Ephesians 3:1-13 • Bound for Glory

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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)

Let me ask that you would look in your Bibles this morning at Ephesians chapter 3.

Ephesians chapter 3, as we'll be considering the first 13 verses.

Last week, the message of the Apostle Paul was very simple.

You are dear to God and secure in His care and vital to His purposes.

The reason the Apostle Paul spoke with such clarity and sincerity is because of the challenge he would now give us this week, as he would speak of a call that believers have to make known the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we will only be prepared for it if we know how dear we are to God and secure we are in Him and vital to His purposes, because this calling can be hard, but it can also be wonderful.

To understand it, let's stand and honor God's Word and read together the first 13 verses of Ephesians 3 as we learn about the call of God upon our lives as Paul expresses it, that call upon his own life.

He writes, "For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for 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 and 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, of this gospel. "I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to 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 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places. 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."

Let's pray together.

Father, we know the impact of the final words.

We are not to lose heart, but the challenges of a calling in Christ Jesus, if they were difficult for an apostle, can be challenging to us almost beyond words to capture.

So even this day, as you would teach us of our calling in Christ Jesus, what it means to be a fountain of the grace that's in Him, would you with that challenge also give us such comfort, such inspiration of the realities of the gospel of being worked through the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives that we would take fresh courage and comfort and resolve to be the people in whom other people see Christ Jesus.

This we pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Please be seated.

He grew up in a well-to-do family, in a large city, in a sophisticated culture.

Immersed in the faith that his family had held for generations, he became a zealot for his faith, devouring its teachings, defending its tenets, pursuing its truths. He attended one of the largest churches of his city, was taught by one of the most reputable teachers, and then something amazing happened.

This zealot for the faith, who had not only been taught his faith but pursued the opponents of his faith, became convinced that the opponents were right, and he joined their ranks. He came to believe by a period of prayer and fasting that God was actually calling him to be a missionary to those who did not know the God that he knew.

And so he abandoned his comforts and his lifestyle of privilege and became a member of the opposition in such a way that it cost him his reputation, his position, his comforts, his family, and ultimately his life.

He sacrificed it all for the sake of his faith.

His name, Jibreil Al-Amariqi.

He grew up in Atlanta, Georgia.

He attended one of the largest churches of our nation, was taught by one of the most reputable leaders, and joined Al-Qaeda allies, ultimately giving his life in a jihadist attack as he sought to plant a flag for Islam in Kashmir.

Well, who did you think I was talking about?

You thought I was talking about the Apostle Paul. And the parallels of their lives are striking, both with orthodox upbringing, both zealous for their faith, both opposing and then joining the opponents to their faith, both giving the ultimate sacrifice for their new faith.

So remarkable, the parallels that the moral we take away is not one that we particularly like.

It is that whatever we think is the mark of commitment to true faith, sincerity is not one of them.

Zeal for your faith is not the proof of its truth.

Even sacrifice, even ultimate sacrifice for your faith is not the proof of its truth.

It is what marks true commitment to the God of the Scriptures according to the Apostle Paul.

Clearly, one of the first things that he identifies is, yes, it is true, that there must be a willingness to sacrifice. I mean, that's obvious from the opening words as Paul identifies himself again. Remember, verse 1, "For this reason I, Paul." It's not the name that he went through most of his early life with. Remember as a Jew, what was his Jewish name that he went through most of the time? Not Paul, but what? Saul. Name for a king of ancient Israel, the first king, the one chosen for his stature and his admirable characteristics. He was named after a big king, but he went from being Saul to Paul. And you remember what Paul stands for? What does the name Paul mean? It means simply small.

He goes from being big Saul to small Paul.

And that's just the first indication of the sacrifice.

Verse 1 continues, "I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles." Not only is there identification of his name, but now of his calling. He is a prisoner for Christ Jesus. In the second verse, he'll say something more, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me. Two identifications of his calling now. I am a prisoner and I am a steward. To be a prisoner for Christ Jesus means he has given up privilege. He is in bonds for the sake of his Savior. The situation, just to remind you, is that he is under house arrest in Rome.

Remember when the trial was going badly in Jerusalem? Paul, to make sure that he would have the time of life to give his testimony, said, "I appeal to Caesar."

So he is now in Rome under house arrest, awaiting officials from the Jews in Jerusalem to come to Rome to file the official charges against him. Now, think what that means. He has gone from commanding troops to being the captive of them. He has gone from being a champion of his religion to being accused by the religious leaders of his faith. He has been a Pharisee of the Pharisees, and now he is a disgraced prisoner.

But the curiosity is, if you look at the words closely, he does not say that I'm a prisoner of the Romans.

He does not even say I'm a prisoner of the Jews.

He says I am a prisoner for Christ Jesus. I mean, we know what would naturally be in your heart. You would say, "Where did God go?

Why am I here?"

Or if you're Marlon Brando, you know, "I could have been somebody," you know.

Instead, he says, "I'm a prisoner for Christ Jesus," as though he believes his imprisonment, his sacrifice, his suffering is for a purpose. And the purpose is spelled out even more in verse 1, "A prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles." I am suffering, but I believe that this suffering is actually part of my calling.

In verse 7, he will talk about this gospel I was made a minister of according to the gift of God's grace, as though his ministry is a gift, but the ministry has landed him in prison. Who wants that gift?

But the apostle begins to perceive in his own life what he has said to others.

He will say to those at Philippi, "Anyone who desires to live a godly life will suffer." It has been granted to you on behalf of Jesus Christ, not only to believe, but also to suffer for His sake. It's a gift. You are able to fill up in your own body what was lacking in the sufferings of Jesus Christ, as though Christ coming to the world by His suffering is not only claiming the right of all of us to know God by His blood, but now in the suffering of those who are His disciples, that blood is known more widely. But it has been granted to us, gifted to us, actually to suffer for the sake of Christ. So that Paul is just following in the words of Jesus where he said, "Listen, if they persecuted me, they will persecute you." How different from the message of a popular Christianity that says, "God wants me to be happy."

Well, he wants you to be joyful, but the joy is in fulfilling the purposes that God has for your life. And if we mix the understanding that God wants me to be happy, we may not be ready for the calling that God has given us. A calling that is true to the gospel of Jesus Christ requires a willingness to suffer.

Lo Fuk is a name that some of you may know, a Chinese businessman, the middle of the 1800s, who watched as many of his countrymen were being impressed into slavery and taken to the mines in South America in Guyana.

And as a believer, not only recognizing the slavery of Israel, but recognizing that his position as a businessman separated him from the ability to make the gospel known, he sold himself into slavery.

So that on the ship going from China to South America, he could speak to the gospel, to those who were in bonds to the slavery mines of Guyana.

And then as he worked in Guyana, pushing carts in the caverns or digging in the dirt, he would speak the gospel until the hardships claimed his life.

But before they had claimed his life, he had claimed 200 souls for Christ.

And when they believed and were released later, they started a church in Guyana that began to send missionaries back to China.

We were in bonds for a purpose.

I recognize that sacrifice is part of my calling. And you just recognize that regardless of what God calls you to in this life. It may be in a marriage where everybody is saying to you and maybe your own heart, "God just wants me to be happy."

Or does he intend for your suffering to be a purpose of eternity?

One of the things that God is reminding us all is that if we stand for Christ in business, in family, in government, there will be times in which we will be persecuted, but that's not just par for the course. That is the purpose of God.

And perhaps we get some measure of that purpose in understanding how Paul is saying, "I assume that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you."

That stewardship is not just of the gospel, it is that. After all, a steward is somebody who's guarding and growing a treasure.

But the apostle says, "My stewardship is also of my ministry.

I'm to make much of what God gives me to do, and what God has given me to do is to suffer for you."

I must tell you, I struggle to understand verse 13, the very last verse of this passage, until I begin to see how Paul was talking about the stewardship of suffering that had been given to him. Verse 13, Paul is speaking to those who are at Ephesus, and so he says, "I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory."

Now, the words just seem backward to me. If I'm suffering for you, that's my glory.

I'm doing something sacrificial and noble in your behalf. That's for my glory. But the apostle says, "No, my suffering for you is for your glory."

He began to make some sense to me as I was actually listening to a news report that came in this week of Boko Haram, that group in northern Nigeria, remember that took the 200 schoolgirls?

Even though that made world news, Boko Haram continues to steal young women from families in northern Nigeria. And the practice that is going on right now is that when a young woman is stolen by that Islamic extremist group, the group, in order to meet the barest qualifications of their religion will leave at the door of the family from which the girl has been kidnapped a bridal price, about $8 American and some colonuts. It's meeting the bare standards of religion, but it's also saying something to the family, "Your daughter, your dear one, is not worth much at all.

Just a slave of us, an object of our lust, that's what we get, and we pay you virtually." It shows nothing except disgrace to the family.

But Paul says, "I, Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ who has been given the administration of the gospel for the Gentiles of the world, I am suffering in your behalf." As though Paul is willing to say, "God gave His blood for me and He's giving me for you." If that's the case, think how valuable you are.

If I am suffering for you, how precious you must be to God that He would take a treasure like me, bought with the treasure of Jesus Christ, and spend it for you.

Some of you know the name Martin Burnham, a missionary with New Tribes Mission who a decade ago was kidnapped with his wife by Islamic extremists in the Philippines.

For over a year, he and his wife were held and put through terrible abuses and harm.

How did they endure it?

Ultimately, some of you know Martin was killed in the rescue effort, but his wife was rescued and she said how they survived.

She said early in their captivity when the abuses were so intense, Martin said to her, "The Lord's word said, serve the Lord with gladness." And he said to his wife, "Let's go all the way.

Even now in our suffering, let's serve the Lord with gladness."

And so even as they were being beaten and kicked and abused by their captors, they would speak the gospel to them.

They would say God had sent them into captivity to be a witness to those who were their captors – the captors begin to debate at night who would actually put Martin Burnham in chains because no one wanted to do it. Because everyone who would put him in chains, he would speak the gospel to them and say, "You are so valuable to God that God sent me here to speak to you." And no one wanted to face that. His recognition was if God sent me to you, think how valuable you are to God. And so Paul says my suffering is actually for your glory. I am here in prison because I'm a minister to the Gentiles. My goal, my intention was to spread the gospel if God is having me suffer for you.

How precious you must be to God. I am bound for your glory, not mine, but yours.

I think of how that's been exemplified by the families who were just standing here a few minutes ago.

How they recognized within minutes some hours of the tornado taking away everything, that their suffering was for a purpose in the lives of others.

I mean the testimonies began being texted almost immediately.

I don't know why, but I know God will use this. I am going to be a steward of my suffering. As hard as it may be, I'm not going to let it go by. I'm going to make the most of what God intends even for my suffering.

And I think of the wisdom of the deacons of this church and Sam Dunlop as they provided to our families who are suffering particular funds with a very pointed purpose. Take these funds and at the right moment give it to your neighbors.

Make the most of the suffering. Let them know how valuable they are to you and to God and to the church. Let them know. Stop your suffering. Use it well for the sake of the gospel.

In order to be called to the purposes of Jesus Christ, it's not just a willingness to be happy, it is a willingness to suffer for the purposes that are greater than this earth.

But as vital as that is, a willingness to suffer for the sake of the Savior, as important and necessary as it is as a mark of true faith that we are willing to suffer, I will tell you it is not sufficient.

There are many others who are willing to suffer for their faith.

Some of you are reading in the news right now that there are hundreds, perhaps thousands of young men going from the United States and from Western Europe and they are giving themselves to fight in the ranks of ISIS, in Syria, in Iraq right now.

They are willing to give up everything to suffer for the sake of their cause. As important as a willingness to suffer, it's not sufficient as a mark of biblical faith and calling. What else is needed?

A compulsion for mission. Paul talks about it in verses 3 through 5. He says that there has been a mystery made known to him by revelation, as I have written briefly, he said earlier. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men and other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. Something has happened. A mystery has been revealed that the apostles now saying, "I've got to tell people."

Now there's some reasons for that. We have to understand what a biblical mystery is. In kind of English custom, we think of a mystery as a problem to be solved.

But biblically, a mystery is a truth previously unknown that is now being brought to light.

And the apostle says, "A mystery has been revealed to me." And when he has been made known of it, he says, "I am going to make sure others know as well." Verse 7, "I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me by the working of His power." Remember the power?

I'm just in my carriage on the road to Damascus.

And suddenly there's a voice from heaven and a blinding light, and the apostle Paul hears Jesus himself challenging, "Paul, Paul, why are you persecuting me? Who are you, Lord?

I am the Lord Jesus whom you're persecuting." And then the word came to Paul through Ananias. Remember the Lord sent Ananias the prophet to explain to Paul what this was all about. The Lord said to Ananias, "Go to Paul, tell him I will make him a messenger to the Gentiles,

and tell him how much he must suffer on my behalf."

Suffering again, but with it a compulsion.

You must tell people about the mystery. What is the mystery? I mean, what is this thing that Paul has this great compulsion to tell others? It's verse 6. It's just stated so plainly.

This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. In our English translations, it's not so clear, but each one of those terms, heirs, members, partakers, is a Greek word that simply means together. It's repeated three times.

"Together we are heirs. Together we are members. Together we are partakers of the promise that was given to Abraham long ago." God has pulled together people of different nations and ethnicities and backgrounds, past prejudices, past bigotries, past hatreds, and is pulling them together by the work of Jesus Christ so that all who are united to Him are now united to each other too. And that has been something the Jews didn't expect. I thought we were the chosen people. I thought we were the separated out holy ones. And now the apostles saying, "Now there's a mystery that's being brought to light. And it is that the blood of Christ is sufficient for many, many more."

Now why is that mystery a compulsion of the apostle to tell?

Well, sometimes it's a compulsion because any of us who have a secret want to tell, right? Just a very few of you in this room already know the Christmas gift that I have purchased for my wife. Don't you dare tell.

But you want to, don't you?

I mean, there's just such an innate joy in revealing the mystery and telling people.

But there is another reason too.

Even more important as you look at verse 10, what does the apostle say will happen as the mystery is told? He says, "Through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places." Now just a few words as we go a little bit deep here. The word manifold, this mystery of the unsearchable riches of Christ that is now being made known, he says, is a revelation of the manifold witness and wisdom of God.

The word manifold is a Greek word that people in Paul's time used to translate the Old Testament term for Joseph's multicolored coat. Remember Joseph?

Remember the coat of many colors? It was a manifold coat.

It was a coat of many colors. And now we are being told that the mystery is God's manifold wisdom, His multicolored wisdom, putting all these different people together from different places and nations and God's manifold witnesses being revealed to whom? See what it says there? Verse 10, "The rulers and authorities where?

In the heavenly places."

Now when we think of rulers and authorities in heavenly places, we think angels.

The good guys.

Look at chapter 6, verse 12. Chapter 6, verse 12. Who is Paul actually talking about who are now seeing the manifold wisdom of God? You know these words, many of you. Chapter 6 and verse 12, "We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but we wrestle against what? The rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the what?

Heavenly places." We think of heaven as something up there for good people only. We forget it's the description sometimes generally of the spiritual realm.

And now we are being told that as God is pulling together people from different races, ethnicities, backgrounds, former differences, and despite their hatreds of each other, the way they have abused and hurt one another, they are coming together in the church that even the demons say, "My, what a God, if He can get those people together, the wisdom of God is on display even to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places, the same ones against we wrestle for the spiritual good God wants us to attend to." What that means for the Apostle Paul is his telling other people about the gospel going forward to claim all kinds of people is worth his suffering and worth his mission because it is putting Satan on route.

It's actually the great testimony of the gospel before the demons that makes the victory of Satan hollow and not evident at all that by speaking of what God is doing through all peoples that Satan himself is actually on the run.

For me, one of the hardest things that I've watched, although I've seen it in movie form, in stage form, even in cartoon form, is the representation of the lion, witch, and the wardrobe that novel of C.S. Lewis where Aslan, the lion, in order to rescue the children, lives his life over to the dark forces.

And as Aslan is being led to the altar to save the children, the dark forces celebrate. They dance and they sing and they chortle and I weep every time to recognize, "That was my Savior's suffering for me."

But here we are told that when the gospel goes forward claiming all kinds of people from all kinds of places for the sake of the Savior's glory, that the manifest wisdom of God is on display even through the demonic forces and the hymns of God's people united drown the revelry of Satan, that God puts in our hearts this great longing to see the forces of Christ succeed so that Satan himself might be crushed by the power of our Savior. And when we are together and reaching out and reaching beyond what we are comfortable with for the sake of coming together, heirs of the promise, members of the household, all saying, "In Christ we are one," that what we are doing is singing the hymns of Christ that put Satan into surrender.

And for that cause, we have a compulsion to minister the gospel.

And as important as it is and necessary as it is, it is still not a sufficient sign of true faith.

After all, there are others who have a compulsion to have a mission of their own faith. I have been in parts of East Africa, not West Africa that's making all the news now. I've been in parts of East Africa where there is a mosque that is being built on major highways every 12 miles, every day's walk, a new mosque. And the money is being supplied out of the oil money from the Middle East, even though the mosque are being built in Eastern Africa. There aren't even people to go to the mosque yet, but there are those who have this compulsion to mission who are building the mosque for what they hope is the future purpose of their faith.

As important as mission is and as important as sacrifice is, the two in themselves are not a sufficient mark of the proof of the truth of Christian faith.

What is ultimately the mark of biblical faith to which we are called?

Not only sacrifice, not only mission, but the grace of humility.

We now know enough from the reports, even the diaries of those who were the terrorist of 9-11 and those who even now work with ISIS in northern Syria, that there are promises of personal glory and sexual satisfaction for those who by merit gain the approval of their God.

For the Apostle Paul, there is no merit to anyone but God.

No merit to us. Do you want to see it? Look how the Apostle Paul explains his calling and what it actually merits for him. He recognizes that the merit belongs only to the one who shows mercy. He says in verse 7, "I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace." Verse 2, "The stewardship of God's grace was given to me." Verse 3, "The mystery was made known to me by revelation." I was just, you know, on my pony going to Damascus. The mystery was made known to him by the power of God.

Even verse 5, which I'm going to ask you to look at. He says something very particular.

He talks about this mystery 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.

It's the word holy that's problematic.

Up until this point, Paul has kept saying, "This mystery has been revealed to me. This mission has been a gift to me. Everything has been outside of me. It's just come to me."

And now suddenly we hear this wording, "But the mystery was given to the apostles and prophets who are holy."

Oh, I thought you had to qualify somehow. I thought you're going to have to be holy somehow to get this calling, this mission, so that you somehow merited having it.

That's why we so much need verse 8.

How does Paul identify himself? Remember, he is an apostle. He says, "To me," verse 8, "though I am the very least of all the saints this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ."

This calling, this ministry has been given to me who is what? I am the very least of the saints. And remember, in biblical language, a saint is not a very special person. A saint is just an ordinary Christian who has been made holy by the work of Jesus Christ. We're all saints. And Paul looks around and says, "Everyone in the church," he says, "I'm the least."

And I think you recognize we are just midway in Paul's understanding of how great was the grace he needed.

Earlier in his life, as Paul had written to others, he said, "I am the least of the apostles."

Now he says, "I'm just the least of the people."

At the end of his life, he's going to write to Timothy, and he's going to say one more thing, what? "I'm not just the least of the apostles. I'm not just the least of the people. I am the chief of what?

I'm the chief of sinners." The longer he goes in life, the bigger the cross gets. I need more and more of Jesus. It's not my merit. My suffering is not my merit. My mission is not my merit. My ministry, my wisdom. That's not my merit. Whatever I am is because of the goodness and the greatness of my God. And ultimately, I recognize it's when I confess that I need Him more than any other thing. I am just chief of sinners. I held the coach of Stephen. I was the one who pursued those who were Christians away from their homes and put them in prison. I listened to the cries of their children, and I took their parents away. I did these awful things, but I recognize that's not just part of my past. I am the chief of sinners. All that could be put on my account, and yet Christ has given me the message of the mystery of His love. And the greatness of that is verse 12 as he explains what that mission is all about. In Christ, we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in Him.

I can come boldly before the throne of grace. I can come before God in time of trouble and help. Before my sin, I'm just the least of the people and the chief of sinners, and yet I can come boldly before the throne because of the grace of God and recognize I'm not made right because of what I have done but my faith in what Christ has done. That becomes the essential mark of a Christian calling that I'm not promoting because I've sacrificed so much or I've told so many, but I simply recognize Christ Jesus died for me I'm made right by what He has done. My humility is the avenue for His praise and that's what I really want to happen. To say ultimately what I want to do is have the mark of gracious humility be my ultimate statement of my calling so that people will not look to me, but they will look to my Savior who could save someone like me and you and your neighbor and the ones you're angry at and the ones you never want to deal with who are members of God's household when they too put their faith in Him.

Ultimately, it is gracious humility above all the other characteristics that marks a true calling and faithfulness to the God of the Scriptures, not me, Him.

Because I was working on this sermon when Rachel and Chris had me review the video that you saw a little bit earlier today, I could not help but think how that testimony had been given again in our midst and you saw it just a few minutes ago.

It was given by our elder Dan Learned as he was speaking about his testimony and he said something that I think for some in our community might get him some persecution. Did you hear it? He said, "The word that went out," and remember I was across the world when the tornadoes were here, it's the way I heard it, "was that there was a Sunday miracle in Washington." What do they call it the Sunday miracle? There was 1,100 homes damaged or destroyed, but no immediate loss of life. And there was a reason that the explanation was given because here in the Bible Belt of the Midwest where everybody's kind of a good Christian, everybody was in where?

Everybody was in church. What did Dan say?

Maybe 15 or 20 percent.

What's the reminder?

If we were saved, it's not because we are good, it's because God is good.

That's the humility before the world. Don't you recognize that? That's the real message of hope? That we don't stand before the world and say, "God saved us because we are good." Instead in humility we say, "When I was the least of the apostles, when I am the chief of sinners, my hope is not in my goodness, my message is that my God is good and gracious and sent his Son for me."

It's the message this church loves. It's the message that will reach the world with true hope. May God so write on our hearts not only the necessity of sacrifice, not only the importance of mission, but ultimately the quintessential mark of what it means to be a Christian.

Not me, not me, not me, not me.

His mercy, that's my hope.

And your hope too, put your faith in him. Father, so work the gospel into our hearts, we pray.

What beauty you have shown us this day of people who even in their suffering want the world to know their Savior.

Help it to be the deepest desire of our hearts and the design that you are working into our lives that we, even we, sinners among the people of God struggling with our hurts and our angers and our antipathies, struggling to know if you can really use our suffering, struggling to believe you in the hard times, struggling to accept those who are different than we.

Nonetheless because you are good have shown us mercy.

May that be our message and may that be the hope of friend and neighbor and family around us. Use us, we pray, with gracious humility to show the world a great Savior. This we ask in Jesus' name, amen.

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