Ephesians 3:7-13
How was your week? Did you have a good week? Or a bad one be honest. Whos had a bad week? Whos had bad things happen this week? This month? Year? Ever? Life can be tough it is not always not easy. We can struggle with all sorts of things. We can have money troubles. We can have career troubles, car troubles. We can have problems with relationships at work and at home. We can have marriage troubles. There are all sorts of troubles.
Today we are going to talk about a fellow who had a really tough life. Really tough. Probably tougher than most of us here. Maybe all of us. Certainly tougher than Ive had it. Let me tell you about this fellow. This fellow had been through everything. Hed been in shipwrecks. Yep a ship that was in a violent storm and got wrecked and he survived. Hed been stoned, that is, people tried to kill him by throwing stones at him. Big stones. But he survived. Hed been involved in a riot, not as a spectator, but as the one the crowd was out to get. He managed to escape but had to flee that city. Hed been arrested on trumped up charges and when hed been in prison, people had wanted to kill him. But only because of a tip-off was the plot averted. This bloke had been through it all. If anyone had reason to complain, it was him. And now, this guy is sitting in jail and he writes a letter.
I guess you know who we are talking about now. We are talking about Paul, the bloke who wrote Ephesians. And while he was sitting in jail, he writes a letter. His letter to the Ephesians.
EPH 3:1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles--
It doesnt say in Ephesians where he was in prison, but most commentators think he was in Rome. How did he get there? Well, he had been in Jerusalem. Many Jews there were angry with him because he preached that the Gospel was for Gentiles too, not just for Jews. So on trumped up charges they got got him arrested. Paul appealed to Ceasar, therefore, he was sent to Rome where Ceasar was. It was a long journey with shipwreck and snakebite. And now he is in Rome, possibly under house arreset, but not free. He was a prisoner, because he proclaimed the Gospel to the Gentiles. Thus verse 1 says that he is Paul, a prisoner for the sake of the Gentiles.
So he writes to the Ephesians. What does he write about? What would you write about if you were Paul? I know what Id be tempted to write about. Prison life its terrible. Ive suffered so much for the Gospel, and I want out. Its time I got a break. God why did you send me to the Gentiles? Why did you send me on this mission that many didnt like? That I had to suffer so much for? That got me into trouble? That got me arrested, shipwrecked. People want to kill me. I wish Id never been called for such a task. What a great job this is! I want out. Is that what Paul wrote to the Ephesians? Lets see.
EPH 3:7 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power.
Paul acknowledges that he became a servant of this Gospel, of this message. The word servant is the same as the word minister
(some translations use minister.) So he is talking about his ministry his service for God. And as Christians, we all ought to be serving God in some way. So Paul is talking about his ministry. Now remember what weve just said. What did his ministry, his service for the Lord bring him? Privation. Hardship. Shipwreck. People hating the message and him. They were trying to kill him, stone him. They were calling him a traitor to his people, They arranged for him to be arrested on trumped up charges, so that he spent years languising in jail. And as he writes this he is still going through it. It is not a thing of the past, but a present reality. This is what this service of his, his ministry has brought for him.
What does he call this ministry? Look in verse 7. A gift of Gods grace. Can you believe it? A gift! How can he call something that has brought him so much trouble, a gift? And it is not just any old gift, but a gift of Gods grace. Weve spoken about grace before, that it is getting a gift we didnt earn, didnt deserve. A really really big favour, it literally means, favour.
In verse 8, Paul emphasises how unworthy he is to receive this gift.
Have a look at what it says,
8 Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me
He calls himself less that the least. In the Greek it literally means leaster. Remember in school you were told you cant say leaster. You have less, lesser, least. Least is as low as you can go. So say leaster is grammatically incorrect, yet sometimes we want to say leaster just to emphasise how low something is. And so Paul does this here. It literally means, leaster here. I am the leaster or I am the leastest. That is totally unworthy of this gift.
And so Paul calls this service, ministry that has brought him so much trouble, a gracious gift a favour. God has granted him a favour by giving him this ministry. How privileged he is to get this gift that he is so unworthy of. How can he say this? No normal person would say this would they? How can Paul say this, how can he be truly thankful for this so called gift that has brought him so much trouble? Why? Its because he knows how valuable this gift is. How amazing this gift it.
Verse 8 lets see what this gift, this grace is:
this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles
This gift was to preach the Gospel to the Gentiles. Notice, he didnt say the gift was the Gospel that he got for himself. Of course, that is a gift and Paul has spent the last 2 chapters talking about the wonderful gift, of eternal life, of sins forgiven, of being adopted as Gods sons and daughters, of being the heirs of eternal life with him. But here, he is not talking about that gift, but another gift, a related gift, and that is to tell others who dont yet know about this gift of Gods grace. Gods gift to Paul was to preach to the Gentiles. At that time the Gentiles the ones without God. The ones in ignorance about the Gospel. And indeed, the Greek word Gentiles also means pagans or unbelievers. Pauls gift from God was to preach the Gospel to unbelievers, to those in the dark.
You see, receiving salvation is a gift from God, but it is not the only gift. It is also a gift from God to be entrusted with telling others about this gift! That is, our service for God, our ministry for God, is a gift from God! You might be asking, how can doing something for someone, even if it is doing something for God, be a gift, a privilege? Surely it is a chore. Surely we are the ones giving a gift to God. Not the other way around. How can Paul say this grace, this favour was given to me, that is the job of preaching to the Gentiles? Paul is saying its a favour that God has given him this task, that has led to all the sufferings, including prison. Why? Because Paul realised what an awesome privilege it is, not just a responsbility, although it is that too, but a privilege to preach the Gospel. A privilege to tell people about the spiritual blessings they can have in Christ. To be chosen to be blameless in Gods sight. To be adopted as His children, to be forgiven of their sins, to go from death to life, to live with God forever.
As it is a privilege to receive those spiritual blessings, it is also a privilege to tell others who dont yet know about them! And when we understand how incredible this message is, we too will be gripped with the privilege it is, the grace, the favour God gives us to be His messengers, His ambassadors. And Paul now starts to talk about how amazing this message is
Lets look at the rest of verse 8
Eph 3.8 Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
Weve already looked at some of the riches of Christ. The spiritual blessings. Death to life. They are the riches of Christ. But notice Paul doesnt just call them riches of Christ, but unsearchable riches of Christ. The word here means unsearchable, unfathomable, ununderstandable. Paul says that it is not possible to understand the riches of Christ.
Think of someone who is so rich it is hard to understand. On my way back from overseas recently I flew on Royal Brunei Airlines, and stopped over in the tiny oil rich country of Brunei for a day while I waited for my connection. Their ruler is the absolute ruler of this small country, there are no elections. And he is one of the richest people in the world thanks to oil wealth. He is the Sultan of Brunei and his name is Kebawah Duli Yang Maha Mulia Paduka Seri Baginda Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Al-Mu'izzaddin Waddaulah ibni Almarhum Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Sa'adul Khairi Waddien, GCB GCMG. In 1997 he was richest person in the world with a wealth of 30 billion dollars. He virtually owns a country which is rich with oil. To get around, on the ground he has about 5000 cars. He has spent 4 billion on high perfermance cars including several Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Bugattis and Porsches as well as 500, yes 500 Rolls Royces, as well as a version of every Formula 1 car since 1980. When hes going further he gets around in his own Boeing 747, or his 767 or his Airbus A340 or one of his 3 corporate jets or 2 helicopters. By the way, the 747 has golden sinks in it bathroom. Where he lives is the biggest palace in the world, all 1788 rooms and it cost 300 million dollars to build. This guy is rich, almost unimaginably rich. Yet, we can quantify it. 30 billions dollars. 300 million dollar house. 500 Rollers. 5000 cars total. 3 airliners, 3 biz jets.
But Paul says that the riches of Christ are unfathonable. Ununderstandable. The riches of Christ are more important than money riches. There are the riches of His love, His grace, the forgiveness of sins. His riches of eternal life in paradise, with Him, the riches of His wisdom, which we will look at soon as well. And so Paul calls it a gift, that He is entrusted with this message, which is vs 9 he describes as
Eph 3.9 to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things.
Again, Pauls task from God is to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery. Remember we talked about that mystery last time. The mystery, so wonderful it was kept in God in the time before Christ. Hidden by Him who made all things. This mystery revealed is that as Gentiles, we share in the wonderful treasures of Christ! And this mystery is made known, how? Paul says, that he is part of the answer. It is his job to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery. But it is not just Pauls job, but the job of all of us who know Christ. Now remember that mystery revealed: we talked about it last week about how that is together as the church, and the week before we looked at how God is building us together as the church. Now Paul says something absolutely stupendous about the church:
Eph 3:10 His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11 according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
What does that mean? God intends to make His manifold wisdom known. The word manifold here literally means multi-multi- coloured. In other words Gods wisdom has many aspects to it. That is, it is enormous, beyond comprehension. And God intends to make His manifold wisdom made known to whom? To the everyday people on the street? Well, yes, but not just to them. To kings, presidents and prime ministers? Well, yes, but not just to them. But to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms! Now who these are, the Scripture doesnt say, so not much point speculating. But we can see that Gods intention is to make His wisdom known through the whole universe in both the physical and spiritual realm. Okay , fair enough. One might expect that, that God would make His wisdom known through the whole universe.
But this is the amazing part. How does He make that wisdom known? Get this it is through the church. Its there in black and white in verse 10. Through the church. Through us and we are the church. We often see the church as imperfect, weak, corrupt, riddled with division, politics and petty quarels. But God sees it as His agent to make His wisdom known throughout the universe! And this was not an afterthought of His. This plan of His, was, note verse 11:
11 according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.
It is according to His eternal purpose, to use us, the church, to make His wisdom known throughout the universe. If you think about that for a bit, if that doesnt amaze you, nothing else will! How can God use the church with all its imperfections to do this? How could God use Paul - and Paul himself confesses in vs 8 that he is the leastest of Godpeople - to bring this amazing message to everyone! No wonder he says it is Gods gift to Him, Gods favour to Him! In verse 12, Paul talks about our personal relationship with God.
12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.
And this verse alone could be a sermon in itself. About how through faith in Christ, we can approach God! In many ways we have lost the wonder of God. The awesomness of God. Our 21st century culture promotes a buddy-buddy concept of God. A friendly old guy in the sky. But is this God? The Bible says that God created everything we see. He is awesome. The Bible says that God is holy, perfectly holy. He is righteous. The Bible says that God cannot tolerate sin. Our God is just. The Bible says that God will punish sin. Our God will pour out His judgement on sinners. Which is us. And it is a terrible punishment. The distance between us and God is incredible. He is so much greater, holier than we are. But through Christ, that distance, that wall, has been broken! How much is the wall between God and us broken? It says here that we can approach Him with freedom and confidence., or as the New King James Version says, boldness, and access with confidence.
How do you feel when you meet someone important? Maybe someone high up in your company if you work for a big company? The premier? Prime Minister? To meet the Queen? You are careful! There is protocol! Perhaps even some fear. But because of Christ and only through Christ, we can approach God with confidence and boldness. IF we are in Christ.
Of course, if you are not in Christ, you dont have that access. Have you asked God to forgive you of your sins? Have you been born again by the Spirit of God? Has God come into your life and transformed and changed it? If not, come through faith alone to Christ, ask Him to forgive you of your sins. Ask Him into your life. Let Him be the lord, master of your life. If youre not sure how, talk to me afterwards.
So lets recap. This is an amazing passage of Scripture. I know I say that nearly every week, because all Scripture is amazing. Here in this passage we have a comparison, between the insignificance of us and the magnitude of God. And through Christ two things happen. Of course the major one is that we are saved from our sins. We receive spiritual blessings. Death to life. Eternal life with Him. Boldness to approach Him with confidence.
But we are also saved for a mission. For a task. Paul could see that. And he was thankful for that. He saw this task as a gift, a gracious gift, a favour from God. This task did not bring him riches or comfort. It did not bring him a good standing with other people. But it brought him scorn, suffering, jail time. But he saw it as Gods favour that he had been given that task! Why? Because it is the greatest task in the world. To make known the Gospel of Christ.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, there are two challenging questions here for all of us: Firstly how do you view service to God, ministry to God? Do you see it as you doing a favour for God? Giving something back to God? There is nothing we can give God to earn our favour with Him. There is nothing that God needs from us. He is the creator of everything. But service is a gift not from us, but to us.
As you know, before we came here, we were served the Lord overseas. It was tough at times, many times. We often didnt have Pauls attitude. We grizzled and whinged about the difficulties, about the poor living conditions and the difficult spiritual climate. And we didnt have it nearly as tough as Paul. But yet, despite all that, it was the greatest privilege Ive ever had in my life, to be there, part of it, part of what God was doing, in bringing the Gospel, seeing the church start to grow amongst a people who until recently had no church., and where most people are not just unbelievers, but who have never even heard the Gospel. It was not a duty, but a privilege to be involved in preaching the Gospel to the Gentiles in that place, to the unbelievers there, to make plain to the people there the mysteries of God. To be part of Gods plan in making known the wisdom of God in that place. And now it is a privilege serving you here in Gympie, and doing that here. I didnt earn that right. Im not anyone special. But God has chosen to use me. What a wonderful privilege! Im not giving back to God in doing this, but rather Im blessed by Him that He gave me this task.
So our first challenge, and I include myself in being challenged here, is to see our service as a gift from Him to us, not the other way around.
And the second challenge is this: What are you doing with your life? Are you involved with this gift serving God? Paul here talks of himself in this respect, but he also speaks of us, the church. In verse 10 it says that through the church the manifold wisdom of God is to be made known. That is through you and me. All of us, working together.
What are you doing with your life? Are you involved with this kingdom business? Are you using the opportunities in your workplace to tell others about Christ? If you have time off during the week, are you invovled in Religious Education in the schools? I first heard the Gospel through Religious Education. Are you using your gifts to build up the church? Are you supporting missionaries go to the parts of the world where few have heard of Christ? Are you even considering that perhaps you may go there yourself? As Ive shared with you, where we used to serve the mission work is hobbled because of a lack of workers. Many other places are like that too.
No it wont be easy. Your workmates / school mates might think you are a religious nut. You might suffer financially. It can be tough. In fact, it will be tough.
But, do you see serving Jesus Christ, in making the mysteries of Christ plain, the greatest thing you could be doing? Indeed, a gift from God.
Think about the Ephesians the church in Ephesus. They must have known Paul was in prison. No doubt they were concerned for him, worried about him. And we can see that in verse 13. But what is Pauls response to their concern for his bad situation, for his suffering as a prisoner?
Eph 3:13 I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.
Let that attitude be ours too, when we suffer in the service of Christ.
