He told the Ephesian church they were as:
• A NATION
• A FAMILY
• A BUILDING
• AN ORGANISM
• A CHURCH
But as we move to chapter 3, he shows us the Lord’s church as a “Mystery”.
WHAT DID HE MEAN BY THAT? When Paul is speaking of a “mystery”, he is speaking of something that had not been revealed in the Old Testament but was currently being revealed in the New Testament.
Moffat translates the word “mystery” as, “Divine Secret!”
Illus: Many believe that September 11, 2001 was a turning point in this nation, when the twin towers in New York City and the Pentagon were attacked by a bunch of terrorists.
This was such a major thing in the history of America that it affected this country in every way imaginable.
Pentecost is such a time in the New Testament for the church.
WHAT HAPPENED? On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit started the church. Before Pentecost the church did not exist. In fact, nowhere in the Old Testament can you find the word church.
The Lord Himself acknowledged the church did not exist in the Old Testament. It was in the New Testament that the Lord Jesus said of His church, in Matthew 16:18, “…I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
The fact that in the Old Testament the church did not exist, does not keep some unlearned men and women from teaching that it did exist.
For example, there is a group today that teaches what is called “Covenant Theology”.
• They take all the promises made to Israel, and apply them to the church.
• What is unique about this group is that they take the BLESSINGS of Israel and apply them to the church, but do not apply the CURSES of Israel to the church.
• Listen, all the blessings and the curses of Israel apply to Israel, not to the church.
We are taking scripture out of context when we take the blessings of Israel and apply them to the church in the New Testament.
• The church age started at Pentecost and will end at the rapture.
• Revelation 2-3 tells about the seven different kinds of churches that would be represented during the church age. These seven periods (seven churches) represent the time from Pentecost until the rapture.
WHAT DID GOD HAVE IN MIND WHEN HE STARTED THE CHURCH? When God started the Church, He had an eternal purpose in His mind.
WHAT IS THE ETERNAL PURPOSE OF GOD? On Pentecost, God began to bring together a body of believers called the church, that would love him supremely.
THIS IS GOD’S ETERNAL PURPOSE FOR THE CHURCH.
Bringing together this body of believers to love him supremely is a TREMENDOUS TASK. But He is the one who said, “I will build my church.”
There are two things that make this job difficult:
(1) WE ARE CREATED FREE MORAL AGENTS
We can choose! If we were all robots, it would be no problem, but we mortals are free moral agents which means:
• We are not like the Sun that God tells to shine and it shines
• We are not like the Sun that God tells to set and it sets
We have the ability to CHOOSE. We can choose to obey or to disobey. To make matters worse -
(2) THE DEVIL HAS FILLED THE HEART OF MAN WITH EVIL
God is trying to bring all mankind into His church to love Him supremely, and the devil is doing everything he can do to cause division. He tries to divide:
• Race against race
• Nation against nation
• Social levels against social levels
• Children against their parents
• Religious groups against religious groups
• Political groups against political groups
BUT WITH ALL THIS CHAOS IN THE WORLD IN WHICH WE LIVE, GOD HAS AN ETERNAL PURPOSE THAT ONLY HE CAN ACHIEVE.
And make no mistake about it, HIS ETERNAL PURPOSE WILL BE ACHIEVED!
He did not say:
• I hope I can build my church
• I will try to build my church
He said, “I will build my church” and hell itself can not stop Him.
HOW WILL HE ACHIEVE HIS PURPOSE of bringing together a body of believers who love Him supremely? We need to look at two things, such as:
I. THE REVELATION
Look at verses 1-5, we read, “For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.”
God revealed to Paul this mystery of how He was going to find a people among all races to love Him.
Paul said in verse 1 he was a “Prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles.”
Paul did not say he was a “Servant” or an “apostle”. He could have, but he chose to refer to himself as a “Prisoner” because this implies the suffering that a minister of the gospel has to make as God builds His Church.
Paul had some difficult times in his ministry and that was due to two things:
(1) He was preaching Salvation by grace alone, and that was not popular among the Jews.
(2) He was preaching Salvation for everyone, including Gentiles, and that was not popular.
The reason Paul refers to himself as a “Prisoner of Jesus Christ” was because it implies suffering. He was not only a “Prisoner” spiritually, but he was also a prisoner literally.
He mentions that to show them he was willing to suffer whatever he had to suffer to achieve this ETERNAL GOAL of God, to find a people who love Him supremely, even if it meant his death which eventually it did.
He recognized he was not only a PRISONER, but also he was a faithful steward. Look at verse 2, we read, “If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward.”
Look at the word “dispensation” this is the word “Oikonomia” (Pronounced as “Oy-kon-om-ee'-ah” which means stewardship.
He was saying that God had revealed this mystery and given it to him, and he gave it to the Gentiles. The mystery was that God was raising up a body of believers that would love Him supremely.
Notice, this mystery of God came to Paul through a special revelation from God.
Look at verses 4-5, we read, “Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.”
Notice, this revelation was not known “in other ages” because there was no church until Pentecost.
In the Old Testament, God dealt with mankind through other ways, such as leading Israel by a “cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night.”
This is why in the Old Testament, God did miraculous things like:
• Opening the Red sea.
• Feeding the people of God with manna from above.
• Many Healing miracles
All these wonderful miracles that the Lord did in the Old Testament were to show Israel that God was with them. Also, they were to show surrounding nations that the God of Israel is the true and living God that they should be serving also.
God did miracles in the Old Testament that we do not find in our age. Now that is not to say He does not do miracles today, but he dealt with Israel in the Old Testament in a different way than He deals with the Church today.
They did not:
• Have the Scriptures as we have
• Have the Holy Spirit as the church has
You might say they were led by miracles, so God used miracles to lead them.
When they obeyed Him as they should have, he worked miracles on their behalf. When they disobeyed Him, He withdrew the miracles and they knew that God was not pleased with them. When they truly repented of their sins, He started working miracles in their lives again.
The reason we see God doing these many miraculous things in the Old Testament was because He dealt with them differently than He does with the CHURCH TODAY!
After Pentecost, God gave this SPECIAL REVELATION that He was going to bring together a people that LOVE HIM SUPREMELY ABOVE ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING. And every time they came together in His name, He would be in the midst of them.
God gave this REVELATION to Paul, and he gave it to the New Testament church.
We have looked at THE REVELATION, now look at -
II. THE REVEALING
In verses 1-5, Paul talks about THE REVELATION. In Ephesians 3:6, He begins to reveal what the REVELATION from God was.
Look at verse 6, we read, “That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.”
This REVELATION was devastating to some of the Jews. If they had been right with God, they would have rejoiced, but when people are not right with God, GOOD NEWS to them is BAD NEWS!
Look at three things He REVEALED TO PAUL:
• The Gentiles should be fellow heirs
• The Gentiles should be of the same Body
• The Gentiles should be partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel
This is AWESOME!
Before Christ Jesus appeared, a person wanting to approach God for salvation was taught that they had to go through the Jewish religion’s “Do’s and Don’ts”, and that the Jews were the heirs of God.
Now Paul had to have the courage to stand up to these Jews and say, “Nope! That’s not the way it is! We (Jews and Gentiles) approach God for salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ. And now Jews and Gentiles are the heirs of God.”
Look at verses 6-9, we read, “That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel: Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:”
While the Jews did not rejoice in this SPECIAL REVELATION, the heavenly beings did rejoice.
Look at verses 10-11, “To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:”
What the Lord is doing through the church has affected these heavenly beings in a number of ways.
(1) They stand in amazement of what the Lord is doing through the church.
All over the world, there are churches like this that have laid aside everything to come together to worship and adore Him. They have put Him ahead of family, activities, and jobs, to come love the Lord supremely.
Now I recognize that everyone that comes to church does not do that, some come for other reasons. But I am talking about the TRUE CHURCH, TRUE BELIEVERS who love Him SUPREMELY.
All during the week, the church that He indwells loves Him and serves Him. And three times a week they come together to worship and adore Him.
These heavenly beings can only sit back in amazement at the wisdom of God to create such a church. There is no institution in the world like the church.
(2) They stand in amazement at the believer’s twenty-four hour a day access to the throne of God.
Illus: Do you know how difficult it would be to get one second with the President of the United States? Most likely it is an impossibility just to have one second with him. God has given the church access to Himself twenty-four hours a day.
They stand in amazement of the privilege that is given to the Church.
Conclusion:
Because of God’s church, Paul is willing to suffer so God’s ETERNAL PUROSE might be fulfilled.
We have looked at:
I. THE REVELATION
II. THE REVEALING
Note: You can hear Dr Odell Belger preach some of these sermons on Youtube. Type Youtube and the word Lykesland
