Tuesday, August 18 –
We
continue reading thru the New Testament in a Year, and today our reading is in
Ephesians 3:1 – 21. The doxology at the
end of this reading is one of the most beautiful statements written in all the
New Testament in praise of the Godhead - the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit. After you’ve finished reading,
please return, and we’ll mine for some more treasure.
The
theme of the church as a community of reconciled people from all tribes,
tongues, and nations leads Paul to explain how all this was in the heart of
God, but hidden, a mystery that God is now unfolding as the Gospel is
proclaimed.
“For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you
Gentiles — 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. 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” (3:1-6).
You’ll
notice Paul explains he is a “prisoner,” but not of Rome, but “for
Christ Jesus.” It strikes me, and I
hope you, too, Paul does not allow his circumstances to change his focus. I remember reading the advice of an older
theologian who remarked the most important lesson he had ever learned was that
“nothing happens in our lives that does not first pass through the fingers of
God.”[1] Paul is not in prison because of Rome; he is
there because God put him there. He is
in prison but sees himself as a “steward,” one who was given a task by
his Lord. He is a steward of God’s “mystery,”
something that neither he, nor any of his Jewish faithful expected, or even he
knew of. I love a good mystery. I read with a sense of “how long is it going
to take for me to figure out who ‘dunno’ it”?
Paul uses mystery to explain why no one could have known God’s plan for
the church.
Dr. John R. Stott makes an important distinction between what we mean by
mystery and what Paul meant by it:
“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. . . . The
Christian "mysteries" are truth which, although beyond human
discovery, have been revealed by God and so now belong openly to the whole
church.”[2]
It was a “revelation” by Christ Jesus – probably while Paul spent those three
years in Arabia. There Christ revealed
to him the plan to create the Church.
The church was not a revised version of the Jewish faith, but a New
Covenant between God and all who would believe – the Gentiles would be “fellow
heirs, members of the same body, partakers of the promise of Christ Jesus
through the Gospel.”
The
revelation, the stewardship, the ministry to Paul are all a work of God’s grace
to him. “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” (3:8). Here Paul reveals something of the Church’s
work that is beyond the earthly, humanly aspects. He says that the Church also testifies to the
power of the Gospel to the invisible powers – both God’s hosts, as well as the
hosts of Satan – “so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God
might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places” (3:10). It’s an amazing thing to think that we are a
part of God’s drama. I love the way that
John Mackay described it:
“So then, as the gospel spreads throughout the world, this new and
variegated Christian community develops. It is as if a great drama is being
enacted. History is the theatre, the world is the stage, and church members in
every land are the actors. God himself has written the play, and he directs and
produces it. Act by act, scene by scene, the story continues to unfold. But who
is the audience? They are the cosmic intelligences, the principalities, and
powers in the heavenly places. We are to think of them as spectators of the
drama of salvation. Thus ‘the history of the Christian church becomes a
graduate school for angels’”.[3] Let’s be careful in trying to apply this to
church life. This is part of the mystery
of the church, and it involves God’s work in the heavenlies and not ours.
The
Gospel has an eternal beginning – “This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in
Christ Jesus our Lord” (3:11). It is this eternal dimension of the Gospel that provides security
in our relationship with God (3:12), and Paul’s peace even while imprisoned
(3:13) – “in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our
faith in him. So, I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering
for you, which is your glory” (3:12-13).
Everything that occurs in our lives is first in the heart of God and
passes through his hands. Christians
have been persecuted down through the centuries, and they still are being
persecuted today. North Korea, China,
Yemen, Pakistan, Iran, and in most of the rest of the Middle East, as well as
many countries in Africa, are places where Christians have been persecuted by
officials hostile to their faith. The
Gospel is world-wide, not because it hasn’t been attacked, but because Jesus
promised – “I will build my Church, and the gates of hell will not prevail
against it” (Matthew 16:18). The
greatest mystery is on display all over the world every day – the Church.
Many a man will propose to his
bride-to-be by getting on his knees and making a loving, praise-filled proposal
in asking her to marry him. So, Paul
demonstrates his love, praise, and commitment to God who has created all of
this – salvation by grace through faith, and the mystery of the church as God’s
people upon the earth –
“For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every
family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of
his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in
your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through
faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to
comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and
depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you
may be filled with all the fullness of God” (3:14-19).
He kneels before the Father to ask him to give to us, the Church, a picture of
all that God is doing. He is bringing all things together in unity and
reconciling his people through the Spirit of God at work within. He bows to pray and ask that the Holy Spirit
might strengthen us in our inner being – our heart, soul, spirit, so that we
might truly grasp the faith God has given us to live by. He asks that we would be “rooted and
grounded in love.” Love is the
stabilizing force for all things concerning our faith. When we are convinced of God’s love, nothing
can move us off of faith. Lastly, he
prays that we might experience all that God has for us – “filled with all
the fullness of God.” These are bold
prayer requests, but it’s obvious Paul has a big God.
The conclusion is a doxology of
praise – “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we
ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory
in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever,
Amen” (3:20-21).
Many years ago, fresh out of Seminary, and new to Pastoral ministry, I
struggled to find my security and a sense of value in what I was doing. Discouraged and afraid of my future, I ran
across a book entitled, “Your God is Too Small.” J. B. Phillips wrote it, and in it he shares
– “It is nearly impossible, for an adult to worship the conception of God
that exists in the mind of a child of Sunday-school age, the ‘God-in-a-box’
notion, limiting God to such inadequate conceptions as ‘Resident Policeman,’ ‘Grand
Old Man,’ ‘Meek-and-Mild,’ and ‘Managing Director.’ As a result of these
insufficient ideas of God, many people live with an inner dissatisfaction,
without any faith at all. Ouch! There I was exposed. Paul didn’t have a “small” God. He saw God as being “able to do far more
abundantly than all that we ask or think…his power at work within us”… Paul speaks of this work as “throughout
all generations, forever and ever.”
It was an eye-opening, and heart-yielding time, as I realized God has
not been waiting for me to show up, and when I’m gone he will continue quite well
without me; yet, for right now, He would use what I gave to Him, according to
His own purposes, power, and will. He
will for you also!
Peace
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