I have been known to play jokes on my family. It's not the most mature aspect of my personality, and to be honest, it's a little hypocritical because I don't usually enjoy when people play jokes on me, but I guess it is what it is.
At this point, three of my four children are drivers and they own their own cars. When they bought their vehicles, I asked them to give me a copy of the keys, knowing it was highly likely that would come in handy. It has more times than I can remember.
But one particular afternoon, I took advantage of the fact that I had keys to my oldest daughter's car. I happened to notice it parked in a shopping center in the middle of town, so I pulled into the parking lot, unlocked her car, started it up, then moved it to a completely different location. After that, I sat in my car for a few minutes to watch her reaction when she came outside.
I know it doesn't make me sound like a very mature parent to admit that I giggled for a couple minutes as I watched her walk around the lot, confused, trying to locate her car while questioning her own judgment and sanity. When the joke had gone on long enough, I emerged from my car and solved the mystery for her by telling her what I had done. Thankfully, she's a good sport (a much better sport than I think I would have been).
Ephesians 3:1-13 tells us about a prophetic mystery that was kept hidden for many generations until God chose to make it known. It's a mystery that directly benefits every man or woman who is part of the church through faith in Jesus Christ.
I. We've been granted spiritual insight
““For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.” ”
As Paul was writing this spiritually rich letter, please remember where he was. He was in the midst of a multiple year home confinement in Rome. There are certainly worse forms of imprisonment than that, but I'm confident that was miserable at times for Paul to endure. Yet he had a clear understanding why he was called to endure this. This was the result of his willingness to make the gospel known in the midst of a hostile, unbelieving culture. Paul was willing to endure this because of his love for Jesus and his calling to spread the gospel.
Clearly, one of the major reasons the Lord allowed Paul to experience imprisonment was to give him ample time to pause from his labors so he could write many of the letters that are included in the New Testament. As the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to pen these letters, he took the opportunity to explain deeper-level theology to the church.
In this passage in particular, Paul speaks of a mystery that he was shown by divine revelation. When he speaks of a mystery, he's talking about something that wasn't made known in the past. This was information that God was waiting to reveal at a later time.
The mystery that the Lord revealed to Paul was that Gentiles who came to faith in Jesus would be united to the Jews who believed in Jesus into one body called the church. Together, both would share the same inheritance and become joint partakers of the promises given to us by Jesus through His gospel. In the Old Testament, there are references to the fact that the day was coming when Gentiles would believe in the Lord, but it wasn't yet revealed that Jews and Gentiles would be united as one body.
When was this revelation given to Paul? Scripture gives us multiple examples of Paul's interactions with Jesus after His resurrection. We see their first interaction in Acts 9 when Jesus appears to Paul on the road to Damascus. We also see a direct reference to Paul being told these things in Galatians 1:12.
““For I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it, but I received it through a revelation of Jesus Christ.””
And amazingly, you and I are blessed with spiritual insight into these things by reading the words Paul wrote down, and coming to embrace these concepts as the Holy Spirit helps us to understand them. What a blessing it is to be able to comprehend ideas that even the ancient prophets weren't made aware of. And not only can we comprehend these things, we can also live them out. These are promises and blessings that directly pertain to God's relationship with us!
II. Grace is given to seemingly unlikely candidates
“Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power. To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things,””
The pastor of the church I grew up in has been serving there for quite a while now. In fact, I helped him move into his house a week before I graduated from high school. One of the stories he frequently tells is the story of how he came to faith in Jesus.
As a young man, he wasn't doing so well. He looked like a pretty rough guy, he was doing a lot of drugs, and he wasn't the kind of person that people found easy to trust, but he was looking for work. One of the men in a local church suggested that they hire him to be the custodian. There were some people that disagreed, but enough of the board agreed to give him a shot, so they hired him. (Ironically, his future wife's parents made the comment about him that if there was ever someone they didn't want their daughter to marry, it was him).
In time, while working at that church, he was introduced to the gospel and he came to faith in Jesus Christ. Soon after, he enrolled in Bible college and seminary, showed a strong aptitude for understanding Scripture and theology, and eventually was called into the pastorate where he's been successfully serving ever since. Many people would have thought that was highly unlikely just a few years earlier.
When you take a look at Paul's early life, the years he spent hating Jesus and persecuting the early church, he would have been the first to admit that he too seemed like the least likely person to come to faith in Jesus, then give the rest of his life to serving the church and making the gospel known. But that's exactly what the Lord did for Paul. Paul was given new life through Christ, and he made great use of that blessing.
Paul was made a minister of God's grace. The power of God was demonstrated in miraculous ways through his life. Paul was empowered and given opportunity to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ to the unbelieving world, and the Lord used him as a light in the midst of darkness. God spoke through Paul to make His plan for humanity known.
This is a good portion of Scripture to revisit from time to time, especially if you tend to think of yourself as an unlikely candidate for God to do something special through. But God delights to show His grace to unlikely candidates, and if you're willing to entrust your life over to Him, get ready to experience some amazing surprises when He shows you what He plans to do with it.
III. The wisdom of God is demonstrated through the church
““so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.” ”
It's exciting to see God work, but keep in mind, we aren't the only ones watching what He's doing. Just like we're learning and growing in our understanding, so are spiritual beings. Only God is omniscient. That means humans, angels, and demons are not. So when God reveals spiritual mysteries, He's not only revealing them to us. Those things are also being revealed to rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
Isn't it amazing to think that angels are observing the miraculous work God is doing in and through the church, and they're marveling at it? They're learning something new when they watch God take rebels like us and make us family. They're being given new reasons to praise Jesus when they see Jews and Gentiles being united into one body, the church.
Let's make this even more personal. God is demonstrating His power and wisdom to the spiritual realm through your life and what He's doing in it. Has that ever occurred to you?
IV. Let your faith in Christ produce boldness in your life
““This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.” ”
In Christ, we are rescued, redeemed, and granted new life that is both abundant and eternal. From eternity past, it has always been the Father's intention to accomplish these things through the work of His Son, Jesus Christ.
In Christ, we're also given confident access to the Father's throne. We can come before Him boldly, knowing that we're welcomed into His presence because we're dearly loved. When He looks at us, He sees His Son living within us.
As Paul was writing these things, he was rejoicing in the midst of his suffering. It most certainly was unpleasant for him to be imprisoned, but even that didn't stop him from being a bold witness for Christ in his generation.
My youngest daughter, a high school sophomore, made me proud the other day. One of her teachers is a believer in Christ, and he doesn't make that a secret. He has also come to know that Julia follows Jesus, but he made a point recently to tell her that he will be careful not to call her out or make a big deal about that in front of her classmates. I really appreciated her reply, however, because she said, "I don't care if you do call me out about my faith in Jesus. You're always welcome to do that. I'm not keeping it a secret."
If you're grateful that the Lord allows you to be bold when you approach His throne in prayer, what would it look like for that same boldness of faith to begin showing up in the rest of your life? Will you be bold with your witness? Will you endure critique? Are you working harder at keeping your faith a secret than you are at making it known?
If ever there was a time when this world needed some bold witnesses for Christ, now is that time. And if you want to know what I really think, I believe the church is about to experience a time of testing when the nature of our faith will become apparent. It will be shown for what it is. Some will fall away, demonstrating the shallow or non-existent nature of their faith in Christ, while others will experience testing and refinement just like Paul experienced.
Do you feel worried or do you feel ready?
It's time to get ready because what was hidden is about to be made known. May Christ be glorified in our bold proclamation of the mystery He has now revealed.
© John Stange, 2021
