The Privilege Of Proclaiming The Gospel (Ephesians 3:1-13) Series

Over the past two weeks, in chapter 2, we've seen Paul very briefly explain what God has done for all people-- Jews and Gentiles-- through Jesus.

God made one person, tearing down the wall separating Jew from Gentile, making it so everyone has peace with God and with each other through Jesus. Jesus is our peace.

When most of us think about "the gospel," we view it on a much smaller level. We say, the good news is about how you can have a relationship with God. Or, it's about how your sins can be forgiven. Or--and I really dislike this one-- the good news is about how you can go to heaven when you die. That's gross. Don't do that.

Paul is trying to widen their perspective on the good news, and help them to see God's cosmic plan. When you look at the world as a whole, what God wants is to create one people, one nation, one family, who will live in peace with HIM.

Passages like this make me wish I was a Charles Spurgeon or Jonathan Edwards, who could lift your eyes up to the heavens, and help you really see this. Your gospel is too small. Your understanding of God is too small. But how can I help you-- and myself-- understand this? How can Paul help the Ephesians understand this?

It's at this point in Ephesians that Paul begins to pray for the Ephesians. God can help us.

Verse 1:

For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner for King Jesus for you nations/Gentiles--if indeed you heard about the stewardship of the grace/ministry of God given to me for you--

This is a confusing verse by itself, because Paul begins a rabbit trail that goes all the way through verse 13. The easiest way to begin understanding what's going on in this verse is to skip down to verse 14:

"For this reason I bend my knee before the Father, from whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named."

Verse 14 is what Paul planned to write. Paul has a specific prayer for the Ephesians, and he begins chapter 3 with every intention of telling them about this prayer. What he wants to say is, "It's for this reason that I pray for you. I pray that you'd understand what God has done for us through Jesus, and what his plan is for the entire world."

But instead, we read this in verse 1:

For this reason I Paul, the prisoner for Christ Jesus for you nations/Gentiles--if indeed you heard about the stewardship of the grace/ministry of God given to me for you--

Who is Paul? Paul describes himself as a prisoner for King Jesus for "you" Gentiles. But after Paul says this, he kind of checks himself. Paul says, "It's just barely possible that you don't really understand who I am. You know I'm an apostle; you know I'm in prison. But--maybe?-- you don't understand how God is using me."

Most people have some topic that, if you start talking about it, is like putting a quarter in them. Some people are huge Vikings fans, and if you even mention them, or talk about how Aaron Rogers is the greatest quarterback of all time--him, or Tom Brady-- you are guaranteed to get a response. It's like you put a quarter in them. Other people live for fishing, or hunting, or coffee, or video games, and they can talk to you about that for hours. Paul lives as God's servant, to tell Gentiles the good news about Jesus.

But do you Ephesians really understand what that means? Do you see the bigger picture of what God is doing in the world? Do you Ephesians understand what a responsibility and a privilege that this is for Paul? Maybe you don't. So Paul says, "On the off-chance you don't really understand all of this, let me tell you. This is the quarter in my back, and I'm happy to explain this."

Verses 2-7 are a single sentence. Some translations break it up, to try to make it easier to follow, but I'm going to try to read it as a whole.

By revelation the mystery was made known to me,

just as I wrote above briefly,

about which you are able, (when) reading, to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,

which in other generations was not made known to people,

as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and the prophets by the Spirit,

that the nations/Gentiles are fellow heirs

and fellow members of one body

and fellow sharers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the good

news,

of which I became a servant according to the gift of God's grace of God

given to me,

according to the working of his power.