MESSAGE BY PASTOR DANIEL PARK
FROM BETHANY BAPTIST IN RICHMOND, BC.
I invite you to pray with me, Father God hear our prayer, and we humbly cry to you as it is written in your word, Lucas 11:9:” Keep asking and it will give to you, Continue searching and you will find it, Keep knocking and it will be open for you)” We are requesting healing for our dear members of our family and also dear friends who are suffering from illnesses in their lives fighting and suffering under a lot of pain, You know them by their names; (Gaby P, Vicky O, Nancy R, Tere G, Liz N, Gloria F, Stevie A, Les N, Miguel A H, Socrates D, Sara's mom H, Sergei B, Margarita G, Fega G. Manuel D, Marlen C. Rosy Ch) Also, some of them are tired of spiritual struggles, losing their faith in you, Strengthening their trust in you with a miracle in their lives, oh! Father God, hear our prayer, and we also pray for all the people around the world, especially the children who are suffering from wars, devastation, hunger, pain, hate and disbelieving in you also, bless the ones who are reading this message and their families. Heal the Land of those Countries at war; you love them so much, oh Father God, hear our prayer, we ask you in the name of Our Lord of Lords and King of Kings, your beloved son Jesus Christ. AMEN!
Broadly speaking, Paul’s letter to the Ephesians is about how the Gospel story should affect our personal story
Today’s passage of chapter 3 concludes the first half of Ephesians where Paul has been outlining the Gospel Story - especially as it pertains to the Gentiles
And Paul’s specific role as a messenger to Non-Jews
And here, Paul is not just teaching theology
He is driving home his transformation into a new person with a purpose and task
He is trying to help his readers - the Gentiles in Ephesus and elsewhere AS WELL AS Jews everywhere, because we know Paul’s letters were being shared and read everywhere
Comprehend or understand what was to a lot of people, incomprehensible - just not making sense
Not just a new religious ideal, but as we have been hearing in the first few messages of this series - a new life in Christ that is not just about a personal way to living, but a renewal of all humanity
Paul knew that even for people who had heard of and knew about this guy called Jesus, the complete picture was far from clear
People did not really understand what everything meant
What the “end game” is
So he calls it “the mystery”
And if you go through the chapter, you’ll see other similar words that are talking about this mystery
revelation
God’s grace
gospel
unsearchable riches
wisdom of God
This mystery is the message of Jesus Christ that Paul never tires of explaining in every letter He writes to people everywhere
Something he continually preaches so that it stacks on top of each other to help people understand it more and more
Until they can experience its power in their lives
So in trying to comprehend the incomprehensible, Paul walks us through:
God’s grace the Gentiles - again
The gospel responsibility of the Church
And the unsearchable riches of that can be realized through the power of the Holy Spirit - the Spirit of God
ONE: THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE MYSTERY FOR THE GENTILES
The mystery, that is,
the revelation
God’s grace
gospel
unsearchable riches od Christ
wisdom of God
-The generosity of God - is revealed from God - and has been in the process of from long ago
First to 1 man and his family - Abram/Abraham
Then to 1 nation and people - Israel/the Jews
Fully realized in a Man from that nation - Jesus
To be made available to all nations and peoples
This was the only and perfect way for God’s will to be realized in all creation
P. Rob has explained extensively of the significance of Gentiles being included in the gospel so I won’t go into that today
The years following the death and resurrection of Jesus was a crucial time of transition
After centuries of exclusive relationship and knowledge, the whole Jews and Gentiles thing was a watershed moment
And for Paul, the gospel that gives new life and includes the Gentiles was the guiding purpose in all he did
Paul readily suffered and went through hardship specifically to preach the gospel to Gentiles
If Paul wasn’t so concerned about the Gentiles’ inclusion, his life would have been so much simpler and more peaceful .
But the inclusion of the Gentiles wasn’t an ideal he thought was good and biblical to highlight
Paul is trying to get people to understand that the gospel is not the gospel without the Gentiles
God’s grace is grace because it is equal for the Jews and the Gentiles
Grace that not only connects us to God and Christ and to each other, but it also enlists and empowers us
What does this have to do with us today, where 99.9% of us here and the people we know ARE gentiles?
We live in this new thing now
Surely we can move past this to other and better things are talk about the learn?
I think that this repetition and tension we keep reading about it Paul’s letters is important to us even 2000 years later
It’s easy for us to make gentiles of other people
In fact, I would say that our sinful nature means we have the tendency to
To be a Christian - a believer of Jesus means we live in a way that confirms that everyone is WORTHY to be my brother or sister
No matter what culture or ethnicity they are
How different they are
Neurodivergent
Personality
Preferences
Politics
No matter how right or wrong they are, or I am
The grace of God is FOR THEM as much as I have experienced it
And I want them to experience it as well.
It means going OUT OF OUR WAY to accept and love those unlovable to us
Not judging those we want to judge
Forgiving those who are hard to forgive.
We have to reexamine our comprehension and revisit our incomprehension
Reexamine the things we take for granted as our way of life
The sentences we might begin with, “This is my…”
Revisit the things we don’t get and have brushed off
The times we thought, “Why would they/you/he/she/it/we/I…”
We do this by first seeking God’s grace for ourselves
Grace that not only connects us to God and Christ and to each other, but it also enlists and empowers us
Paul viewed himself as a manager of this grace
His ministry to the Gentiles was unique, but all Christians are to be managers of the same grace
All who have received grace should extend it to others
To receive grace is to be taken into its service
Grace connects, enlists, and empowers.
It will not allow us to be passive, for it is God’s power at work in us
This work of grace is something the church is called to.
TWO: THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE MYSTERY IS ADMINISTERED THROUGH THE CHURCH
Grace was given to Paul for three purposes:
To preach to the Gentiles the riches of Christ (v. 8)
To make plain the administration of the mystery (v.9)
And to make the wisdom of God known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms (v. 10).
Paul’s concern is not just access to heaven at some future day, but access to God in the present
Paul’s ministry was founded on his conviction about revelation and focused on the proclamation of that revelation.
The same is still true of Christian ministry today.
It emerges from the conviction that God has revealed himself uniquely in Christ, and its main task is to make the revelation known.
God has called every one of us to a personal ministry
In verse 1, Paul dramatically declares himself a prisoner of Christ Jesus
In Romans Paul calls himself a “bond-servant or Slave of Christ Jesus
You could take that to mean that the gospel and calling of Jesus is so irresistible and compelling
There is definitely a poetically correctness about it, but also remember that Paul wrote Ephesians and a few other letters, while he was literally a prisoner for preaching about Jesus
So Paul was a prisoner on behalf of Jesus Christ, but he was also a prisoner as part of his service for Jesus
An element he was never bitter about, but actually counted for joy, and we read in verse 13, even glory Paul does not focus on the hardship, but on Jesus, the gospel, and the people God called him to
His theology is aware of something larger than his own circumstances.
Paul’s circumstances were attendant factors, but they did not define who he was.
Only the gospel defined him.
It might sound weird, but in your role that is difficult, try calling yourself by your situation or even work
A mum or dad of Jesus Christ
A student of Jesus Christ
An accountant of Jesus Christ
A CEO of Jesus Christ
The thought that Paul’s sufferings were the “glory” of his readers may seem strange at first,
but Paul viewed his imprisonment as part of his service to Christ, a service that exalted the Gentiles
If he was in prison for preaching to the Gentiles, someone was fighting for them and their position was being given attention
That he was in prison should not be discouraging.
The discouraging thing is that no one was willing to go to prison for ministering to the Gentiles.
This means our suffering for another in serving them honours them, and is an outward sign that we love them
Two different factors are at work behind the positive view of hardship here
First, Paul rejoices in suffering because it is a means of identifying with the death and resurrection of Christ on behalf of other people
To be heirs together with Christ assumes suffering on his behalf
Second, Paul’s particular hardship is evidence of God’s wisdom and love including the Gentiles in his purposes.
It brings attention to his ministry.
Paul can be positive about what he is experiencing and asks his readers to be positive because he views his troubles as a direct result of grace working in him.
The privileges of working for God and having access to God far outweigh the difficulty.
We don’t live like this any more
We don’t have to live this like
In fact, we don’t have to suffer
And we don’t WANT to suffer for anyone
Our hardship will probably not be like Paul’s, but identification with the cross is not optional and is always costly.
We cannot show self-giving love while trying to serve and please ourselves first
Our definition must come from Christ, not our circumstances
THREE: THE INCOMPREHENSIBLE MYSTERY MADE COMPREHENSIBLE THROUGH THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT
If you find Ephesians chapter 3 hard to read and understand, it’s pretty understandable
First, everything we read, up to verse 19, is actually only 3 sentences in Greek
1-7, 8-13, 14-19
On top of that, about 2/3 of the chapter is a digression
3:1 “For this Reason” is what he covered in chapter 2,
God’s grace saving us to be a new multi-ethnic humanity with a new purpose
Unified to live in peace As Paul wrote “Gentiles,” he went off on his digression, which runs from verses 2 to 13.
Reemphasizing the fundamental place of gentiles in God’s grace and the importance of the ongoing ministry to make known this unsearchable riches that is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
So in verse 14, Paul comes back to what he started in verse 1, a prayer for the believers in Ephesus
Combining verses 1 and 14, it could read,
For this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that according to the riches of his glory, he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have the strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
The core of the prayer is what is in the middle, to be strengthened with power through God’s Spirit in verse 16
From God the Father from whom comes everything - including revelation So that Christ will make his home in your hearts as you trust in him
The power through the Holy Spirit is the power to understand how wide, how long, how high, and how deep the love of Jesus is
It will enable us to experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully.
Then we will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.
Isn’t it interesting that before Paul talks about the power and gifts of the Spirit to DO things for Jesus - which he will talk about in chapter 4
The power of God’s Spirit results in Christ making His home in our hearts
So that we can experience TRUE LOVE and be filled with the fullness of God
It is the revelation of LOVE that transforms people
Not the passing of judgment
Not the clarifying of the truth of RIGHT or WRONG
Not even the revelation of sin
All of the above play their part in the revelation of the mystery of the Love of God shown in Jesus Christ
That loves DESPITE the above
We have to remember that out of the 12 disciples of Jesus and many other apostles, only Paul is renowned for his evangelism to Gentiles
We can read about the controversy this caused
It took a lot for even the 12 disciples to readily accept that the gospel of Jesus was for LITERALLY EVERYONE
We need reminding that God does not ONLY love me and died only for me
but for everyone
And that includes EVERYONE
We are reminded that we all have a calling from God, which is a responsibility and privilege to serve Him by spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ
Especially to the people we have somehow come to alienate and subtly chosen to not understand
Let us go to the Father and bow and ask for His Spirit to empower us to know and understand His love revealed to us in Jesus Christ so that we can make it known to the people He sends us to.
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