Scripture: Ephesians 3:8-13
Date: January 23, 2011
Speaker: Sean Higgins
There’s a reason that new churches or new pastors at old churches often teach through Ephesians. It is a church letter in two senses: it is a letter to a church and about the church. It’s awkward to read Ephesians without getting excited about what God has done and is doing in His church.
Today, however, I want to focus more on what God is doing through the church. Yes, that involves what He’s doing in the church and in us as individual believers. But it is so much bigger than that. By grace, we—the church—are part of God’s eternal purpose to make a cosmic point about His profuse wisdom.
Paul wrote in Ephesians 3:10, “through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places.” God is making a point through the church.
In Revelation 5 we considered the stabilizing power of focusing on the worthy One; peace and hope come out of worship. In 2 Corinthians 3:18 we considered the transforming power of beholding; we become what we behold. The culture of our congregation comes out of worship. Our worship praises God, our worship profits us, and our worship proves a point to demonic powers. Our gathering is not merely to prepare us for the spiritual battle, it is part of the battle.
How heartening was this perspective to the Ephesian church? They were first generation Christians. They were in a spiritual battle (for which Paul provides armor and help in chapter 6). By the Holy Spirit, Paul lifts them up into glorious realities, reassuring them who they are in order to encourage them and build them and equip them. And he explains their place as God’s billboard to and battering ram against the heavenlies.
The apostle describes his divinely appointed stewardship in chapter 3. His assignment was to minister the gospel to the Gentiles (v.7), an assignment that had landed him in prison (v.1). He announces that “the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (v.6). As Paul preached, God raised dead men to life (2:1-5), made unholy men into saints (cf. 1:1, 4), and brought far off strangers near to Himself. Continuing the theme of this new people, Paul says at the start of a new paragraph:
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, (verses 8-9)
He calls himself the very least of all the saints. The idea is that he was the very leastest; find the least and go down from there. In light of 1 Corinthians 15:9 where he calls himself “the least of the apostles…because” he persecuted the church, I think this means that God calling him to this work is totally surprising and totally undeserved. His privilege is entirely by grace.
Grace saves. God saves to show off His glorious grace. Grace also enables good works (cf. Ephesians 2:10) and grace moves Paul into this particular ministry. There are two parts of this grace given to Paul. Both parts relate to proclamation and both of them make a kind of people.
Grace was given to Paul in order that he would preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. Grace moved him to preach (εὐαγγελίσασθαι); he announced the good news. “Good news” is a different way of talking about “the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel” (v.6).
Here he talks about the good news, the promise, in terms of the unsearchable riches of Christ. “Riches” is a word Paul loves in Ephesians: riches of grace (1:7; 2:7), riches of glorious inheritance (1:18), and riches of glory (3:18). These are the abundant, plentiful riches of Christ. These are His, and they are unsearchable, impossible to comprehend fully. They are fathomless, inexhaustible.
The point isn’t that Paul is proclaiming a quarterly sales report, as if he simply said, “Jesus’ stock is so high that You can’t imagine His net worth.” No, the point is that those who receive the gospel receive Christ’s riches. They are made rich. The poor are made wealthy. We who had nothing now have all that is Christ’s! We are an enriched people.
The second, but connected, work of grace in Paul’s preaching was to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things (v.9).
As you probably have heard, a mystery is a reality now revealed that previously was known only by God. It was unrealized but not uncertain. Paul already defined the mystery in verse 6—that Gentiles are made one in Christ with the Jews.
Though unknown to men, this was God’s age-old plan. Already in chapter 1:4-5 and 11 we read that was a “before the foundation of the world” old plan. God is telling a story of grace and telling it in His time.
Paul’s ministry was to bring to light, to reveal what had been concealed. And as was the case with preaching the riches of Christ, illumination is for more than information, it is for formation of a people. He clues us in, yes, but more than that, He connects us to God’s people and God’s purpose.
[We] are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that [we] may proclaim the excellencies of him who called [us] out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once [we] were not a people, but now [we] are God’s people; once [we] had not received mercy, but now [we] have received mercy. (1 Peter 2:9-10)
All this was hidden for ages in God who created all things. Perhaps creation is an odd reference. It does take us back to the beginning; He alone was there to do whatever He wanted. In creation we also remember His power—He can make anything He wants. In creation we also think about His creativity. There are amazing displays of His wisdom throughout the universe, so much so that in Proverbs 8, personified Wisdom was at work when the skies were put in place and the sea was assigned limits.
But there is something that He uses to make a more precise point about His wisdom: His people, the church.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (2:4-7)
He’ll make a point for eternity about the “immeasurable riches of his grace” toward us, but He’s making a point now as He makes a people.
Before we move into the rest of the paragraph, it is interesting that enriching comes before enlightening. As Gentiles, by faith, received the wealth of Christ along with the Jews, the reality of their becoming rich corroborated the revelation; the proof wasn’t separate from the proposition. In other words, don’t forget that our joy in the gospel supports our statements that there is joy in the gospel. Living like the “dividing wall of hostility” (2:14) has been broken backs up our theology lessons.
The preaching of riches and the bringing to light of mystery make a rich and wise people. These people made by God make a point.
so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
This is a point made about the manifold wisdom of God. As diverse and intricate as creation is, the church shows off God’s many-sided, transcendent wisdom. His thoughts are not our thoughts, they are much higher than ours.
God makes His point to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Much more is going on in the universe than we see. Angels and fallen angels battle; we are in that battle, and God is making a point in the universe through the church. We are His masterpiece, His triumph.
Knowing that we are a point to them doesn’t remove us from the spiritual battle, but it arms us with perspective as we realize we are God’s propaganda of their final defeat. In some sense, they are much more scared of us than we are of them. Even when we get scared, we can ask for help (v.12).
Some important questions.
Is this the universal church or the local church? Is this all believers in all ages and in all places or is this the Ephesian believers and, by application, all local gatherings? Yes.
Again, it is a bigger point than we easily think; it is beyond our noses. And yet our noses are part. The encouragement to the Ephesians is not that they weren’t a part of it, but that they were! So are we.
In addition, and this is really important, how is the church a point? What makes the church a display of His manifold wisdom?
Through the church, expressed wherever she might be. This is not her evangelism or any other activity. Her very presence makes a point.
It is that people who don’t otherwise belong together are brought together. It is people from every tribe, tongue, and nation (as we considered a couple Sundays ago) are made into a kingdom and priests. It is that Jew and Gentile are one body.
And, what makes a point to the heavenly beings is when they see it in Marysville, when two otherwise un-belonging-together people, from different backgrounds and different life stations and different interests, love each other and serve each other. It isn’t that Christ makes me rich, and I try to share with Him more than you. We are made rich.
If we were all monks in our private monasteries—an image not too far off from how some Christians act—if we never interacted, if we never hurt and were hurt, but we all said “Christ is Lord” in our hearts, that might be interesting but it wouldn’t be glorious. I can only sing one part, not harmony. You can only be the hand, not the whole body. And left to ourselves, without forgiving and being forgiven, we can’t corroborate the riches of Christ and the reconciling, unifying power of the gospel.
The heavenly rulers and authorities must be beside themselves when we get together. “How can those two people be happy together?!” Every unnatural and unexpected unification is a nail in their coffin. Their power can’t out-power the gospel!
The whole process is according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord (v.11). God’s eternal purpose was not to make Christians but to make His church. The church is the Bride for His Son (Ephesians 5).
In Christ we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. There is a freedom of speech before Him, a boldness of confident access (O’Brien, ). This is a difficult thing—this whole living together with each other and waging war against spiritual forces. But it is not more difficult than relating to God. In Christ we have been brought near to Him and we can ask Him for help with all the brothers and sisters He gave us.
Paul sums up his stewardship explanation in verse 13. I’m a bit taken back by the So or “Therefore.” How could his suffering be their glory?
The so means that suffering for the gospel is part of gospel ministry; church comes at a cost, first to Christ, and also to her leaders (Ephesians 4:12) as well as to each other (as we all speak the truth in love).
Paul could claim that his suffering was their glory because it benefitted them. It brought them good things.
Today is National Sanctity of Human Life Day. 38 years ago yesterday our Supreme Court made a commitment to death, to legalized and protected murder in the name of personal health and individual freedom.
Thankfully there are many Christians who love and fight for life. They may work for life through writing or by voting or serving in office or caring or adopting. May their tribe increase ten-fold and may God help all Christians promote life.
May He also help the church to love life, to celebrate life, to proclaim life, and to live life together. Perhaps one reason people value choice over life is because we have failed to show how great life is. If other we see other believers—our own body—as interruptions or inconveniences, is it really a surprise if unbelievers see a new baby—or the wrong gendered baby—as an interruption or inconvenience?
As we scatter from this place, take the joy of life with you. Live bigger than yourselves this week as God makes known His manifold wisdom through the life of the church.
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians 3:20-21)