MORE THAN A MYSTERY
Ephesians 3:1-12
INTRODUCTION:
1. The Monarch Mystery.
The ability to find home evokes legends of Rover or Fido who, when owners have moved from one coast to the other, have made a 3,000-mile trek to find their owners in a location to which they’ve never been before. At least the dogs make it back home.
But not the monarch butterfly. These insects somehow know how to migrate thousands of miles every autumn, from the Eastern United States to a handful of sites in Mexico. There, they rest over the winter for the return trip home. But here’s the amazing part: No individual butterfly ever goes to Mexico and back, yet thousands converge on the same few sites year after year. These insects know where to go. But none of them has ever been there before. Let’s explain.
"Monarchs are not guided by memory, since no single butterfly ever makes the round trip. Three or four generations separate those that spend one winter in Mexico from those that go there the next." A monarch butterfly born in August in New York state, for instance, will fly all the way to Mexico, spend the winter there, and leave in March. Then it will fly north, laying eggs on milkweed along the Gulf Coast in Texas and Florida before dying.
The butterflies born of those eggs will continue northward, breeding and laying more eggs along the way. By August another monarch, four generations or so removed from the monarch that left New York for Mexico the previous summer, will emerge from its chrysalis and do the same thing. It will head south, aiming for a place it’s never been, an acre or two of forest on the steep slopes of a particular mountain range.
2. In today’s passage of Scripture the Apostle Paul talks to us about a mystery.
PROPOSITION:
Christians, when Paul talks about a mystery, he’s talking about more than the mysterious saga of monarch butterflies, he’s talking about the mystery of God revealed in Christ Jesus.
INTEROGGATIVE:
1. Why do I say that the apostle Paul talks about more than a mystery?
TRANSITION: Paul talks about. . .
1. It is More than a Mystery Because It is Revealed By God. vv.1-5
2. It is More than a Mystery Because It is to Be Revealed to Everyone. vv. 6-9
3. It is More than a Mystery Because It is Our Job to Reveal It to the World. vv.10-12
I. IT IS MORE THAN A MYSTERY BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN
REVEALED BY GOD vv. 1-5
“In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight
into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to men in
other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit”4,5
A. The Meaning of the word “mystery” in the Bible
1. When we think of the word “mystery” we think of the word “secret” or of a “Mystery novel” in which we must follow a set of clues, or we think of a classical “who done it” movie.
2. But what does Paul mean when he says that God has
revealed to him a mystery? The word mystery, in the
Greek language is “musterion” which means “to shut
the mouth”; it is used to refer to “a silence imposed by
initiation into a secret religious rite”. You could compare it with something like the Masons or other fraternal organizations today.
3. But the Biblical meaning of “mystery” is different.
When the Bible speaks of a mystery it speaks of “something formerly unknown, hidden in the Old
Testament, but now revealed to us by God in Christ
Jesus”
B. God Disclosed this Mystery by “Revelation”
1. The way that God chose to make His mystery
known to us was through the process of divine
“revelation”. The word “revelation” means “to make
naked or lay bare”. Cardinal John Henry Newman wrote that, “As prayer is the voice of man to God, so revelation is the voice of God to man.“
2. Paul discusses the process of revelation in verse 5 .
He writes “this mystery has been revealed by the Holy
Spirit to God’s Holy apostles and the prophets.” The mystery that Paul speaks of is more than a mystery because now for the first time in history God has revealed it through Christ Jesus. It’s a mystery no longer!
C. What Is Revelation Like?
The story is told that after Helen Keller’s teacher, Anne
Sullivan, had given her the names of physical objects in
sign language, Miss Sullivan attempted to explain God and
tapped out the symbols for the name "God." Much to Miss
Sullivan’s surprise, Helen spelled back, "Thank you for
telling me God’s name, Teacher, for he has touched me
many times before." How could Helen Keller have known about God? It was because although she was blind, deaf and mute, Helen Keller knew God, for God had shown Himself to her. That is “revelation.”
D. God Has Revealed Himself to Us
1. God is more than a mystery to us. In the process of
revelation, God has “laid himself bare to us”. Paul points this out in verse 4 where he writes, “In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ”
2. A young man from India, Sundar Singh wrote that after
hearing some missionaries preach he felt a great
spiritual distress within himself. That night, being
unable to sleep, he prayed, “Oh God, if there is a God
reveal yourself to me.” Suddenly a bright light shone
in the room where he lay. Expecting Buddah or Krishna
to appear before him, instead, there appeared Jesus.
After this marvelous revelation, Sundar knew God was there and he dedicated himself to Christ becoming a great missionary among his people.
3. Where do you need to see God’s activity in your life?
Know this today: God is there and He is anxious to reveal Himself to you. All you have to do is ask Him and He will intervene in your behalf.
Transition: Not only is it more than a mystery because it has
been revealed by God. . .
II. It is More than a Mystery Because It Has Been Revealed to
Everyone. “This mystery is that through the gospel the Gen-tiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.” v. 6
A. The Heart of the Mystery
1. In the Old Testament period, the Jewish people were the instruments through which God revealed Himself to the world. They were God’s “chosen people”. Mistakeningly, they believed that they were “exclusively” the people of God and that God had no interest in the Gentiles, or in all other non-Jewish people.
2. However, in verse 6 Paul identifies this mistake and reveals the heart of the mystery: “This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.” Furthermore in v. 8 he writes, “this grace was given me: to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make it plain to everyone Paul states that this mystery is more than a mystery because now it has been revealed that God desires to have an “inclusive” relationship with the whole world through saving faith in Christ Jesus.
B. Our Relationship With God.
1. The Jewish people thought that their relationship with
God was kind of like my brother Kerry’s relationship
with the boy next door when I was a little kid. Our neighbor boy named Dwight Taylor who would come over to our yard to play. My brother Kerry would latch on to Dwight and the two of them would run away from me and hide just as fast as they could. I would try to run after them, but I was too slow and could never catch them. That way Kerry got to play with Dwight all by himself. He wanted Dwight to be his friend “exclusively” but I wanted him to be our friend “inclusively”
2. Paul tells us that the Jewish people had it all
wrong. God is not anyone’s friend “exclusively.” His intention from the very beginning was that He wanted to have a relationship with all people “inclusively. Take a look at verse 6. It states God’s intentions very clearly: “This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel.”
3. Three Key Words
Verse 6 goes on to describe the three strands of
relationship that we have with God. It says that we are a.) heirs together, b.) members together and c.)sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus. (salvation).
a. “heirs together” speaks of having the same inheritance as the Jewish people.
b. “members together ” speaks of belonging to the same family as the Jewish people.
c. “sharers together” speaks of having the same privileges as the Jewish people.
4. Paul pictures our inclusion into God’s family like a
graft into a tree. I remember my Dad telling me that he
did some work in a tree nursery when he was young.
They had an apple tree there that the caretakers had
used to make a graft. They took a sharp knife and made
some slits in the young sapling and put the branches
from a pear tree and a peach tree into the slits and
wrapped them with tape. As that tree grew to maturity,
it produced not only apples, but pears and peaches as
well. Christians, we have been grafted into the people
of God with every privilege, every right of belonging
and every inheritance that God has promised in Christ
Jesus,
5. Brothers and sisters, and I choose those words in
particular, you and I are part of the family
of God. But let us also remember that nowhere has
there been more division than in the Church of Jesus
Christ. One of the most serious indictments that may
ever be brought against us as Believers is when we get
out of sorts with another brother or sister in Christ. We
must remember that they also are an heir, a member
and a sharer in the promise in Christ Jesus.
6. To illustrate this let me share with you Bruce Catton’s story in his book, A Stillness at Appomattox, of two Union officers belonging to a regiment from Maine who had just climbed a hill in northern Virginia overlooking a Confederate camp. They had heard about the fierce, bloody fighting in the area and now were getting their first glance at the enemy. As they looked through their telescopes, they saw men lounging about in shirt sleeves, some of them smoking their pipes and washing their clothes, others playing ball. At last the officers put down their telescopes and one said to the other, "My God, they’re human beings just like us!"
7. Christians, you don’t have an “exclusive” relationship with God. God has an “inclusive” relationship that embraces everyone. . . even some people we wish he wouldn’t. This mystery is more than a mystery, because God has revealed himself to everyone in Christ Jesus.
Transition: Not only is it More than a Mystery Because It Has
Been Revealed to Everyone but. . .
III. It is More than a Mystery Because It is Our Job to Reveal
It to the World. “His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known.” v.10
A. Paul Was an Administrator of this Mystery .
1. In verse 7 Paul states that he was made a
“servant of this gospel by the grace of the gift of
The word servant refers to a “minister” or
“one who holds an office in the church.” However,
Paul didn’t seek out this position, nor did he earn it
on the basis of some merit, but it was given to him
as an act of God’s grace.
2. But with the gift came a responsibility.
Verses 8 & 9 state that, “it was given me to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery.”
3. The word “administration” is the same word that
the Bible translates as a “steward” or “one who is given a trust”. 1 Corinthians 4:2-3 tells us that there is but one aspect that a steward must fulfill; it reads, “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful.” Paul said that as an administrator or steward of the mystery of God in Christ Jesus, he was a faithful steward.
B. We Are Administrators of this Mystery But are We
Faithful Stewards?
1. Folks, we are privileged this morning, we have heard the good news that Jesus saves us from our sins. I hope that all of us have put our trust and complete faith in Him. But that is not the end of the story. Christians are supposed to do something with their faith. Look with me at verse 10. Paul writes, “His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known. Paul said it was given to him to be a steward of this mystery, but now he states it is the responsibility of the Church to make known the mystery.
2. My question to you this morning is who is “Who is the Church?” Let me give you a hint: the Church is not the block and brick and mortar we sit in, the church is the living body of Jesus Christ composed of you and me. Its our responsibility to make known the mystery of Christ Jesus’ availability to those around us.
3. Some folks have said that their religion is private and they don’t talk about it. I don’t know where they get that idea because its not a Biblical idea. Our Bible tells us to “Go and make disciples of every creature. Baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.” Matt. 28:19 Christians, our faith is personal but it is never private. We are stewards of the mystery of salvation. It is imperative that we share it with others around us.
4. STEWARD OF THE LIGHT
In the nineteenth century, lighthouses on the U.S. coasts were tended by lighthouse keepers and their families. If a man who tended the light took ill or became disabled, often the work was picked up by his wife or children. Such was the case of Hosea Lewis. Having become, in 1853, the keeper of the light on Lime Rock Island at Newport, Rhode Island, Lewis suffered a stroke four years later, at which time his teenage daughter Ida assumed responsibility for the light. Each day included cleaning the reflectors, trimming the wick, and filling the oil reservoir at sunset and midnight, along with providing for her father’s care. With long and demanding tasks, Ida was unable to continue her schooling, but daily delivered her siblings to class, whatever the weather, by rowing the 500 yards to the mainland. In the mid-1800s, it was unusual to see a woman maneuvering a boat, but Ida became well skilled and well known for handling the heavy craft.
The teenager gained a measure of fame at age sixteen when she rescued four young men after their boat capsized. She rowed to their aid, hearing their screams as they clung to their overturned craft. On March 29, 1869, Ida saved two drown-ing servicemen from nearby Fort Adams. Public knowledge of Ida’s courage spread as far as Washington, inspiring President Ulysses S. Grant to visit Ida at Newport later that year. Ida rescued another two soldiers in 1881, for which she was awarded the U.S. Lifesaving Service’s highest medal.
In early February of that year the two soldiers were crossing from Newport to Lime Rock Island on foot when the ice gave way. Ida, the lighthouse keeper, came running with a rope. Ignoring peril to herself from weak and rotten ice, she pulled one, then the other to safety. All told, Ida Lewis personally saved something like 25 people in fifty-plus years of keeping the light. Her last reported rescue came at age 63 when she saved a friend who had fallen into the water on her way to visit Ida on the island. "Asked where she found strength and courage for such a feat, Ida answered: ’I don’t know, I ain’t particularly strong. The Lord Almighty gives it to me when I need it, that’s all.’
5. Ida Lewis was a faithful steward. But the reason she was so faithful in her task is that she realized there were always people that would need to be saved. Christians, this mystery is more than a mystery, its also a job title: hearld of the good news, evangelist that Jesus saves, proclaimer of the truth in Christ Jesus. Our motivation is that there are men and women, boys and girls who are in desperate straights and need to hear the good news of the gospel
CONCLUSION:
Perhaps there is someone sitting here today that the good news of the gospel is still a mystery for them.
2. Maybe you want to be a witness of the truth. There is someone you’re concerned about but you need the courage to share the good news.
