No Appointment Necessary – Eph. 3:1-13
Steve Simala Grant, Sept. 9, 2001
Intro:
Did you ever get in trouble in school for writing an incomplete sentence? The teacher scrawls a big red pen word across the page – “incomplete!” and reduces your grade accordingly. Our Scripture passage today, Eph. 3:1-13, begins with just such a sentence. _______ read it earlier for us, so I’m not going to read the whole thing again, but turn to it and keep it open and we’ll look at it together.
Paul begins a sentence, says “for this reason, I Paul, …” and then gets sidetracked – gets diverted – and never finishes the sentence. He does comes back to the thought, and completes that in verse 14, which we’ll look at next week. What sidetracks Paul is the need to explain his role and his responsibility, he talks about being a prisoner of Christ for the sake of the gentiles, and realizes that it would be helpful for his readers to know more about him and what it is that Jesus has told him that is so incredible he was willing to suffer imprisonment and persecution.
The passage can be organized into the first paragraph, vss. 2-6, which talks about what the “mystery” is; the second section, vss. 7-11, which talks about sharing this mystery, and the climax of vs. 12.
1. The Mystery is… (vs. 1-6)
Back in chap. 1:9, Paul said that God “made known to us the mystery of his will,” but he never told us what that mystery was. He left that until now. He tells us several things about the mystery before actually stating what it is:
1) it is described as “the administration of God’s grace” (vs. 2), a phrase that makes sense once we see what the mystery is in vs. 6.
2) it was given to Paul by “revelation,” (vs. 3) meaning it came directly from God to Paul. It is possible that this happened when Paul met Jesus on the Damascus road (see Acts 9), I think it maybe came a little later, but regardless, it is clear that Paul intends us to know that revealing the content of the mystery is directly from God.
3) it was previously hidden, but has now been revealed (vs. 5). It is like a good mystery novel or movie – the clues have been there all along, but it is not until we get to the end that we see how the various pieces all fit together.
So what is this mystery, exactly? vs. 6 (read). The mystery is the incredible unity of the church – that we are all one in Christ. The entire passage thus far comes to this point – that through the Gospel of Jesus Christ we are all one. Paul uses three terms to describe this unity: 1) heirs together; 2) members together of one body; and 3) shares together in the promise.
A. Heirs together:
You don’t earn an inheritance – it is a gift. Paul is saying here that together we receive the inheritance of God. And it is not the idea of God divvying up His riches and distributing a bit here, a bit there – the idea is that together we receive the same thing. Together we receive the gift of salvation. It is like leaving your house to your children – it is not like one gets the upstairs and the other gets the basement. The inheritance is to them together, and then they need to work together to receive the benefits of the inheritance. Earlier in chapter 1 we saw that the Holy Spirit is the guarantor of this inheritance, here the emphasis is on the fact that we are heirs together.
B. Members together:
This is interesting – Paul invents a word here. The word he uses is found nowhere else in the Bible or in any other writings of the time; in order to make his point Paul invents this word that pictures us all joined together into one body. This is the theme he has been developing all along – that we all as Christians belong to the same body – the church of Christ, with Jesus as the head – and that it is only us all together that make up this body.
C. Sharers together:
This is the third great unifier – that together we share in the promise. What promise? I believe this is a reference to the Holy Spirit, based on 1:13. This then means that the third thing which brings us all together is the promise of the Holy Spirit – and the fact that all who believe in Jesus receive this gift of the Holy Spirit.
Note the key word in each of these three points – together. We are not heirs alone. We are not exclusive members. We do not receive the Holy Spirit in isolation from one another. Rather, the point Paul is going to great lengths to make (even inventing a word to maintain this emphasis), is that the great mystery of God is that together, all Christians make up the church of God.
This says to me that we had better be united as a local body of believers, and that we had better be open to what God is doing in other areas of His kingdom. And if there are disagreements or dissension, they had better be around areas that are significant and not trivial – for example we had better not unite with people who deny that Jesus is the Son of God, and we better not divide with people who prefer a different music style than we do or would rather worship and witness at a different time. St. Augustine famously said, “In Essentials, Unity. In non-essentials, Diversity. In all things, Charity.”
Some missionaries in the Philippines set up a croquet game in their front yard. Several of their Agta Negrito neighbors became interested and wanted to join the fun. The missionaries explained the game and started them out, each with a mallet and ball. As the game progressed, opportunity came for one of the players to take advantage of another by knocking that person’s ball out of the court. A missionary explained the procedure, but his advice only puzzled the Negrito friend. "Why would I want to knock his ball out of the court?" he asked. "So you will be the one to win!" a missionary said. The short-statured man, clad only in a loincloth, shook his head in bewilderment. Competition is generally ruled out in a hunting and gathering society, where people survive not by competing but by sharing equally in every activity.
The game continued, but no one followed the missionaries’ advice. When a player successfully got through all the wickets, the game was not over for him. He went back and gave aid and advice to his fellows. As the final player moved toward the last wicket, the affair was still very much a team effort. And finally, when the last wicket was played, the "team" shouted happily, "We won! We won!"
2. The Mystery Shared: (vss. 7-11)
The second section in the passage talks about sharing this mystery.
A. With the Gentiles
The first people with whom the mystery is shared are the Gentiles (vs. 8). In keeping with the purpose of the passage which is to share more of himself with his hearers, Paul mentions some of his personal experience in verse 7 and then explains that his job is to share this great mystery with the gentiles. I want to point out just briefly how Paul describes this in vs. 8, because it is a beautiful descriptor: he says he is called to preach “the unsearchable riches of Christ”. One commentator says that this “suggests the picture of a reservoir so deep that soundings cannot reach the bottom of it. No limit can, therefore, be put to its resources.” (Mitton). I wanted to point that out – the resources, the forgiveness, the power of God is like a reservoir so deep we can never find the bottom of it – we can never draw too much of it – we can never exhaust it. Draw strength from that truth today – whatever you are facing, God’s resources are abundant.
B. With all people
The sharing of the mystery is not limited to the gentiles. Paul goes on to say in the next verse that he wants to make this plain “to everyone”. He wants all people to know that there is hope and unity for us together in Christ.
C. With the powers
Verse 10 catches us a bit by surprise. We’ve been following along, ok, um hmm, I understand, and then this catches us a bit by surprise. Paul says that the third group with whom the mystery of God is shared is the spiritual realm, and that the existence of the church demonstrates this mystery. (read vss. 10-11). I believe what this verse is teaching is that the unity of the church – a multi-racial grouping of people together in Christ – demonstrates to all the spiritual realm the incredible wisdom and plan of God.
This reminds us that our faith and our witness is not merely a human thing, it is a spiritual thing. And thus we should expect spiritual forces to discourage and dissuade and distract us from making the mystery known like Paul did. To rob us of the energy and urgency. To sidetrack us with non-essential issues. And when we come to chapter 6, we see Paul’s prescription for dealing with this reality. For now, the point is one of hope. God created the church, united us in Christ, and this very existence of the church demonstrates to all the wisdom of God.
3. The climax (vs. 12):
Verse 12 brings us to the climax of the passage. (read). It is a simple sentence, but full of profound truth.
Have you ever had the experience of needing to see someone or talk to someone, feeling fairly desperate about it, feeling a great deal of urgency, like “but I need to get in touch with them NOW!”, only to find that they are unavailable. “I can book you an appointment in one month;” “I’m sorry, so-and-so is out of the office but I can get them to return your call later;” or my personal favorite, the busy signal followed five minutes later by no answer.
It is not that way with God. His phone is never busy. You’ll never get a voicemail message that says “I am in the office but just temporarily away from my desk.” You’ll never get a secretary who tells you that He can squeeze in a brief appointment a week from Thursday. On the contrary, God is waiting for you. His door is open. His phone line is clear. His personal email address is available to you to use. God is accessible, open, free, and inviting you and I to talk with Him.
Look at verse 12 with me. “In him and through faith in him” – the Him here is Christ, that is clear from the last part of vs. 11. It is because of Jesus that we have this open access to God the Father. It is because we have been made into one new man in Christ that we can come before God at any time. Note the role of faith – of placing our hope and trust in Jesus as our Lord. Part of this means we have faith that God will hear our cry; part of it means that we will have the faith to accept God’s response as what is best for us.
Through Jesus “we may approach God.” A man during the Civil War was sitting on a park bench in Washington, D.C., crying. His son, under great distress, had deserted his post in battle and was to be shot by a firing squad soon. The father had come to the capitol to see President Abraham Lincoln but couldn’t get past the front gates. People
passed by, but nobody stopped to listen.
Finally, a little boy paused and asked the man why he was crying. In his emotional distress, he told his story. He ended by saying that if he could talk to the president, he knew his son would be pardoned.
The young boy asked the man to follow him. When they came to the front gate of the White House, the little boy said to the soldiers, "It’s all right, he’s with me." The man followed in amazement. They came to the room where President Lincoln was conferring with his generals and cabinet members, guarded by yet another detachment of soldiers. The young boy pushed inside and jumped up on the president’s lap. Conversation stopped as the boy said, "Daddy, there’s a man I want you to meet. He needs your help."
The man was brought in to talk with the president. His son received the presidential pardon because the son of the president took an interest in his plight.
Through Jesus we have access to God - what an incredible truth. We, who are in our old nature corrupt and rebellious and sinful and objects of God’s wrath, are suddenly, miraculously, invited into God’s presence. We have the privilege of bringing our case before the almighty God, creator of the entire universe. God Himself waits with open arms to welcome us into His presence. Paul goes on, instructing us to enter God’s presence with “freedom and confidence.” The NRSV has “boldness” instead of freedom, which is maybe a better translation since the word sometimes implies courage in the face of intimidating circumstances. The point of these two words is to encourage us to come to God, even when we are a bit afraid or shy or feel to ashamed. We need not be tentative, we need not sneak in ashamedly, we instead come before God with the abandon of children in love. Through Jesus we can approach God the Father, and be confident that He will welcome us with open arms, hear the cry of our hearts, and answer us with what is best for us.
As much as there is a danger in us being too shy to approach God, I think there is also a danger of us trivializing this incredible privilege. Of feeling like we can barge in on God, tell Him what He needs to do, and then storm back out just as quickly. That maybe describes our prayers more often than being too shy to approach God! So how do we come to God? We need to do so humbly, and we need to be real. We don’t butter God up with flowery statements about how great He is so that He will look favorably on our requests – we just pour our hearts out to Him. Our worship and praise each week need to flow from what we believe about God, about who He is and what He has done. And it needs to be genuine. Real. From the heart. It needs to be authentic, or else I believe it is insulting. Paul has reminded us repeatedly of who God is in this letter to the Ephesians, and he expects us to remember that as we come to God in worship and in prayer, and that is why he encourages us to come before Him with boldness and confidence. God is great. God’s love is powerful. The riches of the gospel of freedom and forgiveness are “unsearchable,” to use the word from vs. 8. And our response needs to honor Him by our coming into His presence and offering ourselves to Him with humbleness, and with boldness and confidence.
The mystery is that in Christ we are all one. This mystery needs to be shared. And the result of this, the climax, is that we can now approach God with boldness and confidence.
Conclusion:
What do you need to approach God with? Is there anything in your life you have been holding back from Him? Maybe you’ve never approached Him at all, and maybe today you have heard God’s invitation and you want to respond. Maybe there is a request, a hurt, an anger that you haven’t talked with God about. Maybe there is something He has called you to do that you have been resisting. Maybe there is an area of your life you haven’t given over to Him to have control in. Approach Him this morning. Answer His call. His door is open, you don’t need to make an appointment, just start the conversation and be real with Him. Pour your heart out to Him. He promises to hear you.
