©2003 Larry Huntsperger Peninsula Bible Fellowship

09/07/03

The Manifold Wisdom Of God Pt. 1

Ephesians 3:1-10

9/7/03 The Manifold Wisdom Of God Pt. 1

 

Our study of the book of Ephesians

      brings us this morning to the 3rd chapter of the book.

 

And it brings us, too,

      to the final crucial piece

            in the message Paul wrote this letter to present.

 

Two weeks ago,

      when we were last in this study,

            we spent a few minutes looking once again

                  at that prayer offered by Paul at the beginning of the letter,

the prayer in which he reveals to us

      what he is hoping to accomplish through what he is about to write.

 

In that prayer

      he prayed that the Spirit of God would “open the eyes of our hearts”

            to three truths,

                  three insights into the work God accomplished through Christ

                        that, if we understood them correctly,

                              would profoundly alter our perspective on this life we are called to live in Christ.

 

He said,

EPH 1:18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,

EPH 1:19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe.

 

Now I know that those are still most likely

      a jumble of rather confusing words for many of you.

 

And before we can begin to pull them together

      we are going to need to take one more major step in our thinking,

the step that we have offered to us by Paul here in this 3rd chapter of his letter.

 

Once we’ve worked our way through this final step

      we can then go back, look at it as a whole, and pull it all together.

 

OK, just so we keep some sense of flow in our study

      let me remind you what we’ve seen so far.

 

And let me begin by emphasizing

      the difference between what Paul is talking about in this letter

            and what we so commonly pass off as Christianity within our culture.

 

Do you remember the words with which Paul began this letter?

     

It’s been months now since we studied them together

      so let me just read the opening words of Ephesians once again to remind us.

 

After introducing himself

      and identifying who he’s writing to,

            the next thing Paul said was this:

EPH 1:3 ¶ Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ...

 

From the opening words of his letter

      he begins talking with us

            about the incredible wealth that has been poured out

                  upon those who have come to God through faith in Christ.

 

There are two major forces used by Satan

      in his efforts to destroy or hinder the work of God among the people of God.

 

One of them is immorality -

      deceiving us into attempting to meet some need in our life

            outside the protective moral framework revealed to us by our Lord.

 

The other is religion -

      those man-made religious systems

            that replace the life of Christ within us

                  with some form or system of religious duty or performance.

 

Both immorality and religion

      are equally destructive to the true life of Christ within us.

 

Both have the ability to defraud us of the life Christ died to give us.

 

Both imprison the human spirit in bondage.

 

Of the two

      religion is the greater enemy of the truth, however,

            because, as Paul puts it in Colossians,

                  it has “the appearance of wisdom”,

                        even though it is powerless to bring any true freedom into our lives.

 

I bring this up again at this point in our study of Ephesians

      because this opening passage from Ephesians

            provides an excellent contrast between the lies of religion and the truth of God.

 

You see, the basic message of religion

      is the message of what we are obligated to give to God,

while the basic message of God’s truth

      is the message of what God has given to us through Christ.

 

And the difference in the way those two messages affect the human spirit

      is the difference between darkness and light,

            between bondage and freedom,

                  between condemnation and hope.

 

And the great tragedy

      is that our Christian world is addicted to religion. 

 

The scent of religion fills our churches like incense. 

      We know its sound, its feel, its call. 

 

We know it so well we have long since ceased to question its voice.  

 

When it calls to us we respond. 

      Where it leads us we follow. 

            When it reprimands us we hang our heads in shame,

                  and repent of our negligence,

                        our apathy,

                              our indifference.

     

The awesome force of religion

      fuels and lubricates our nation’s massive Christian industry,

            sucking its life-blood from the hearts of God’s people.

     

Religion takes a thousand different forms in a thousand different settings,

      but the underlying message is always the same:

‟Come, my child.  Let me show you the way. 

      I have a system guaranteed to improve your standing with God. 

These are the duties you must fulfill. 

      These are the proofs of faithfulness,

            the signs of the truly committed. 

Do not be afraid. 

      If you will just try harder,

            and do more,

                  and be better God will be pleased,

                        and He will smile on you.”

 

And to this voice Paul says,

COL 2:23 These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.

 

It sounds great.

      It looks pious.

            It wins the admiration and approval of our fellow men,

but it is powerless to transform the human spirit

      or bring true, enduring change into our lives.

 

But then listen to the contrast of the truth,

      the Gospel,

            the GOOD NEWS of God to man.

 

 EPH 1:3-8 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us.

 

And, of course, Paul goes on...

      and on...

            and on.

 

Revealing to us more and more

      of the wealth poured out on us by God through Jesus Christ.

 

Religion tells us what we are obligated to give to God.

 

True Christianity tells us

      what God has chosen to give to us through Christ.

 

And here’s the way it works

      when it is working as God intended.

 

When we finally quit striving,

      or running,

            or hiding

                  or fighting against Him

                         long enough to listen,

really, truly listen to what our God is saying to us,

 

when we begin to hear both the depth and the nature of His love for us,

      it brings a response within our spirits

            that causes us to respond to Him

                  the way those first disciples responded to Jesus.

 

They walked away from everything they thought they once had

      in exchange for life with Him.

 

1JO 4:19 We love Him, because He first loved us.

 

With us, of course,

      our discovery of His love comes more gradually,

            more progressively,

and so does our response.

 

But the fundamentals have not changed.

 

God gives to us -

      He gives us Himself,

            He gives us His grace,

                  He pours out on us His kindness, and His forgiveness, and His compassion,

and as our spirits hear the truth

      we respond by loving Him

            and that love becomes the growing motivational force in our lives.

 

“To see the law by Christ fulfilled and to hear His pard’ning voice,

Makes a slave into a child and duty into choice.”

 

That’s the real thing, my friends.

 

That’s the Good News,

      that’s the only thing that transforms the human heart

            and recreates our lives from the inside out.

 

And that is where Paul starts his letter to the Ephesians,

      by sharing with us

            the most amazing catalog of God’s acts of kindness to us through Christ.

 

Then, as we’ve seen,

      Paul stops talking to us

            and talks to God.

 

He offers that prayer

      in which He asks that the eyes of our hearts will be opened

            to three additional aspects of the what God has accomplished through Christ.

 

Then he moves into chapter two

      in which he traces through the personal pilgrimage of the Christian two times.

 

The first time he does so in the context of our relationship to God Himself.

 

In that pilgrimage

      we heard Paul describe how we all begin... “...dead in your trespasses and sins”

            and then listened to him as he brought us from that point

                  into God’s love,

                        and His grace,

                              and His forgiveness,

                                    and His kindness,

and ultimately into the very presence of God Himself,

      seating us with Christ in the very presence of God.

 

Then, in the second half of chapter two

      Paul traces through our pilgrimage one more time.

 

But this second time

      it is not in the context of our relationship with God,

            but rather in our relationship with the family of God, His Church.

 

And in that pilgrimage

      we started, “...separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.”

 

He described us as having been “strangers and aliens”,

      but then brought us to the point where we, “ ...are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone in whom the whole building, being fitted together is growing into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.”

 

From death and separation into eternal life and unity with God,

      from isolation and alienation into the family and household of God Himself...

 

OK, so what we have seen

      in these first two chapters of Ephesians

            is Paul’s bold and majestic proclamation

                  of the redemptive work of God in our lives,

a redemptive work that began before He even brought this world into existence,

      a redemptive work that came to us when we had only an unbroken history of rebellion against God,

            with nothing whatsoever to offer Him,

and brought us from there

      into unity with Him

            and membership in His family.

 

OK, that’s where Paul has taken us so far.

 

Now, in the first half of chapter 3,

      there is one final step Paul wants to take us through,

            one final piece of knowledge we need

                  in order to correctly understand the true nature of the redemptive work of God.

 

For it is in the first half of this 3rd chapter

      that Paul answers the question “Why?”

 

Why has God done what He has done in our lives?

      What is it that He was seeking to accomplish?

            What is it that, from God’s point of view, is really going on

                  in this divine creative work we call “the church”?

 

And here again

      the power of what Paul says

            can be seen most clearly

                  when we place it next to the pathetic little man-made religious substitute to the real thing.

 

Typically in our culture

      when we think or talk about the church

            or a church,

what we’re talking about

      is a human religious organization

            that has a specific structure,

                  and times of meeting,

                        and organizational goals and obligations.

 

When we think of “the work of the church”

      we think about keeping the program going,

            and meeting the financial obligations of the group,

                  and fulfilling those positions, and roles, and duties that need to be fulfilled

                        in order for the designated goals of the organization to be fulfilled.

 

But just as, in chapters 1 and 2, Paul expanded our concept of salvation

      far beyond anything our imaginations could ever have come up with,

so in chapter 3

      he expands our concept of the work of the church

            into a realm we could never have anticipated on our own.

 

In the first 7 verses of this 3rd chapter

      Paul shares with us his own crucial role

            in God’s revelation of Himself and His plan to the world.

He says,

EPH 3:1-7 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles-- if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. And by referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.

 

He uses a term in these verses that I need to explain.

 

He talks about “the mystery”.

 

This is a term used in the New Testament

      to describe a work of God that was hidden from the human race

            prior to the coming of Christ.

 

It is an aspect of God’s work among us

      that simply could not have been understood by us

            until after the human race had witnessed the person and work of Christ.

 

And in these first 7 verses of chapter 3

      Paul tells us specifically which mystery he’s referring to.

“...to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel...”

 

And what he’s saying is simply this -

      who in the world could ever have anticipated what God has done for the entire human race?

Who would have believed

      that through Christ He would create for the world

            a situation in which any human being in the world

                  could have full, complete, absolute, and eternal access into the love of God

                        through nothing more than simple faith in Jesus Christ?

 

Who could have known that He loves all of us,

      that He loves each of us equally? Personally?

 

Who could have believed

      that He has been seeking each of us for Himself?

 

Given the depth of man’s depravity,

      the extent of the sin and rebellion of the human race,

given our resistance against Him

      and open defiance against His involvement in our lives,

who would ever have believed

      that through Christ He would literally stand before the human race

            and fling open His heart

                  and offer total forgiveness,

                        and eternal reconciliation to anyone who would turn to Him in simple faith,

believing that Christ truly did pay our debt for our sin in our place?

 

And yet that is exactly what God has done,

      and it is this, the best news ever to come to the human race,

            the GOOD NEWS of God Himself,

that caused Paul to stand in utter amazement

      both at what God has done

            and at the incredible honor given to him personally

                  of revealing this truth to the human race.

 

He goes on in verses 8 and 9 to say,

To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things...

 

There is a contrast in those words

      that I’m certain Paul intended for us to see.

 

It’s as if he’s saying,

      “Even the messenger God selected

            illustrates the truth He wants us to hear.

Here I was,

      the greatest sinner on the face of the earth at the time,

            the one who hated Christ with all my heart,

                  the one who’s entire life was one endless blasphemy,

                        the one who lived only to attack and destroy the people of God

                              and the work of God on this earth.

And I am the one He selected

      to proclaim the unfathomable riches of Christ to the entire world.

 

Of all men

      I was the least qualified for this role,

            the one most deserving of God’s judgement and wrath.

 

And in so doing

      with every word I speak

            and every day I live

                  I illustrate with my own life the truth of the message I preach.

 

And we can’t walk by a truth like this

      without just a few words to help make it personal.

 

If you are here today aware of an emptiness within yourself,

      aware of a hunger for something to happen between you and your God,

but you’ve been listening to a little voice inside yourself

      that has been telling you

            you are unqualified, unworthy of any such work,

                  and you really must get your life together a bit more

                        before you can expect God to do anything in you or for you,

my friend, you’ve been listening to a lie.

 

That hunger you feel within yourself

      is the hunger for God

            created within you by God Himself.

 

Don’t fear it.

      Don’t run from it.

            Don’t try to hide from it in that favorite mental or emotional hiding place of yours.

 

And let me assure you

      that you are indeed utterly unworthy of anything God has to offer you,

            just as I am,

                  just as we all are.

 

But don’t listen to that lie

      that tells you to try to pull things together a bit before you come to Him.

 

All He wants from you is your life,

      just the way it is.

 

All He asks of you is your willingness to believe

      that He really did do what He said He did -

            that He paid your debt for all of that evil within you,

                  paid for it in full and forever with the death of Christ in your place,

and all He asks from you now,

      and all He expects is your willingness to place your life into His hands.

 

Whatever changes need to be made within you

      He will begin making

            through the work of His spirit within you.

 

Which brings us, finally,

      to the verse we’ve been moving toward all morning,

            the verse that answers that question, “Why?”

Why has God done what He has done for us and in us?

 

Why has He created for the human race the endless open door to Himself?

      Why has He given us such an amazing and magnificent salvation?

 

The answer to those questions, at least in part,

      is found in Ephesians 3:10.

 

But we’re out of time for this morning

      so I’m just going to read the verse now

            and then we’ll look at it in depth next week.

EPH 3:10 in order that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.