21:27-29).

Remember what I told you last week about the Jewish temple? Dividing walls all over the place! And who were the most excluded population? Answer: Gentiles! And there were very serious consequences for violating these boundaries.

So out of a hatred for Paul, the Jews drummed up false charges that he brought a Gentile named Trophimus into the temple. This never happened, but it was enough for them to get Paul in court in an effort to put him away for good. When Paul realized he wasn't getting a fair trial after years of deliberation, he appealed to Caesar. And to Caesar he went, waiting for his trial under house arrest in Rome. It was there that he wrote this letter to the Ephesians.

Yet, do you see the irony? The Jews falsely accuse Paul claiming that he is putting a Gentile on the same standing as Jews. And while Paul never brought Trophimus into the physical temple, in all reality, Paul brought Trophimus into the true temple when Trophimus received Christ as His Savior. We learned about this last week. Jesus through His death on the cross (2:13) has broken down the barrier of the dividing wall (2:14) and has reconciled both Jew and Gentile into one new body (2:16) where by the Gentiles are no longer strangers and aliens, but are equal members in God household (2:19).

God had a plan of bringing Jews and Gentiles together in Christ. This is the ministry that God entrusted to Paul. That God by revelation, 3:3, would make known to Paul this mystery so that he might proclaim it. And this mystery would be how Jew and Gentile, two parties in hostility toward each other, can now be at peace with each other, reconciled by the blood of Christ.

Paul didn't ask for this assignment from God, but he, verse 5, was given a unique calling as an apostle and he was commission by God with a specific divine responsibility. So that he, verse 8, "[Might] preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ."

In verse 2 he calls this assignment a "stewardship." It was a commission given to him by God that belonged to God. Paul was required to proclaim this message according to God's directives alone. And as a steward, Paul would be held accountable as to how faithful he was with this truth entrusted to him.

This wasn't a burden. This message of the gospel and being one of the first to take it to the Gentile churches was an incredible calling and one that Paul received with great appreciation. He viewed it as a token of God's grace. Verse 2, "Stewardship of God's grace." Verse 7, "Gift of God's grace." Verse 8, "Grace to preach."

He would suffer tremendously and currently he was in jail for it, but he did what God called Him to do, knowing full well that Christ was His Master. So he was, verse 1, "The prisoner of Christ Jesus." And he was, verse 1, incarcerated "for the sake of you Gentiles."

So while he's falsely accused of bringing Trophimus into the spiritually dead temple in Jerusalem, his whole message of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ is about bringing Gentiles together with Jews into the spiritually alive temple of God in heaven to be one in Christ.

Therefore, Paul reminds them in verse 13 to "not lose heart at [his] tribulations on [their] behalf." Why? Because "they are [for their] glory, [their benefit]." A tremendous lesson when we think about the fact that Trophimus was from Ephesus and no doubt familiar to this Ephesian church. The man's life becomes a parable.

So what can we take away from this as we prepare or the Lord's Table? Let me give you three points of application.

For starters what is your calling from God? We just learned about Paul's calling. What is yours?

Imagine you build for yourself a dream house. You invest your life savings in purchasing the property and acquiring building materials. You dedicate thousands of hours in learning and construction. The house is finally completed. Yet you never move in. You don't even sell it. You get 30,000 cubic feet of backfill and you completely bury it under dirt.

For many people, this pretty much describes their Christian life. They come to Jesus Christ and by their faith in His work on the cross receive the complete forgiveness of their sins. They are adopted into God's family and are thankful to be saved from hell. Yet for the remainder of their time on earth, they bury their Christian life under dirt. They are still visible to others. They still live their life. But the worldly backfill that once covered them still remains upon them. And though they still profess Christ, they wander in this life aimlessly, similar to an unbeliever, lost and without God's purpose for them.

Let me ask you, did God save you only to keep you out of hell? Or did He save you with a much higher purpose in mind?

We learned Paul was given a stewardship from God. I know you are not an apostle, but what stewardship has God entrusted to you? For starters, we all share the responsibility to share the Gospel. Paul was a unique missionary to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles. To whom is God calling you to bring the Gospel? Who are you sharing Jesus with? When is the last time you shared the message of salvation to someone lost without Christ? Maybe you are not called to go overseas, but what about your family, friends, co-workers, neighborhood? Are they seeing and hearing about Jesus from you?

Beyond the Gospel, what is your specific purpose on earth? This comes down to your gifts and talents. How is God using you to fulfill your specific purpose in His church? Are you wandering around aimlessly, dabbling in this or that or doing nothing at all?

I received these comments from a woman in our church this week. "The Lord appears to be moving me into new areas on the abortion front. I have begun working with a brand new, fledgling ministry in the Bronx NY called Expect Hope. Bronx has the highest abortion rate in the country. There are few places for a pregnant woman to go if her family pressures her to abort."

Each Wednesday evening a few dozen people from this church assemble to serve the children in the AWANA ministry. They demonstrate commitment, faithfulness and dedication on a weekly basis. Not only do they minister to our children, but I understand that roughly 40% of the children that attend are from outside this church.

As you pull in, you notice our beautiful church facility. In addition to all the cleaning that happens within the building, we have a crew of committed men that volunteer their Saturday mornings to maintain the landscaping responsibilities. If you talk with them you'll understand that they view it much more than a job, to them it's their ministry for Christ. They have developed great friendships and hold each other spiritually accountable.

About thirteen years ago we didn't have a Youth Group. That was until a young couple had a vision to begin one. Now we have what I believe to be the best Youth Group in the area with many committed servants laboring faithfully in that ministry. When asked about the quality of our Youth Group, I answer not as a leader of this church, but as a father who has seen the fruit of their work in the lives of my three daughters.

As you know, we have a food pantry in our church that gives away massive quantities of food to hungry families in this community. How did that start? It was a vision one man had that became a reality now shared by many men and women who serve very faithfully week-in-and-week-out in that ministry.

I can keep going…

When Paul spoke of His calling, he called it a gift of God's grace. How has God though His grace called you? To what and whom has He called you? Do you have a spiritual direction? Do you have a spiritual purpose? Are you a steward of a responsibility entrusted to you by God? Are you faithful with that responsibility? Are you willing to suffer, like Paul, to see that stewardship fulfilled? Are you really submitting to Jesus Christ as Lord?

A second thought that jumps out to me in addition to his calling from God was Paul's incredible love for the church. In his faithfulness to discharge his calling from God he served God's people. So much that he says he is in prison, verse 1, "For the sake of you Gentiles." He also says in verse 2 that this stewardship of God's grace was given to him from God for these Ephesian Gentiles.

So we show our love to God by being willing to submit to His direction and we show our love for others in obedience to our calling by being willing to suffer for their sake if necessary. Not only is this is the fulfillment of the two greatest commandments - loving God and others above ourselves, but it is visibly putting the personal actions of Jesus Christ on display as we submit to God and suffer for others in our service to them.

Consider with me this work of Christ. Even as Christians we have a tendency to have our eyes focused too much on the things of this world. That's what leads us to complaining, fear and anxiety, in addition to coveting, jealously and discontentment. Rather our eyes are to be heavenward, on the Lord. And when we keep our eyes on the Lord, His work on the cross will always be forefront in our minds. As Paul wrote Ephesians 2, all of it was birthed in this context!

And when our eyes are on Christ crucified what do we see? We see we see the sinless Son of Man being commissioned with a responsibility, a stewardship, a calling from God. That to His intense emotional, physical and spiritual suffering, He would die for the sins of His people. His work on the cross was His ministry ultimately to the Father. Yet through His ministry to the Father, the Son brought in His love resulting in incredible blessings to humanity. In verse 8, Paul referred to it as "unfathomable riches of Christ."

So I ask you this time, in your desire to be obedient to the Father, how are you blessing other children in His family?

And last, a third thought, how is your ministry to God as you serve others bringing God much glory? If He is not receiving glory, we can't call it a Christian ministry! You see, you can do a lot of great causes and bless people tremendously, but is God receiving the glory in all of it?

In verse 10 we learn how Paul declared that His mission to bring the Gospel to the Gentiles was so they might understand that they being one with the Jew in the body of Christ was bringing God glory. Look there with me. "So that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities [good and bad angels] in the heavenly places."

It is about God breaking down the wall that separated us from Him vertically. As Paul says in verse 12, "In whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him." And it's also God breaking down the walls that separate us from each other horizontally.

Paul understood no one could fathom a way for people, Jew-Gentile today (we can add black-white, male-female, educated-uneducated, old-young, etc.) to come together and exist amongst each other in peace. Two thousand years later, the greatest minds and richest donations to this cause have yet to come up with a solution.

Yet Christ solved that problem. Through the shedding of His blood, He made us understand that we are the same in essence. That God looks not at these superficial externals and therefore neither should we. That we all deserve hell, but in response to His marvelous grace we who deserve only hell can be made alive and brought together in His spiritual family under the loving bonds on one heavenly Father.

Verse 10 says this reality makes God's wisdom known to not only people, but specifically to the good and bad angels in the heavenly places. And it's proclaimed not from a banner dropped from heaven, but rather verse 10 says it comes from the church.

So it all comes full circle. God giving us the forgiveness of our sins through Christ and then calling us to be His servants who faithfully proclaim this message and use our gifts to bless others so that He - as we serve in, though, to and out of the church - might receive all the glory.