Ephesians 3

1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles--

2 if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you;

3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief.

4 By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,

5 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;

The only other time in the New Testament the phrase “sons of men” is used is in

Mark 3:28 - "Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter;

29 but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin"--

30 because they were saying, "He has an unclean spirit."

We are warned to be careful what we say about the Holy Spirit, giving Him credit where credit is due.

vs. Son of Man “The expression occurs 82 times in the four Gospels, and is used only in the sayings of Jesus. It only occurs four times in other New Testament books. (Dunn, Edited by James D.G.; McKnight, Scot (2005). The historical Jesus in recent research. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns. pp. 337. ISBN 1-57506-100-7)”

Paul wrote about apostles in chapters 1, 2, 3 and 4 and prophets in chapters 2, 3

6 to be specific, that the Gentiles (non-Jews) are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel,

7 of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.

I preached on the gifts in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4. We all have at least one.

8 To me, the very least of all saints,

Paul was being humble here – we should be, too.

this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles (non-Jews) the unfathomable riches of Christ,

9 and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things;

I don’t usually like a paraphrase (since it’s not as accurate), like The Message, but I do for this verse: And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!

NASB is:

10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers

Arche: beginning, origin the person or thing that commences, the first person or thing in a series, the leader that by which anything begins to be, the origin, the active cause the extremity of a thing of the corners of a sail the first place, principality, rule, magistracy of angels and demons

and the authorities (exousia)

power of choice, liberty of doing as one pleases leave or permission physical and mental power the ability or strength with which one is endued, which he either possesses or exercises the power of authority (influence) and of right (privilege) the power of rule or government (the power of him whose will and commands must be submitted to by others and obeyed) universally authority over mankind specifically the power of judicial decisions of authority to manage domestic affairs metonymically a thing subject to authority or rule 4c jurisdiction one who possesses authority 4c a ruler, a human magistrate 4c the leading and more powerful among created beings superior to man, spiritual potentates a sign of the husband's authority over his wife the veil with which propriety required a women to cover herself the sign of regal authority, a crown

in the heavenly places.

Once again Paul is talking about spiritual powers.

11 This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord,

This shows the divinity of Christ.

12 in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.

My vision statement: I’m a confident communicator who relates well as I lead others without stress as I take appropriate risks.

13 Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my tribulations on your behalf, for they are your glory.