INTRODUCTION
• SLIDE #1
• Today we will conclude our series on the subject of grace.
• Grace is what a loving God feels and does to save people.
• Grace is something that every human being that has ever existed needs.
• The book of 1 Timothy 2:3-4 tells us that God desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.
• So today we will conclude this series by examining the depth of God’s grace.
• We need to plumb the depths of God’s grace so that we can fully appreciate and embrace God’s grace in our lives as well as being willing to work of extending God’s grace to all those who are around us.
• Sometimes I think we do not understand the depth of God’s grace. The reason I say that is two-fold.
• First, I know way too many Christians who live life believing that God does not value or love them.
• They have allowed the enemy to penetrate their minds with that insidious thought.
• When we allow this thought pattern to overtake our lives, we will never be able to fully commit ourselves to the life the Lord desires for us.
• We will never be able to experience the joy of our salvation because we refuse to embrace God’s grace in our life.
• The second issue is that we tend to forget that God desires ALL people to be saved, but if we are not careful we can have our list of people who refuse to pray for or try to impact for Jesus because subconsciously we do not believe they are worthy of God’s grace.
• We could fall into the thought that a person is too far gone for God’s grace to be able to reach them.
• So today, we are going to plumb the depth of God’s grace.
• Let’s turn to Ephesians 3:1-2 and 7-8
• SLIDE #2
• Ephesians 3:1–2 (CSB) — 1 For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles—2 you have heard, haven’t you, about the administration of God’s grace that he gave to me for you?
• Ephesians 3:7–8 (CSB) — 7 I was made a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace that was given to me by the working of his power. 8 This grace was given to me—the least of all the saints—to proclaim to the Gentiles the incalculable riches of Christ,
• SLIDE #3
SERMON
I. God’s grace reached deep enough to reach Paul. (1-2; 7-8)
• I bet if I could get a from the heart pole of folks even in this auditorium this morning, I bet a there is a decent percentage of us who think God really does not love us, or that God does not fully accept us.
• Our feelings come from guilt from the past or possible guilt for stuff we are STRUGGLING with now.
• In chapter 3 of Ephesians, the chapter we are looking at now, we will see the word GRACE uses in verses 2,7,8.
• Paul will use the word to refer to the fact that God gave him a special job, and that God shined a boatload of unmerited favor on him.
• It is interesting that Paul writes he is a prisoner of Jesus Christ because he is in prison when he writes this letter to the church at Ephesus.
• He is a prisoner of Rome, not because he was a criminal, but rather as a direct result of his ministry to the Gentiles.
• When he writes this, he is not angry, he is feeling blessed that he has a mission from God to do what he is doing, even though it landed him in prison.
• Here is what I want us to grasp as we look at these verses.
• There have been several times in my life where I could not believe that God could possibly love me.
• Can you relate?
• Then when I called me to ministry, I resisted for a time because I could not believe that I deserved the privilege serving His church in that capacity.
• We will not cover this in our time today, but according to verse 10, the CHURCH plays a vital role in spreading the message.
• In other passages in Ephesians the church is called the BODY and The BRIDE of Christ, and that when Jesus returns He is coming for the Church in Ephesians 5!
• Here is what we forget about Paul.
• Paul was a persecutor of the church, he was holding the coats for those who killed Stephen (Acts 7:58) In Acts 8:1 we see that Paul, known as Saul then, approved of Stephens death and then he asked for permission to persecute the church.
• SLIDE #4
• Acts 8:3 (CSB) Saul, however, was ravaging the church. He would enter house after house, drag off men and women, and put them in prison.
• Now you want to talk about someone who should not be able to feel that God can love him because of his past!
• Not only did God’s grace reach down and save Paul, God by His grace gave Paul a wonderful mission to carry out!
• Paul counted it such a privilege to serve the Lord, he looked upon his job assignment as a matter of God’s grace!
• Since Paul viewed it that way, he felt a great level of responsibility and purpose.
• The College Press Commentary states the following:
• While the grace of God is free and unmerited, God expects unworthy men to attempt a worthy response (Eph 2:8–10). Thus, for Paul, the handing out of God’s grace to him also meant the handing out of a job.
• SLIDE #5
• Ephesians 2:10 (CSB) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared ahead of time for us to do.
• The context of this passage is the fact we are saved by God’s grace!
• What we need to see is that no matter what we have done, we are not outside of the depth of God’s grace.
• God’s grace was deep enough to reach Paul, it can reach you.
• If Jesus could love Paul, He loves you also!
• Receiving God’s grace should help us to see that serving Him is a privilege, not a burden!
• Paul was in prison because of serving Jesus, yet he viewed his service as a blessing.
• Let’s look at verses 3-6.
• SLIDE #6
• Ephesians 3:3–6 (CSB) — 3 The mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have briefly written above. 4 By reading this you are able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ. 5 This was not made known to people in other generations as it is now revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit: 6 The Gentiles are coheirs, members of the same body, and partners in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
• SLIDE #7
II. God’s grace reached deep enough to reach the entire world. (3-6)
• This is an interesting point for us ponder.
• Since the nation of Israel was established by God and since they were God’s chosen people, there was a long period in history where it appeared that if one wanted to draw near to God, they would have to become a Jew.
• That appearance was correct.
• This is what we talked about the Judaizers last week, they thought that access to God was first by becoming a Jew, then coming to Jesus.
• God told Abraham that all the nations of the world would be blessed through him, yet it really did not appear that ALL meant ALL.
• Paul received his calling from Jesus on the road to Damascus; and he received his message by revelation.
• A REVELATION is an act of the Holy Spirit making known to God-chosen messengers’ truths they were incapable of discovering by unaided human research.
• The most likely time that Paul received his revelation from God was after his conversion when we went to Arabia for three years. (Galatians 1:11-18)
• Then he speaks of a MYSTERY.
• Many of us love a mystery.
• A MYSTERY is something not clearly revealed in the Old Testament, but now is.
• The mystery that Paul was to unveil was the fact that it was part of God’s plan to incorporate Gentile believers into one body, the church (Ephesians 2:16), as EQUAL partners with believing Jews (Ephesians 3:6). (Reese, Paul’s Prison Epistles, Ephesians)
• God revealed the plan to Paul and other apostles and prophets (Ephesians 3:5).
• Paul was to take that message to the Gentile world.
• Paul’s message was not popular with the some of the early Jewish Christians. He had to some opposition, more or less racism of the day.
• This is what the Jerusalem council dealt with in Acts 15. Does a person have to become a Jew before they became a follower of Jesus?
• Of course, the answer was no.
• The encouragement from this thought is that when one is in Christ, there are no outsiders, there are no special cliques one has to belong to in order to be loved and accepted by God.
• God’s grace was deep enough to cut through centuries of racism and divide to open the door for ALL people to come to Him!
• This gives me hope for all who oppose Jesus right now!
• IF God’s grace can reach the depths of all people, then His grace can reach even me!
• Let’s conclude by looking at verses 11-12 to see a great blessing!
• SLIDE #8
• Ephesians 3:11–12 (CSB) — 11 This is according to his eternal purpose accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 In him we have boldness and confident access through faith in him.
• SLIDE #9
III. God’s grace reached deep enough to give us confident access. (11-12)
• This is a wonderful blessing!
• God opened the door to all people through Jesus.
• With God, there are no second-class citizens, we are all equal in Christ. Where you are from, what skin color, what socio-economic level you were makes NO difference in Christ!
• As a result of being in God’s family we receive the ability to approach the throne of God with boldness!
• Boldness is a word that means the absence of fear and shame.
• The word was used in Greek society to denote the freedom of a citizen in the Greek Democracy to speak openly in public meetings.
• Through Jesus we boldness because we are a citizen of heaven!
• We also have confident access!
• The word translated CONFIDENT is only used 6 times in the New Testament, all by Paul.
• It speaks of the assurance of being welcomed and accepted when we go into God’s presence.
• ACCESS means that we are present to God BY Jesus!
• When one wants to approach a King, they have to have someone who grants them the access, Jesus does that for us.
• By the way, apart from Jesus, we cannot have access nor draw near to God!
• Christians, we have to live boldly for the Lord!
• We must stop allowing the enemy steal our joy in Christ!
• WE have to stop allowing the enemy to reduce us to weaklings for Jesus!
• We need to live a bold faith for Jesus!
CONCLUSION
• Grace. All that a loving God feels and does to save people.
• We can experience grace through Jesus Christ. He died on the cross so we could have the opportunity to experience eternal life!
• God has BIG plans for your life, are you ready to live them out in your life?
