They [wore] black they are very serious-looking; and they look like they just came from a sculpting competition. tattoos, facial jewelry (hooks, studs, chains "it looked like half of them had fallen into a tackle box, gotten up, and just showed up at church like that".
This two year old church was growing where other churches had "died out."
The service was punctuated with lit candles and indie rock music, "fascinating service . . . But I didn’t enjoy it very much. I didn’t know many of the songs and could not sing along. This setting was definitely not my style."
Yet during the communion service, where half went forward to partake while the other half stayed seated because they were instructed to do so if they hadn’t committed to Christ or experienced unrepented sin, Ed Stetzer noticed that those who went forward came back to those who hadn’t and prayed with them. ""All around me, just a few rows up, people began to weep, praying and crying out to God. They began to sing, and they began to worship with people on their knees." Ed Stetzer, Breaking the Missional Code, pp. 35-36)
Ed reflects:
They were people who dressed differently, people who liked different music, and people who had a different culture than me. But they were all worshipping the same Christ. I did not relate well to the context; it was not my preference. But it was NOT ABOUT ME (emphasis mine) God was there, and this was a holy place because somebody had followed the command of Jesus when he said, "As the Father has sent me, I am sending you . . . to all different kinds of peoples (john 20:21; Matt 28:18-20)
Ed’s student who had planted this church, Daniel Montomery, had a "few years ago looked and acted a lot like" him (p. 36)
At the end of the day, I have to remember--we all have to remember--that it is not about me, it is not about you. It is about Jesus sending us to peoples to proclaim the gospel in a way that they can understand.. Our churches often struggle because we put our preferences over our call--our preferences over our mission." (Ed Stetzer, David Putman, Breaking the Missional Code, pp 34-36)
Stetzer(pp., 36-37) talks about a church in OK City, where he started noticing it was not like any church he knew: they sang the "victory in Jesus" song punctuated by "yeehaws". Most of the people had an empty chair/space between them which he realized was for their cowboy hats. They yelled "preach it brother" (to which he said "I’m trying-stop yelling at me" and "yee haw in the middle . .
Afterwards at a Ryans Buffet, a man told Ed how he had tried different churches to no avail, either they "dressed too expensive" or they didn’t accept him. Here, he felt at home. "I got radically saved and washed in the blood." ((pl 37)
" I thought to myself, I don’t know if I can handle the culture. but this was a holy place--God was here. And then God convicted me--It was not about me! They were exactly what God wanted them to be to reach theis lower middle class, blue-collar community on the far side of Oklahoma City. Sojourn was exactly what God wanted them to be and I knew that in both places there were empty church buildings all around them who said ""We’ve god our preferences, and we’re here; ya’ll come."
Title: GOD SHOCKS WORLD IN TELL-ALL DRAMA!
Divine Disclosure Raises Eyebrows Even As it Mends Fences
(or, God’s Mystery Unveiled Reveals More Surprises.)
God had a mystery, kept hidden for thousands of years. A hidden plan for the universe. A secret about which no one knew the full story. And to the shock and amazement of all, at the right time, he let the cat out of the bag.
Reminds me a bit of tabloid headlines: shock, amaze, titillate. I will retell it that way
But of course, tabloids never get it all right, but they sure stick in our brains.
Big Idea: The Revealing of God’s Ancient Secret is as Shocking as it is Soothing.
1. Shocker! God Spills Guts to Two-Faced Turncoat (And Some Misfits)!
vv. 3-5
Ephesians 3:3 He let me know his secret by showing it to me. I have already written a little about this. 4 If you read what I wrote then, you can see that I truly understand the secret about the Christ. 5 People who lived in other times were not told that secret. But now, through the Spirit, God has shown that secret to his holy apostles and prophets. (NCV)
• Paul was a man working against God, yet God let him in on His Secret. The Damascus Road Experience.
• Along with Paul, God let a rag tag band of fishemen, tax collector, political activist, and a whole collection of interesting, unlikely folk be the key “administrators” of his secret!
God takes great pleasure in confiding His Secret Plan to the most Unlikely People.
And His Secret, or Mystery was basically this: He would give a special gift to the people of the world: his son. More specifically, he would give honor, inheritance, privilege, love, forgiveness, eternal life, adoption into the family of God to people who didn’t have that status, nor deserved it.
In our text, these are the descriptions given to the mystery:
• v.4 “mystery of Christ”
• v.6 that Jews and Gentiles be united together and recipients of God’s promise and gift (more on that later)
• v. 7almost a synonym for the “gospel” or “good news”
• v. 8 the unsearchable riches of Christ (and we have heard a LOT about the riches in God and Christ, of late)
• and earlier in Ephesians (1:9-10), we learned that the mystery was none other than God’s plan to bring all things (sum up all things) together in Christ. There would come a day when people divided would live united for eternity, and any spiritual power or person opposed to God would finally be put in their place under the power and Lordship of Jesus
God is basically saying: There will come a day when everybody will know without a doubt that my Son will rule all things, and on that day, there will be no more spiritual warfare, sin, or suffering. Those that are my children—through adoption in Jesus will be with me forever, and those not: well, “let’s just say they will have a special place reserved just for them where they will not cause anybody any harm, anymore!
There is a special place in history for Paul, the apostles, and the early Christian prophets: It was through them that God made plain his secret, or his plan, for all people on earth and all powers in the heavens.
Through their efforts the world came to know the message of Jesus, which we now have preserved in their writings, which we refer to as, “the Bible.”
Shocking who the God of the Universe confides in! But Soothing to know that He is pleased to reveal himself to people like me . . . and you . . . and anyone who hears and responds to his call.
Closely related to his telling Paul the secret was what he then did with Paul
2. Gasp! Thug Turns Evangelist! Who’s Next?
Eph 3:2,3 for surely you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given me for you 3 and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation (NRSV)
We have already touched on how God used Paul. But we need to drive home this point that God can change the heart and image of anybody to use in his service.
Paul came to know Christ while on the very path to imprison Christians. He was a “Jewish Thug.” Of course, at the time, he didn’t see it that way, but he came to realize how far Christ would go to change him.
7 Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God’s grace that was given me by the working of his power. 8 Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ, 9 and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things; (NRSV)
From Thug to Evangelist. The change was so dramatic that early Christians feared Paul—not believing he could change
From Thug to Evangelist. The change was so dramatic that Paul turned from Christian Killer to Christian Maker (through the help of God)
Can you picture the moment that God did all this? Was he anxious? Was he chomping at the bit? Was he secretly laughing—not at what Paul had been doing, but knowing the 180% turn he was about to make that would blow everybodies mind?! Laughing as only a Father could who saw what great things this wayward, stubborn, man would one day do for Jesus’ Sake?
I have been sharing a bit about a celebrity who became a child of God a few years ago: Stephen Baldwin.
He describes how after his decision to follow God, he decided the time was right to have a little talk with God: he wanted to make sure that his was a decision he would never regret.
In his mind he pictured himself standing on the biggest boulder he could find, shaking his fist and yelling at God:
“Okay, buddy, this is how this is going down. you win. You’ve got me. All of me. . . I plan on being the greatest believer in You that there has ever been, and if that sounds arrogant, praise the Lord, because that’s what I want to be . . .But you better be real because if You aren’t, You will regret the day You ever messed with Stephen Baldwin. If all this turns out to be nothing but a lie, I will spend the rest of my life waging war against You. but if all this is real, and it better be real, I will serve You with everything I’ve got . . . .” (The Unusual Suspect, p. 53-54)
He shared this story at Willow Creek Community Church. Afterwards, a little 80 yr old lady approached him and asked:
“Young man, I was just wondering , when you talked about pumping your fist at God and challenging Him with all our threats, during all of that could you hear Him up in heaven laughing?”
God spoke through that woman. I heard Him say through her, Who in the heck do you think you are, Baldwin? He put all the details of mystery into perspective. I made so much noise about choosing God, that I didn’t realize it was God Who searched for me.
Yeah, I could hear God laughing, but He wasn’t laughing at me as if I were some kind of fool. Instead, I heard the laughter of a proud Father Who said, “That’s my boy.”
God Uses the Most Unlikely People to proclaim his Name. If he can use Paul and Stephen, surely he will be pleased to use you.
Your past (whatever that may be) is not an issue with God, because he knows your future with Him.
It’s shocking to hear the all the people whose sordid pasts God chooses to overlook as he commissions them for his service. But it is soothing when I realize that I don’t have to explain my past away for God. He takes me as I am, transforms me and uses me for His glory!
Transition: It might be all well and good to hear God can use anybody to serve him, but you might have second thoughts about serving him when you see this next headline:
3. Scary! Serving God Can Put You Behind Bars!
Eph 3:1 This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders (the Message)
Paul was beaten and left for dead in many a city—
Sometimes, serving God brings outward glory. Sometimes, it brings outward shame.
Listen to how the Bible recounts the fate of many a servant of God:
(first the glorious outcomes:)
HEBREWS 11:32 And what more should I say? For time would fail me to tell of . . . [all] . . . who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, 34 quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. 35 Women received their dead by resurrection.
But there were also the sad stories, the painful, lonely, and dejecting times:
Others were tortured, refusing to accept release, in order to obtain a better resurrection. 36 Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned to death, they were sawn in two, they were killed by the sword; they went about in skins of sheep and goats, destitute, persecuted, tormented— 38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground.
I am not sure how you define success as a servant of God. As a preaching minister, a common trap is to gauge your success by
• numbers
• multiple services
• slick powerpoint presentations
• workshops you are asked to preside over
• volume of your tape and book ministry
and on and on. And many of those things are important, and can be a gauge of how faithful you are. But they alone do not define success or measure your faithfulness.
Maybe your definition of success might be
• never having a worry or negative thought
• harmony with your spouse
• regular promotions at work
• appreciation inside and outside the church for the good things you do
• kids who always listen and never talk back
But as we go through life, we realize: “being a Christian is not easy!” Do we give up?
Some Christians try to ignore their problems, and don’t seek God’s help, instead, putting on a false front of confidence and victory. But this shallow response people can easily see through and according to Klyne Snodgrass, “the complaint comes:
Now here you are with your faith and your Peter Pan advice
You have no scars on your face
And you cannot handle
Pressure. (quoting Billy Joel, “Pressure,” in NIVAC, p. 175)
What if we went to prison for 20 years as Watchman Nee, a Chinese leader did, eventually dieing there?
Would serving God be worth it? Would we take the challenge?
If God called you:
• to take a mission trip to the Ukraine,
• to patiently endure the ridicule of your “un saved” family members
• or spend your free time reaching out to the “Goth Kids” at the mall,
• or miss your Sunday afternoon games for the sake of your family
• or take on a greater role in serving Christ through your church
• WHAT IF he called you to give up the life you’ve always known, the comforts you’ve grown accustomed to, to serve him in a totally new way, some way you could never imagine?
What would you say?
This ISN”T WHAT I SIGNED UP FOR!
But what does a servant sign up for? To serve. Whatever and wherever that may be!
But God isn’t about being a cruel task master. And Paul, though in chains as he writes this letter, doesn’t drown in self pity, or ask God to be let off the hook.
He knows it is all about power, perspective and prayer, for him. Listen:
Power:
7 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. (NIV)
Paul talks a LOT about the power there is from God, whether it was the power to raise Jesus from the dead and put him in authority over all creation, or whether it was the working of that same power to transform Paul from killer to evangelist, and to experience that power in his ongoing ministry, as he says so forcefully in Colossians 1:28-29
28 We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. 29 To this end I labor, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me. (NIV)
Perspective:
13 So then, I ask you not to become discouraged because of my troubles on your behalf, which are your glory (ISV)
Of course we know Paul is tickled just to serve God who has been so full of love and grace with him. That is a major part of his “bigger picture” that keeps him from focusing on the hardships of his life.
But the other side of his perspective is that he knows his hardships are also resulting in lives changed. His life is not just about him, it is about passing on to others what he himself experiences with God. That is why he tells the Ephesians that his suffering is for “your glory.”
But lastly, his attitude is bolstered by his prayer (access):
12 in whom we have boldness and confident access through his faithfulness. (ISV)
Prayer is a privilege all Christians have: going to our heavenly father in all things, and especially when things around us look grim
So it may be shocking to come to grips with what serving God may bring us. At the same time, it can be soothing to know we are
• in service of the Almighty and Loving King,
• empowered and working to change lives as we share the good news with others,
• comforted by the fact that God grants us constant access to him in prayer, with all of our needs and petitions, who is eager and ready to help us in our time of need.
Transition: Another unbelievable truth about the mystery of God is what kind of people he allows to share all his privileges. Our next headline reads:
4. Unheard Of! Common Folk become People Of Privilege!
the Gentiles are fellow heirs, fellow members of the body, and fellow sharers of what was promised in Christ Jesus through the gospel. (ISV)
We need to capture the sense of scandal in this thought, scandal that could have been in Paul’s mind—if it were not for the fact that he was overcome by the grace of God for himself that it shifted his mind and heart to see people as God saw them—as HIS children, gone astray with the full potential to be full-fledged family members. This scandal would have sounded to the Jew more like:
• cotton patch version: the Negroes
Other ways of getting it across:
• the Message: “Outsiders”
• The Heathen (Luther Translation)
• Not Jews
In the last couple of weeks we have driven home how without Christ, we have nothing. No hope in the face of death. No forgiveness in the face of our sin. No Godly power in the face of our trials.
But the mystery of God, now revealed, proclaims that NO ONE is excluded from his riches. No one is divided by walls of hostility before God and Man, as long as they are in Christ! We are family, we inherit all God’s riches and blessings, we share in his promises found in Christ and sustained through the indwelling of His Holy Spirit.
It was this development, the reconciliation of Jew and Gentile in one body, that revealed the unsearchable riches of Christ and demonstrated the manifold wisdom of God (ISBE, Revised, 3:454)
For most of us, the church is a place that puts on services. Somehow, we must move beyond this and recover a sense of the importance of the church as the place where the purposes of God are embodied and the unity God seeks is practiced (Snodgrass, IVPAC, 174)
Transition: So while on the one hand, it is all about us, what God does for us, we also find that it is NOT about us(as ed stetzer found out)—or at least that God’s world does not revolve around us and our self centered wishes as we discover in this next headline:
5. How P.C! God is Developing A Multi-Cultural Enterprise!
scriptural basis: all throughout our text
Think about Paul: A Jew. He could have thought: what business do I have reaching out to these Gentiles?
But he knew that serving God was about building bridges to all who need the gospel revealed to them—that’s what Jesus did when he reached out to us, giving up all the glory of heaven to take on flesh and be one among us.
We call that the “incarnation.” God taking on flesh and becoming one of us. He got out of his comfort zone. and he calls us to get out of our comfort zone.
As the father has sent me, so send I you.
Go and make disciples of all nations (as a result of his authority)
It might be shocking to think of God using you to reach people that don’t look like you. But thank God you and I had someone like Paul who didn’t let that stop him.
Should we try and be clever enough to explain to God why He should let us off the hook? Shocking, what we might be called to do. Soothing, because we remember that is how we came to be part of God’s big “multi-cultural” family.
Transition: As grand as that may sound: people all over the world being part of his church, when we get close up, the church doesn’t always seem so grand. And yet it is through his church that God does a pretty amazing thing:
6. Out of This World! God Uses Band Of Believers to Shock Evil Powers!
10 so that through the church the wisdom of God in its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. (NRSV)
HOW does the God make his wisdom known to rulers and authorities in heavenly places?
the “rulers” more than likely refers to evil forces, evil spirits, demons, etc., as is often the case when such a phrase is used in the book of Ephesians. But,
This is an obscure verse, one that Paul really doesn’t elaborate on, and one that finds no other parallel in the Bible.
C E Arnold in his work examining the role of power and magic in the lives of the people of Ephesus, thinks that it is through their very existence, that they "reveal."
He quoting E.F. Scott who explains the relationship between Eph 3:10 and 1 Cor 2:6-8 by observing, "The hostile powers had sought to frustrate the work of God, and believed they had succeeded when they conspired against Christ and brought about his Crucifixion. But unwittingly they had been mere instruments in God’s hands. The death of Christ had been the very means He had devised for the accomplishment of His plan. So it is here declared that the hostile powers, after their brief apparent triumph, had now become aware of a divine wisdom they had never dreamed of. . . " (p.64)
Arnold continues: The purpose of 3:10 in the context of the entire epistle is primarily for the comfort of the readers. Plagued by a fear of the "powers" the readers would find great encouragement in knowing that the powers can see that they have been devastatingly foiled by the emergence of the body of Christ, the church. (CE Arnold, p. 64)
We might not find ourselves worried about the spiritual forces, but our lack of awareness should not take away that truth that they are it work in the world.
Pretty Shocking to think that the “motley crew” of people that make up the church: as insignificant or clumsy or messed up as we can be is used by God to
7. Unbelievable! God Gives Gift and Expects Something Back!
7 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. 8 Although I am less than the least of all God’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ (NIV)
• v.8 grace (again) to preach
o the idea of responsibility and grace are connected,
o also, the privilege comes out: preaching the unsearchable riches of Christ. It is not a chore (even tho he suffers!)
IT IS THROUGH THE ACTIVE PROCLAMATION OF THE GOSPEL THAT GOD DRAWS MEN AND WOMENT TO HIMSELF
"Practicing" Christians were (and often still are!) defined as regular churchgoers. (schmitz in Bosch, p. 376) --and "all energy was spent on maintenance." (Bosch, 376)
The church’s missionary involvement suggests more than calling individuals in nto the church as a waiting room for the hereafter.
"church people" vs. "kingdom people."
“Church people think about how to get people into the church; Kingdom people think about how to get the church into the world. Church people worry that the world might change the church; Kingdom people work to see the church change the world.”
Howard Snyder, Liberating the Church, IVP, p.11 in David Bosch, Transforming Mission, p. 378
When we view the church as a "community of the Holy Spirit" we identify it preeminently as missionary community, since the Spirit is the go-between God." (Taylor in Bosch, 378)
Ed (p 40-42) tells of a church of 35, (jokingly) full of oxygen tanks and walkers, where the one guy in his mid thirties was "basically the youth group", who asked Ed: "Dr. Stetzer, we want you to teach us how to reach our community." Now, a community of young, ethnically diverse people--nothing like them at all.
Ed was frank: "you’ve got a long way to go in order to reach this community. It’s going to be hard to reach the first person, much less the second one." People were going to visit this church and say, "Is there anyone here like me" Do I feel welcome here?"
Over a period of time they said "We can do it!" and began to pray and study international missions, and "what it means to be God’s people on mission in Jeffersonville, Indiana" and they began to seek the Lord. For six months they prayed, during which they were radically transformed as a community.
One Easter, an "intentional outreach effort" they invited kids, grandkids, great grandkids and neighbors and friends to their church that would seat 250. 211 people came that Easter Sunday. And they maintained ca.100 in the weeks to follow, eventually growing to a church of multiple services.
Prof. Snodgrass thinks one of the most important lessons of this text is to recover attitude that Paul had toward the revelation of the gospel. “To value this treasure, we must refocus on the gospel. The gospel is not one item among many. It is all Pual had and all we have. . . We need to be gospel people! Paul was not an idealistic dreamer. He knew well the failures of his churches. But he never wearied of presenting the ideal to his readers. Is it possible to be what Ephesians describes? Paul would say that it is already true; live it! (169, 170, 175)
God is into telling secrets. Are we?
I am enjoying Gospel Benefits: Is my neighbor?
Someone Shared with Me. Will I pass it on?
His Revealed Mystery Raises the Question: How can I be content to be a taker when God is such a revealer and giver?
‘This Little Light Of Mine . . . I’m gonna let it shine. . . ‘
