Thanks very much, Rachel. Good morning, everyone. Really good to have you with us, whether you're present in person here at the church or joining us virtually.
It would be helpful if you've got a Bible, if you have that in front of you as we go through the passage.
I think one of the most difficult things for many people during lockdown has been having loved ones who they're really worried about,
but they've not been able to go and see or not certainly not be able to go and see as much as they would like to.
They've wanted to care for perhaps elderly relatives, to visit people in hospital or in nursing homes,
or perhaps these days to be able to see their student children.
And they haven't been able to and they've found it a real burden and have really worried about them.
Perhaps some of you are in that position.
Or perhaps you're at the other end of that, that you're the person that someone is really concerned about
and you want to say to them, look, don't worry, I'm all right, or maybe you don't.
Either way, it's very difficult.
And we're thrown back perhaps as never before on our trust in the Lord,
believing that he will work all things for his purposes.
And the thing that we can always do is come to him in prayer.
Now you might be saying, what's the relevance of that rather heavy introduction
to this wonderful passage in Ephesians?
Well, Paul's condition as he wrote this letter was very similar in many ways to what I've just described.
He was in prison and the people he was writing to, the church in Ephesus and perhaps others who received the letter,
they were worried about him and his circumstances.
And he wanted to say to them, look, don't worry, you shouldn't be worrying about me.
What's happening is all in God's purpose.
And so we have Paul's position as the starting point for this passage.
Now we're not going to go through it consecutively verse by verse,
and Paul's position is really in verse 1 and then again in verse 13.
And in both cases, he describes himself as a prisoner.
A prisoner, in fact, for the sake of the Gentiles.
Now if you remember the story of Paul, Paul went and he was the apostle to the Gentiles.
And when he went back to Jerusalem,
because he was seen as going against the Jewish law by some who wanted to stick rigidly to it,
and because he accepted the Gentiles as equals within the church,
he was arrested, he was imprisoned, he was taken to Rome.
Ultimately, he would be executed for his work for the Lord Jesus.
He wasn't quite at that stage here.
He was probably under house arrest, maybe in Rome.
Nevertheless, he was a prisoner and the people in Ephesus were worried about him,
perhaps particularly worried because he was suffering because of them,
because of what he had done for them.
And Paul wants to say to them,
don't worry about me.
Yes, I'm a prisoner.
Yes, I'm suffering for the gospel.
But there's a bigger picture here.
And when we look at the bigger picture,
the temporary, the present troubles come into some kind of perspective.
So I said, Paul's positioner, he's a prisoner.
He's a prisoner of the Romans probably at this stage.
He's in prison.
But look at verse 1.
Paul says,
For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus.
Now, he doesn't say a prisoner for Christ Jesus.
That would have been quite correct.
He was suffering for the sake of the gospel,
for the sake of Christ Jesus.
But he says,
I'm a prisoner of Christ Jesus.
And it may have been the Jews who got him arrested.
It may have been the Romans who had him in prison.
But actually, Paul says,
this is all part of God's purpose for me.
And I don't see myself as being just a prisoner of the Romans.
I'm a prisoner of Christ Jesus.
I am doing it for his sake
and for the sake of the gospel.
And that makes it worthwhile.
He talks in Philippians about being able to participate
in the sufferings of the Lord Jesus.
And because he's doing it for the gospel,
Paul says,
that is really worthwhile.
And then verse 13,
at the other end of the passage,
he says,
I ask you, therefore,
not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you,
which are your glory.
That's quite a strange phrase, isn't it?
Which are your glory.
What does he mean by that?
Well, I think what Paul means
is that the fact that he's suffering
for the sake of the Gentiles
and the fact that he's willing to go through that
without complaint
shows just how important it is
that the Gentiles are now part of God's people.
And it gives them extra worth,
if you like,
that someone cares enough about them
that he is willing to suffer for them
because there is a huge principle at stake here
that the Gentiles, the non-Jews,
are welcomed into the church
on the same basis as the Jews.
So Paul is a prisoner of Christ Jesus.
It is part of his fellowship with the Lord,
suffering for him.
He is also someone who is showing the worth,
the value of us,
of those who were not born as Jews,
that in God's sight,
we are really important.
He's saying it is for your glory.
He saw beyond the immediate position he was in
and he saw the big picture.
And perhaps that's a lesson for us
if we are suffering in lockdown,
perhaps in the way I was describing earlier,
perhaps in other ways.
Yes, there is a lot that we could complain about
and we could say this is really,
really difficult.
But there is a bigger picture.
We don't know what it is.
We may know bits and pieces of it.
God knows the big picture
and God's purposes will be fulfilled
whatever happens.
Whatever position we're in,
we should be willing to put our trust in God
and to recognize that he is in control.
And we do that as we come to him in prayer.
Paul says to the Ephesians,
do not be discouraged.
And that reminded me of the old hymn.
Have we trials and temptations?
Is there trouble anywhere?
We should never be discouraged.
Take it to the Lord in prayer.
Let's do that if we're struggling at the moment
in current circumstances.
Let's bring it to the Lord
and leave it with him
and seek his peace and his help in it.
But then in the other verses,
the ones in the middle
of what we've been looking at,
Paul expands a bit more
on what the big picture is.
So he's talked about his condition,
verses 1 and 13.
And the second thing I want to look at
is what I've called Paul's cognition.
Now I suspect cognition isn't a word
you use in everyday language
unless you have to be
an educational psychologist.
But what it simply means
is it's how we make sense
of the world round about us.
How we take what we see,
what we hear,
what we experience,
and we process it
to build our knowledge
and our understanding.
And Paul's talking here
about how he came to make sense
of this relationship
between the Jews
and the Gentiles in the church
and how all of us
are together in Christ.
Now last week
when we were looking at chapter 2
which also talks about a similar thing,
Graham made the very correct point
that this is not something new.
That as we go through the Old Testament
it foreshadows what is happening here.
For example,
in God's promises to Abraham
that all nations would be blessed through him.
And that's correct.
There's a continuity in Scripture.
There's nothing that's contradictory
in the Old and the New Testaments.
And yet, here Paul says,
actually there is something that's new.
What's new is our understanding
of God's purposes.
It used to be a mystery.
It is a mystery, he says.
But in the biblical context,
a mystery is not something
we don't understand
that we've got to go away
and try and solve.
A mystery is something
that was previously hidden
that people in the past
didn't understand
but has now been revealed to us.
And Paul says,
God has revealed this mystery to me.
And we will be looking in a few minutes
at exactly what that mystery is.
But for the moment,
we're looking at how Paul
came to understand it.
And he says,
this mystery was made known to me
by revelation.
It was revealed by the Spirit
to God's holy apostles and prophets.
And that would include Paul, of course.
Now, we don't know
how it was revealed to Paul.
Did he have some kind of vision
like Peter did
when the cloth came down
and he saw the different foods on
and God taught him
that the Gentiles were able
to be part of the church
as well as the Jews?
Perhaps.
Perhaps not.
Perhaps it's just
there was a sudden insight
that he got
as he was thinking,
as he was studying God's word.
And he came to understand
the significance
of the Gentiles
coming into the church.
And I'm sure you spent
a lot of time then
studying it
and building up
the theology of it,
if you like.
But it was revealed to him
by God
and he came to understand it
through the Spirit of God.
Now, as Paul's condition,
what about our cognition?
How do we come to view
the world around us
and to make sense of it?
Well, there are two ways
that God does it,
two principal ways
that God does it.
One is through the Bible.
The Bible is God's revelation to us.
We are not going to have
new theologies being developed today
because it is all there
in the Scripture.
God has given it to us.
But we also need God's Spirit
working in us
and teaching us
and drawing us
to the Lord Jesus.
Reading our Bible
isn't just an intellectual exercise.
It's not just something
we read like we would
a scientific textbook
or something like that.
Reading the Bible
is allowing God
to speak to us,
to reveal himself to us,
and to come to understand
more about him
and about the world around us
as the Spirit
make us clear to us.
And as we come to read the Bible,
whether it's in church
or whether it's at home
in our quiet time
or who's typically
sitting down to study,
we should be praying
that God's Spirit
will open up the Word to us
and reveal the mysteries,
the things that were
previously hidden,
perhaps previously hidden,
to us as well,
and that we will understand them,
what God is saying to us.
Paul's condition
and Paul's cognition.
Third thing I want to look at
is what I've called
Paul's commission,
and that's mainly in verses
7 to 11.
Paul says,
I am a servant
of the gospel.
He says,
I have been given
the administration
of God's grace.
Paul's specific role
in the church
was to take
the message
of the gospel
to the Gentiles.
Now we know
what a commission is.
A commission is
where someone
is entrusted
with a responsibility
because they're deemed
to have the expertise
and the experience
to carry it out.
So an artist
is given a commission
to paint a portrait
of the queen,
or a soldier
is given a commission
to be an officer
in the army.
They're put
in a position
of trust
because they're
worthy of it.
Paul has been given
a commission here,
although he would say
in many ways
he wasn't worthy of it.
He says,
I'm the least
of God's people,
but he has been given
a commission
because he is the person
who has been chosen
by God
and has been
empowered by him
to preach
to the Gentiles.
Now as you go
through the passage,
there's a kind of
three-stage process
going on here.
So the first thing is
that God reveals
the mystery
to Paul.
So Paul comes
to understand
God's grace
to him
and to the Gentiles.
So the Gentiles
and the Jews
are one
in Christ Jesus.
That's stage one.
The second stage
is that Paul
takes what has been
revealed to him
and having been
commissioned to God,
he goes
and preaches it
to the Gentiles.
He goes
all over
the known world
and he preaches
the gospel
and he welcomes
into the church
everyone who believes
in the Lord Jesus.
Jew or Gentile,
they become part
of the church
of the Lord Jesus
throughout the then
known world.
But then
there's a third
stage in that
and that's in verse 10
if you have the passage
in front of you.
Because Paul says
his intent
was that now
through the church
the manifold wisdom
of God
should be made known
to the rulers
and authorities
in the heavenly realms.
So in other words
there's a revelation
to Paul,
there's Paul's preaching
to the Gentiles
or to anyone
who would listen to him
and the third stage
is that the church
becomes a witness
of God's grace
to what Paul calls
the rulers
and authorities.
Now probably
what Paul is thinking of
as the evil powers
and authorities
round about
that the church
is to them
a testimony
of the power of God
and of the fact
that God is in control
and is able to bring
all things
and all people
to himself
as they trust
in the Lord Jesus.
Paul's commission.
The challenge for us is
well what is
my commission?
what is it
that God
wants me
to do?
And if God
wants us
to do something,
if God is calling us
to do something,
he will equip us
for it.
Paul was well equipped
to be the apostle
to the Gentiles.
He was steeped
in Jewish tradition
and Jewish teaching
but at the same time
he came from
a Gentile city,
Tarsus,
and he was a Roman citizen.
He understood
both sides
and he was able
to talk equally
to Jews
and to Gentiles.
And he had
the spiritual insight
to be able
to understand
God's truths
and to be able
to communicate them.
So what is it
that God wants me
or wants you
to do for him?
And it will be different
for all of us.
Well I think
we can understand
it to some extent
if we look at
what is it
that God
has gifted us
to do.
What is the
experience
of our life?
What are the things,
the expertise,
the gifts
that we have been
given by God?
And can we use them
for his glory?
I look back
over my own life
and I see real parallels
between what I've done
in service,
direct service
for the Lord Jesus
and what I did
in my secular employment.
My training involved
being able
to analyse things,
to be able
to manage finance.
my job involved
taking things
that were fairly
complicated
and trying to
explain them simply
so that others
could understand them.
And as I look at
what I did
and what I do
in the church,
these things are
very relevant,
they've been helpful.
God has been
helping me
to build up
the gift
that he has given me
to be able
to use it hopefully
for his glory.
And the challenge
for all of us
is what is it
that God has
called us
and enabled us
to do.
And if he has
called us
and enabled us
to do something,
we need to do it.
There's no place
in the church
for lazy Christians.
All of us
are commissioned
to work
for the Lord Jesus.
Now for some people
that work
may be behind the scenes.
It may be
that your work
for the Lord Jesus
now
is to uphold
the church,
those who are
able to be more
actively involved
in prayer
and to bring them
before the Lord
and to encourage them
perhaps in their service.
For some of us,
what God has called us
to do
is to care for others,
to care for elderly parents
or an ill spouse
or to care for children.
And these are
high callings
from the Lord Jesus
and we should see them
as being part
of our service
for him
as well as
of our love
for others.
But for many of us,
there are things
that we could be doing
and should be doing
in the church
and in Christian service
and the question is
are we?
Are we using the gifts
that God
has given us?
And Paul presents this
in a very positive way.
He doesn't talk about
the work he's doing
as being a chore
or as being something
difficult.
Rather,
he talks about
the gift
of God's grace
that was given him.
Twice he uses
the word grace
in these verses.
And Paul is saying
being able
to serve the Lord Jesus
is a great privilege.
It's not us
giving to him.
It's us taking
what he's given to us
and benefiting from it
as we serve him.
And as we serve,
we never lose out.
If we faithfully
serve the Lord Jesus,
we do truly experience
his grace
in our lives.
And if we don't serve him,
we lose out
on that gift
that he's given us
and the ability
to serve him
and to live for him
as we should.
Paul's commission.
What is my commission
to serve
the Lord Jesus?
And then finally,
we thought of Paul's condition,
Paul's cognition,
Paul's commission,
and let's finish
with Paul's conviction.
And that is
at the heart
of the past.
I agree,
I've spoken some detail
about this last week,
so I'm not going to go
into as much detail
this morning,
but it's particularly
in verse 6
and then again
towards the end
of the passage
in verse 12.
What is this conviction
that Paul has
that is worth
suffering for,
that is worth
going to prison for,
that ultimately
will be worth
dying for.
And it's there
in verse 6,
this mystery,
this thing
that is now revealed
but was previously hidden,
is that through
the gospel,
the Gentiles,
people who aren't Jews,
are heirs together
with Israel,
members of the one body,
and sharers together
in the promise
of Christ Jesus.
Notice three words,
he says the word together.
We're heirs together,
we're members together,
we're sharers together.
In other words,
all the things
that God has in store
for us through Christ Jesus,
the inheritance
that is ours,
it is there equally
whatever our background.
There's no distinction
between Jews and Gentiles
or any other group.
It is only through faith
in the Lord Jesus.
Then we're members together.
We're one family,
we're one body
in the Lord Jesus.
And there is no distinction,
there is no discrimination
within that.
And we're sharers together
in the promise.
In other words,
we have the same hope
for the future
and the same understanding
of God with us.
There is no distinction.
Now, what Paul is talking about
specifically here,
the relationship between Jews
and Gentiles
and their equal acceptance
in the church
is theologically
very important,
but actually,
practically,
it probably doesn't mean
a lot to most of us
these days.
Most, if not all of us,
are Gentiles
and we probably
don't really think
that there's any distinction
between Jews
and Gentiles
when it comes
to the church.
But perhaps we need to
think a bit
wider than that
and to recognize
that anyone
who trusts in the Lord Jesus
through faith
is welcome in the church
and is part
of the body
of Christ.
There is
no distinction.
Christ died
for all those
who will trust in him
and accept him
as their savior
and follow him
as their Lord.
Doesn't matter
what your gender is,
what your age is,
what your race is,
what your abilities are,
what your wealth is,
what your life experience
has been,
these things
in many ways
are irrelevant
because when we come
to the Lord Jesus,
we all come
on the same basis,
recognizing that
we are,
as Paul says,
we are unworthy
to come to him
and yet he welcomes us
and he is willing
to forgive us
whatever we are
and whoever
we have been.
and we are accepted
into the church
on the same basis
and that those
who God has
joined together
as one
let us in no way
try to separate
or try to discriminate
or try to say
that one is better
than the other.
The Lord Jesus
accepts us all
on the basis
of faith in him
and is saving
death for us
on the cross
and we are one
in Christ Jesus.
Whether Jew,
Gentile,
or all the other things
I talked about,
in the Lord Jesus
there is no difference.
We are all accepted
on the same basis
and we all have
the same inheritance.
We all equally belong
in the body of Christ.
We all equally have
the same heavenly father
and that is Paul's conviction
that it is only
by faith in the Lord Jesus
and through the grace
of God
that we are accepted
into God's family
and there is nothing else
that we need to do
or to be in advance.
if we trust in Jesus
then we are part
of that great body
of the church
which the Lord Jesus
is building up
for his glory.
So Paul's condition,
Paul's cognition,
Paul's commission
and Paul's conviction.
Let's end
where we started.
We are living
in very difficult times.
I think for all of us
these times
are unprecedented
and they are not going
to get that much easier
very quickly.
I think everyone accepts
we are looking
at quite a long winter ahead
when things
will remain difficult.
And so it is really important
that we are able
to step back
from our immediate circumstances
and the things
that would bring us down,
the things that would
discourage us
and to fix our eyes
on the things
that really matter
and to recognize
that whatever
our current circumstances are
God knows them,
God cares about them
and we can draw strength
and encouragement
from him.
We shouldn't get discouraged
in our faith
when we face difficulties.
The difficulties
that we face
if we face them
in the strength
of the Lord Jesus
they will build up
our faith.
They will draw us
closer
to the Lord Jesus.
And so in these times
it becomes
more important
than ever
it's always vital
that we turn
to the Bible
and that we seek
to understand
what it is
that God is saying
to us
and to draw strength
and encouragement
from it.
It's important
that we look
round about us
and we say
well what can I do
for the Lord Jesus?
Are there things
I could be doing
at this time
that will help others?
Well there's things
in the church
helping with the
operation of the church
and the ministries
of the church
or whether it's
on more individual
basis
helping others.
What is it
that God is calling
is commissioning
me to do?
And we should
all of us
make sure
that we have
an understanding
of God's great grace
in the Lord Jesus
of all that he has
done for us
in sending his son
to die
on the cross
and make sure
that our trust
is in the Lord Jesus
and our confidence
is in him
that we're not
depending on ourselves
but we're trusting
in him for our future
and bringing it
to him
in prayer.
May that be
all of our experience.
Let's pray together.
Our Father
we thank you
for your word
to us today.
We thank you
for this tremendous
passage
where Paul presents
just the clarity
with which
you showed him
the greatness
of your grace.
That there is
no distinction
in coming
to the Lord Jesus.
Whether you are
Gentile
you accept us
equally
and we are
all one
together.
We pray that you
help us first of all
to ensure
that we belong
to the Lord
that our trust
is in him
and we are
following him
and living for him.
And then help us
in this difficult
time
to take
everything
to the Lord
and leave it
with him.
And if there are
things that concern us
and things
that we feel
perhaps there is
nothing we can
do about them.
We thank you
that you are
all powerful
and that you are
able to move
in every situation.
Help us to have
a real trust
in you
and to
live
our lives
knowing that
you care for us
and that you
work things
for our good.
We thank you
for your presence
with us this morning
as we worship
together
as we have
learned from you.
We ask for your
presence in the
coming week
in the name
of the Lord
Jesus.
Amen.