At the church where I serve, we have been spending
our time together looking at a letter that is recorded for us in the New
Testament of our Bibles called the book of Ephesians. As we go through this book,
our hope and our prayer is that God would enable us to see our true identity,
the identity that He designed us to live in, so that we would live our day to
day lives in light of our true identity.
Last week, we discovered that our
identity as a follower of Jesus should remove racial barriers. Just as it was
in the church at Ephesus, just as it has been since the birth of the church,
our identity as a follower of Jesus should remove racial barriers. The timeless
reality is that there is no room for racism in the church, period. There is no
room for a sense of ethnic and cultural superiority, period.
Our identity as followers of
Jesus should remove racial barriers because Jesus has removed the barrier of
the Law. Our identity as followers of Jesus should remove racial barriers
because of Jesus message. Our identity as followers of Jesus should remove
racial barriers because we all have access to God the Father the same way. And
our identity as followers of Jesus should remove racial barriers because all
races are included in His kingdom as part of His church.
Now this week, I would like for us to pick up where we
left off last week. And as we jump into the next section of this letter that
the Apostle Paul wrote to early followers of Jesus at the church at Ephesus, we
are going to discover another timeless truth regarding our identity as a
follower of Jesus that has the potential to change how we see
our true identity, the identity that God designed us to live in, so that we
would live our day to day lives in light of our true identity. So let’s discover this timeless truth together, beginning
in Ephesians 3:1:
For this
reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles-- if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of
God's grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made
known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief.
Paul begins this section of his letter to the members of
the church at Ephesus with a seemingly strange statement: “For this reason I,
Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles.” You see,
Paul, was writing this letter from jail in Rome after being arrested for
proclaiming the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel to the Gentiles.
As we discovered last week, when Paul refers to Gentiles,
he is referring to people who were not Jewish ethnically or culturally. So
basically anyone that is not Jewish would be considered a Gentile. And as Paul
sat in prison awaiting trial, Paul had just reminded the Gentile and Jewish
members at the church of Ephesus of the reality that their identity as a
follower of Jesus should remove racial barriers. After reminding the members of
the church of Ephesus that there was no room for racism in the church, Paul was
prepared to pray for the members of the church. Next week, we will look at
Paul’s prayer in Ephesians 3:14-21.
However, before Paul began to pen
the words of the prayer that we will look at next week, he experienced a
“squirrel” moment, so to speak. Before penning the words of his prayer, Paul
decided to take a tangent. We see Paul begin his tangent in verse 2, when he
states “if indeed you have
heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you;”
Here we see Paul explain to the members of the church at
Ephesus that he had been given a responsibility. And that responsibility was to
manage the message of God’s grace, or God’s transformational intervention and
activity in the world. You see, Paul was given the responsibility to proclaim
the message of God’s transformational intervention and activity in the world to
the known world.
Then, in verse three, Paul reveals for us exactly how he
had been given that responsibility. Paul
explains to the members of the church that by revelation there was made known
to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. Now to fully understand what
Paul is talking about here, we first need to ask and answer several questions.
The first question is, “what does Paul mean when he uses the word revelation
here?” This word literally means to make
fully known. This revelation occurred as a result of
His life transforming encounter with Jesus on the road to Damascus.
After
his encounter, Paul proceeded to become the chief missionary to the non-Jewish
nations of the world and wrote the majority of the letters that we have that
form the New Testament of our Bibles. Paul then
explains that what was made fully known to Paul during this encounter and
subsequent to this encounter was the mystery.
Now that leads us to the second question, which is “what
is the mystery?” As we talked about in the beginning of this series, when Paul
uses the word mystery, this word refers to a timeless truth about God and His
Divine Plan that was once hidden, but now has been made known through Christ.
You see, Paul wanted the members of the church at Ephesus to understand his
role in managing a timeless truth about God’s plan that had been hidden, but
that has now been made known.
In addition, Paul reminded the members of the church at
Ephesus that he had briefly mentioned this mystery to them in Ephesians 1:10.
We see Paul remind the members of the church of this reality in verse 4. Let’s
look at it together:
By referring to this, when you read you can
understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations
was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy
apostles and prophets in the Spirit;
Now if Paul was communicating verse 4 in the language
that we use in our culture today, it would have sounded something like this: By
referring to what I wrote earlier, when you read it you will be able to
comprehend how I have been able to wrap my mind around the mystery of Jesus
Christ.”
Then, in verse five, Paul explains to the members of the
church that this mystery, this Divine Plan of God, had not been made fully
known to humanity in times past. While there were glimpses of this plan on the
Old Testament of the Bible, the plan was not clearly revealed. But now, at the
birth of the church, Paul explains that God’s Divine Plan has now been revealed
through His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit.
Now as we talked about last week, apostles and prophets
refer to a specific group of men who had seen Jesus after He was raised from
the dead and were given the special spiritual gift to reveal and proclaim God’s
message of rescue through the claims of Christ and the message of the gospel
and the new verbal revelation of this mystery.
In other words, God’s Divine
Plan through Jesus has been brought to light and made known through His special
messengers the Apostles and Prophets through the spiritual gifting and
empowerment of the Holy Spirit. You see, Paul wanted the members of the church
at Ephesus to understand that God’s Divine Plan that was once hidden, but had
now been made known through Jesus Christ.
Now you might be thinking to
yourself, “well Dave that is all fine and great, but what exactly is this
mystery that was once hidden and had now been made fully known? Because it is
still a mystery to me?” If that question is running through your mind, I want
to let you know that is a great question to be asking.
Tomorrow, we will see Paul
answer that question and reveal for us another timeless truth when it comes to
our identity as a follower of Jesus…
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