The Mystery of the Church—Act 5
Eph. 3:2-11
5/15/11
3KCOC
Introduction: George Brumfield tells the story.
A few months back, some of us were gathered on these front pews on my right to witness the baptism of Blake Martin. George was doing the baptizing and before Blake up for the confession, he began to tell the story. George probably didn’t think he was telling the story in six acts, but in fact, he was hitting all the highlights. With great passion and confidence he spoke of creation, our fall, God’s pursuit of Abraham and Israel in covenant, and he told how it all culminated in Jesus Christ as God’s ultimate demonstration of love for us.
There Blake sat on the front row taking in every word. The amazing thing was that George wasn’t just telling a story from long ago, he was telling the story so as to invite Blake into it and to help us see where we all fit inside the story. That is exactly what baptism is: Blake became a part of God’s story when he was baptized into Christ. Knowing where we fit into the story is essential or else we will miss it altogether.
Have you ever watched a play and wondered what it would be like to just be dropped into it without any preparation? You wouldn’t know your lines or how you were supposed to be behave. You would feel totally lost and embarrassed wondering how you ever got in such a situation. It is no different with God’s story. We know our part, our lines, our behavior only if we know where we fit into the story.
The key to understanding our place in the story comes to us in understanding the mystery of the church. If you understand the church, then you understand the story and how you can fit in. This is harder that it might sound, because today the church is fallen out of favor with the world and even with many Christians. It is the embarrassment of Jesus according to so many. If it weren’t for the church, then we could really see Jesus. So, people today claim to have Jesus, but have no use for the church. And there are people that are on the church roll and come to the church assembly who wonder, “Why do I really need the church?”
It is in Act 5 of the story of the Bible where we come face-to-face with that question. And it’s a mystery, but not the kind of mystery you are used to. It is not a mystery hidden, but one revealed. It is a mystery made available to you so that you might know exactly why you need the church and how you can fit into God’s story.
Move 1: The church was planned for and greatly anticipated by the triune God.
We have to move back to previous portions of the story to get some perspective before we read our primary text today. It starts on a dreadful day recorded in Gen. 11:1-9. This is a strange story and we wonder what God had against them building a tower. This seems like the human dream! Everyone working together in one language for a common goal. Isn’t that what many humanists aspire to see in our world today? Was God jealous of their success of the tower? Don’t be silly; God created the entire universe.
God told Noah and his descendents to be fruitful and multiply and to increase upon the earth (9:7). The people of Babel were doing exactly the opposite. They were seeking to make a “name for themselves” instead of glorifying God’s name. Yes, God wants a unified humanity, but not on humanity’s short-sighted terms, but on God’s terms. The people of Babel were in rebellion to God and a humanity united against God is not a humanity God will allow to persist. So God confused, divided, and scattered humanity, but with a plan to bring them all back together one day in his name not their own name.
As we already talked about, God set this plan in motion by choosing Abraham and his descendents, the nation of Israel, to bless all nations. But Israel was a means to an end not the end itself. Listen to what Israel’s prophet Joel had to say. Read Joel 2:28-32. Joel spoke of a day when everyone would receive his Spirit and just as important when everyone, not just Israel, who called upon the LORD would be saved.
Jesus spoke about building his church after Peter’s confession that he was Christ, but he also connected the coming of the church with the outpouring of the Spirit. Read Acts 1:4-9. Often when we talk about the story of Jesus we sum it up by his LDBR, but there is also his ascension. His ascension means that he will come again. It means that he is currently reigning with his Father. It means we have a mediator who is now interceding for us before God’s throne, but it also means that he can now send the Spirit to us. And notice what scripture Peter quotes to explain the miraculous events of Pentecost, the birthday of the church. Read. Acts. 2:17-22.
The church is not an afterthought or something to be apologized for. The church is culmination of God’s plan to reunite humanity under the lordship of Jesus. The church is the reversal of Babel. The church was anticipated and planned for by the Father, built by the blood of the Son, and ushered into reality by the outpouring of the Spirit. It is the very manifestation of the will of the triune God. It is part of the story we live in today and the part of the story where we can join God’s purposes for the world. And so Paul tells us in Eph. 3:2-6.
Move 2: The church is the answer to God’s great mystery.
People love a great mystery, a word Paul uses three times in this passage. A few years ago, we were on vacation in Santa Cruz, CA. We visited a place called “The Mystery Spot.” The “spot” is actually a point on the hill that once you cross nothing makes sense. Balls roll uphill, two people exchange places on a board and their heights are greatly changed, though a level shows the boards to be level. They claim birds won’t nest there and that planes avoid flying over. People flock to the mystery spot because the unknown is exciting and intriguing. Maybe they hope they will be able to figure out the mystery, but is that what Paul means by mystery here?
Some people in Paul’s time and more prolifically later would gain a following by enticing people with secret mysteries. You had to follow them to get the secret spiritual knowledge that made you spiritually elite. Paul does claim a mystery has been made known to him and to other apostles and prophets by the Spirit. But instead of this revelation creating a class of spiritual elitists, Paul believes that such revelation compels him to share it with others, particularly for him to share it with the Gentiles.
In verse 5, Paul indicates there was a time when the mystery was hidden to previous generations, but now he it has been revealed. Yes, the prophets like Joel knew something great was coming, but they didn’t understand it how the mystery would come together. In Ephesians, Paul is dealing with several levels of a mystery. Here’s what he said back in Eph. 1:9-10. The mystery is no longer secret. We now know that the mystery once hidden, but now revealed is to bring all things under the headship of Christ.
But how God was to do this was another aspect of the mystery. In 3:3, Paul says he’s written about it briefly, most likely referring to 2:11-22, where Paul describes that through the blood of Jesus, Jews and Gentiles have been brought into one new humanity, also described as one spiritual temple. And now in chapter 3, Paul deals directly with how the Gentiles were brought in on the mystery, which in large part has to do with the ministry given to Paul by God’s grace, as the apostle to the Gentiles. He spells this out clearly in v. 6. It is through the gospel, the gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ, that the Gentiles can now find themselves as joint heirs, members of one body, and sharers of the promise in Christ Jesus with Israel. Israel is not supplanted, but redefined, now as international body of believers united not by a building project like Babel, but under the name of Jesus. Now we are the temple in which God lives by his Spirit (2:22). The key word here is “now.” This is the time that the mystery is revealed, the time we are invited into God’s story. That is shocking news, but the reason is even more shocking!
Move 3: The church is both the reason and the cause of God’s providential timing (3:7-11).
Paul tells us it is his purpose to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery. He’s not holding it back. The mystery isn’t kept hidden, but proclaimed to all. It seems mystery and gospel get used synonymously. We might say that mystery is revelation and gospel is proclamation. Paul proclaims what has been revealed. He reiterates that this mystery was kept hidden before. Why? Verse 10 is our answer.
Do you understand what that verse is saying? The reason God chose to delay the revealing of the mystery was so the church would come into being at the right time. So the church is both the reason and cause of God’s providential timing. But for what? To make known God’s manifold wisdom to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms! The church is not just serving an earthly purpose, but a heavenly one. The angels in heaven sometimes play a role in the story, but they are not the leads. When they come to God and ask where is his story going, God points to the church and says, “Look! Look at the church and then you will see the beauty of my wisdom!”
Paul is not flattering the church. He’s not denying the reality of her problems. He is simply telling you the reality behind the obvious: when God has an expo of his wisdom he doesn’t have to create new worlds or part more seas. He just says take a look at my church, my bride!
Move 4: The church is at God’s center of history.
It strikes me that when Paul gives us this incredible revelation that he isn’t telling us how to be a better church. He does that in a lot of places, but here he is stating the reality of God’s vision for the church. IOW, this is what the church is despite all of its problems and needs for improvement.
So, when someone decides to take aim at the church, they are trying to diminish the manifold wisdom of God. There are a lot of people out there bashing the church on a regular basis, some supposedly in the name of Jesus, who do not know what they are doing. If they did, they would close their mouths in a hurry.
The church needs many changes and needs to do much repenting, but this is a passage that calls us to celebrate its necessity and its role in making known the wisdom of God to heavenly authorities. It is what God causes the church to be and it can never be otherwise. IOW, this isn’t a passage about the faithfulness of the church, but the faithfulness of God. It is God’s faithfulness and his plan to put his church directly into the center of history.
I read an article a few years back from Newsweek that claimed those who were opposed to gay marriage would find themselves on the wrong side of history. The message was clear. Ultimately, gay marriage is going to prevail in this country and you best pick the winning side, so you don’t end up looking foolish in the eyes of history. But that article missed a very critical point. God is the Lord of history and the only way we can end up on the wrong side of history is to not be on his side. Let Newsweek and the others try to judge who the winners of history are, but when history comes to an end, the only winners are God and his people.
John R.W. Stott says it well, “…secular history concentrates on the changing map of the world…and on the rise and fall of empires. The Bible concentrates rather on a multi-national community called ‘the church,’ which has no territorial frontiers, which claims nothing less than the whole world for Christ, and whose empire will never come to an end.”
Why do you need the church? Rather, how could you without the church? It is the bride of Christ, the body of Christ, and everlasting declaration of the wisdom of God to heavenly powers. The church is your way into the story of God. God didn’t save a collection of individuals; he saved a people, a people known as his church. Don’t come into the church because of how great the church is, but because of what the great God has made his church. Then you will know your role in the story and you will live life with the people of God as you never imagined now and for all of eternity.
Invitation: Enter into the story today.
You enter in through Christ. God is the one who adds to his church those who are daily being saved. Let’s make this your day!
