Good morning everyone.
So it's a pleasure to be here with you again at Brentsfield.
I normally get invited twice to most churches, the second time once to apologise, but I keep
getting back invited.
So it is a pleasure, but it's also a privilege and a responsibility to share God's Word with
you.
So will you join me as we just pray and ask God to help us to understand it, and more
importantly to put it into practice.
So let's just bow in a moment's prayer.
Gracious God, as we focus on the greatness of the Gospel, the good news of Jesus Christ,
we pray that by your Holy Spirit you might make it clear to us the greatness of your love
and grace, and that we might respond with hearts full of thanksgiving, and if we've never
before grasped it for ourselves, that you might help us to do that also, that we might know
what it is to be born again of the Spirit of God.
And we ask it in Jesus' name of your glory.
Amen.
A few outlines on the screen, hopefully, that will help you to follow.
I discover in preaching, as most of you know now, since I stepped down from Charlotte Chapel
in 2009, I spent most of my time listening to sermons instead of preaching them.
In fact, I don't exaggerate, in the last five years I've probably listened to hundreds of
sermons, and it's a great privilege and also a great responsibility.
And some people like PowerPoint, other people can't stand it, so if you can't stand it, don't
look at it, alright?
If you do find it helpful, then just follow along, okay?
So, as many of you will know, at midnight last Sunday, April the 5th, some sweeping changes
came into place to allow people over the age of 55 to access all their pension funds without
limit.
This is great news if you're over 55.
And I should say, by the way, that if you see me in the future driving around a Ferrari
instead of my Ford Focus, you'll know the reason why.
This plan was a closely guarded secret.
And it caught everyone by surprise when George Osborne, the Chancellor, announced it a year
ago in his budget.
Now, important though this is, for those who qualify, I want to say this morning, it is
nothing.
This plan pales into insignificance in comparison with a wonderful plan which is described in
this next section of this letter written to Christians in the Greek city of Ephesus by
the Apostle Paul, which you've been studying, I understand, over the past few weeks.
In the new international, in the new, new international version of the Bible, this is the 1988 version,
and it's pretty much the same as the new one which came out in 2011.
That's about 6% of changes, nothing too substantial.
But if you've got a Bible, you might want to turn to it, it's page 1174, or one of the Pew Bibles.
The words will be on the screen, but in the new version, you'll see the Pew Bibles, the section
beginning Ephesians 3, this is page 1174, 1174.
All right, we'll help to have a Bible for other reasons in a moment.
But in this version, this section is entitled, Pull the Preacher to the Gentiles.
In the new version, I like the new heading.
The new heading is, God's marvelous plan for the Gentiles.
God's marvelous plan for the Gentiles.
Now, when George gave his pension plan, you may have switched up.
Those who switched off, those who was over 55 sat up and smiled.
My pension advisor sent me an email and said,
this is good news for you.
I thank you very much.
So when we read this, I simply want to say,
this is good news for the over 55s here,
but it's good news for the under 55s.
In fact, it's good news, it says, for Gentiles.
So if you're a Gentile, that is, you weren't born as a Jew,
then pay attention because this is good news for you.
And if you are a Jew, if you were born a Jew, a privileged position,
then it also applies to you as well, as we'll see together.
It's quite a complex passage, so let's read together.
I've put it on the screen and let's read together.
For this reason, I pull the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles.
Surely you've heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you.
That is the mystery made known to me by revelation,
as I've already written briefly.
In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,
which was not made known to people in other generations,
as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets.
This mystery is that through the gospel,
the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel,
members together of one body,
and share us together in the promise of Christ.
That's quite a tightly packed, complex passage,
but it's a bit like,
have you ever got a copy of your pension plan?
All those legal details and everything.
You need to study it carefully to work out what the details mean for you in reality.
So, with God's help, I want to try and unpack this to help us to understand.
And the first thing I want you to notice, here it is again,
will you notice the key word in this section is the word mystery.
It occurs three times.
In fact, in the original text, it only occurs twice.
The third time it's given to make it clear what it's talking about.
Now, this letter was written to people living in the Greek city of Ephesus,
and lo and behold, the people in the Greek city of Ephesus spoke Greek.
Okay, everybody got that?
Yep.
And the Greeks had a word for mystery.
And the Greek word for mystery is musterion,
from which we get the English word mystery.
In other words, our word mystery comes from the Greek word mystery,
but it doesn't mean the same in English as it did in Greek.
Okay, you still with me?
Lod your heads, look intelligent.
All right.
Yeah, you all still there?
Right.
Okay.
In English, in my dictionary,
a mystery is defined as an unexplained
or inexplicable event or phenomenon.
But in Greek,
a mystery,
a musterion,
in the Greek language,
was a secret
that had been revealed
to someone.
in ancient Greek,
they actually had religions.
They were called mystery religions.
And they told people,
if you paid enough
or did all the right things,
you got let in on the mystery,
what the secret was,
this wonderful divine secret
that had been revealed.
Now,
Paul uses this word here
to describe
the Christian faith.
And he says it's a mystery.
That doesn't mean
you can't understand it.
It means
it's truth from God
that has been revealed.
So,
here's a title.
It's not the greatest title,
but I kind of like it.
So,
here we go.
I'm going to call this
The Marvelous Mystery.
All right?
The Marvelous Mystery.
Now,
if you've been following this series
in Ephesians,
you will know
that Paul actually,
in the opening section
of his letter,
after giving the greetings,
he gives this fantastic
hymn of praise.
It lasts from
chapter 1,
verse,
after the greeting,
verses 1 and 2,
from verse 3
right through to verse 14.
Greek is a funny language
because it adds things together.
So,
from verse 3 to verse 14
is all one sentence
in Greek.
It doesn't make any sense
in English
because you've lots of track
by the time you get
to the third line.
It's such a wonderful thing.
And in it,
he introduces the theme
of mystery.
Listen carefully.
Ephesians 1,
9 to 10.
He says,
And he,
that is God,
made known to us
the mystery
of his will
according to his good pleasure
which he purposed in Christ
to be put into effect
when the times
will have reached
their fulfillment
to bring all things
in heaven and earth
together under one head,
even Christ.
One writer has compared
that opening section
with the overture
before an opera.
Have you ever been
to an opera?
Or you've listened
to some great piece
of music?
What they do
in the overture,
they play all the basic themes
very briefly
and then as it develops,
the music focuses
on each of those themes
in more detail.
So here's Paul introducing
mystery at this point
in the opening chapter
and then when he comes
to chapter 3
he says,
This is the mystery
known to me by Revelation,
verse 3,
as I've already written briefly.
In other words,
he said,
I told you I was going
to talk about it
in the opening bit,
now I've come to it
in chapter 3.
And he impacts it
in detail.
So let me give you
an overview
of where these six verses go
and then we'll try
and follow it together,
okay?
So in Ephesians 3,
1 to 6,
in the first two verses
he talks about,
and I'll try and explain
what this means,
he talks about
what he calls
the administration
of the mystery.
Then in verses 3 to 5
he talks about
the revelation
of the mystery.
And then in the last bit,
in verse 6,
he talks about
the description
of the mystery.
Now maybe for dramatic effect
that we have to wait
until verse 6
to find out
what the mystery actually is.
So I think it makes
more sense,
I'm not rewriting Paul here
just to make it intelligible,
I think it makes more sense
if we go backwards way around
and start with the description,
then the revelation,
and then the administration.
Okay?
This is hard stuff,
okay,
so stay with me,
alright,
it's really important,
alright?
So let's start with
the description,
the mystery.
What is the mystery?
This mystery,
he says,
is that through the gospel,
the Gentiles,
the heirs together
with Israel,
members together
of one body,
and sharers together
in the promise
in Christ Jesus.
Now I just read that
and there was not
a flicker of reaction
from anybody here.
If I had read this
to first century Jews,
there would have been
a riot.
In fact,
we're going to look
in a moment
at a story
that precipitated this
that actually caused
a riot.
Why?
Because of the feeling
of absolute superiority
that the Jewish people
had towards anyone
who wasn't Jewish,
i.e.
what we call a Gentile.
Here's what William Barclay,
a New Testament scholar,
says.
The Jews had an immense
contempt for the Gentile.
They said that Gentiles
were created by God
to be fuel
for the fires of hell.
that God left only Israel
of all the nations
he'd made,
that the best of serpents
crushed,
the best of Gentiles
killed.
It was not lawful
to render help
to a Gentile woman
in childbirth,
for that would be
to bring another Gentile
into the world.
The barrier between
Jew and Gentile
was absolute.
If a Jew
married a Gentile,
the funeral of that Jew
was carried out.
Such contact
with a Gentile
was the equivalent
of death
even to go into
a Gentile house
rendered a Jew
unclean.
Now,
here is this man
writing this letter.
His name is Paul.
By background,
he's a Jew
and not just a Jew,
he's a Jew
from the strictest
group of Jews
called the Pharisees.
He's a former member
of the ruling council
of the Jewish nation
and he says,
I've got a secret
to share with the world.
And the secret is this,
Gentiles
are on an equal footing
with Jews.
And he describes
what this means.
He kind of,
if you like,
this is the,
keep going back
to the pension,
this is the pension portfolio.
He unpacks
what this means
in detail.
He uses three
compound words
together.
They're translating
the NIV
with the word
with.
He says,
Gentiles are,
look at the text,
heirs together,
members together,
and sharers together
with the Jews
in all the privileges
that were once
only exclusive
to the people of Israel.
Look at them,
look at them more closely
with me,
very briefly.
Because,
let me say again,
this is of an estimable
value to us.
Because without this,
you wouldn't be here,
Brentsfield Evangelical Church
wouldn't be here,
there wouldn't be a church
in Edinburgh
or anywhere else.
they'd just be
Jewish people in Israel
and scattered around
in Diaspora
and other parts
of the world,
alright?
So,
first of all,
he says,
we're heirs together
with Israel.
The people of Israel
were God's chosen people.
They belonged to him
personally,
intimately,
as his people.
As his family,
they were the children
of Israel.
Other people and races
didn't belong.
And even among
the Jews themselves,
if you trace the history
of the Jewish people,
not everybody born
into the family of Jews
was an heir.
If you know
the Old Testament story,
the two sons of Abraham,
the father of Israel,
Isaac and Ishmael.
Isaac was the chosen one.
Ishmael was not,
contrary to what
the Quran rewrites,
by the way,
but we won't even go there.
Jacob and Esau,
twin boys.
The older one,
Esau,
was not chosen,
but Jacob was chosen.
So,
belonging to Israel
means inheriting
all the privileges
and wealth
of God's own
chosen people.
But now,
Paul says,
as it were,
Gentiles have been
adopted in
and they are heirs,
they share together
with all those privileges.
What are the blessings
they inherit?
Well,
they're the ones
that we looked at
in the opening section,
chapter 1.
I haven't got time
to read it all again,
but if you're a Christian
and you want to know
what a wonderful thing
it is to be a Christian,
then sit down regularly
and read Ephesians 1,
3 to 14,
where he says,
Praise be to the God
and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us
in the heavenly realms
with every spiritual
blessing in Christ.
And then he lists
all the blessings
that belong to the people
of Israel,
that now belong
to Gentiles,
to each one of us,
through faith
in Jesus Christ.
Christ.
Not only are they
heirs together,
he says,
we are members together
of one body.
See,
it's not as though
Gentiles were kind of
let in as second class citizens.
It was not even that
Gentiles had to become
Jews to belong.
That was a big battle
the early church
wrestled with.
It took a vision
to the Apostle Peter,
the conversion
of a Gentile Roman centurion
to convince him
that Gentiles
were accepted
by God.
No,
Gentiles didn't have
to become Jews
and Jews didn't have
to become Gentiles.
Rather,
they became one new family,
one new people
of God.
I didn't have a chance
to listen to the
previous sermon
because it's not posted
on your website yet,
but last time,
I assume,
in the last time
when we looked at
chapter 2 together,
it's all about this,
about how God
has reconciled
these former enemies
together.
It says,
for he himself
is our peace
who has made
the two groups one
and has destroyed
the barrier,
the dividing wall
of hostility.
So Jews and Gentiles
are members of one body,
the body of Christ.
Our great privilege,
if we belong to Christ,
if you are a Christian,
that is,
if you put your faith
in Jesus Christ,
you receive the Holy Spirit,
you know God's forgiveness
in your life,
you are a member,
it's not just Jesus
and me.
When I grew up,
it was a long time ago,
in my church,
there were lots of
really popular songs
all about Jesus and me.
There's one actually,
the chorus was,
now it's just Jesus and me.
No, it isn't.
It's Jesus and me
and you and you
and you.
We belong together.
We're part of God's people.
I travel around a lot now,
visiting different churches,
talking to different people,
telling one of my
greatest concerns
is that people today
are giving up
on the local church.
And you talk to them,
you say,
which church are you going to now?
Well, I don't go anywhere really.
I've just been hurt so badly
by these Christians
and I've just had enough really.
I go along from time to time
but I don't really want
to get involved.
Listen,
you cannot afford
not to be involved
because you belong
to God's people.
This is not a plug
from the pastor,
I mention it to him
but if you worship here regularly
then make yourself
part of this body.
Get intimately involved
because you belong
to God's people.
So,
heirs together,
members together
and he says,
share us together
in the promise
in Christ Jesus.
You see,
the promise in Christ Jesus,
the promise of the Messiah Jesus
was one that every Jew
looked forward to
over many generations
in fulfillment
of all the promises
of the prophets.
and these had all
been fulfilled now
in the coming
of Jesus Christ,
the Savior,
the Christ.
So Gentiles
who were ignorant
of such promises
were now sharers
with the Jews
in the same promise
and the culmination
of that promise
was on the day
that we call
the day of Pentecost
when the Holy Spirit
was poured out
upon the people
when the Apostle Peter
preached the first
great sermon
on the day of Pentecost
and at the end of it
people said,
what do we have to do then?
Here's what Peter said.
He said,
repent and be baptized
every one of you
in the name of Jesus Christ
for the forgiveness
of your sins
and you will receive
the gift of the Holy Spirit.
The promise,
notice the word,
the promise is for you
and your children
for all who are far off
for all whom the Lord
our God will call.
He says,
you Jews,
it's mostly a Jewish audience
or Jewish converts listening,
he said,
this promise is for you
and successive generations
but it's also for people
who are far off
whom the Lord
our God will call.
Gentile people.
And they're the people
of subsequent generations
down to our own day.
And the mystery is,
says Paul,
that through the gospel,
the good news of Jesus,
any Gentile
becomes an heir together
with God's people,
sharing in the promise,
part of one body.
Now let me pause
at this point
because I don't know
many of you
and this is really important.
Do you belong?
Have you repented?
That is,
have you turned from your sin?
Here's the promise,
if you turn from your sin,
you put your faith
in Jesus Christ,
God promises two things,
he will forgive you
and he will give you
his Holy Spirit
and you'll walk out of this door
as a member of God's people
because Gentiles
are now included
in something that was exclusive
only to Jews up to this point.
Now,
I realize most of us
probably know that
but I can't communicate
just how dramatic
and how incredible this is.
But it's God's great plan.
You see,
God so lived the world
that he gave his son.
Not just Jews.
Paul says,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel,
it's the power of God
for the salvation
of everyone who believes.
First for the Jew,
then for the Gentile,
Romans 1 verse 16.
So,
this is the secret
that's now out into the open.
Gentiles as well as Jews
are included in God's plan.
That's the description
of the mystery.
Okay,
point two.
Now we return
to the second matter
which is
the revelation
of the mystery.
How was this mystery revealed?
Again,
look at the verses together.
The mystery made known
to me by revelation
as I've already written briefly.
In reading this,
then you will be able
to understand my insight
into the mystery of Christ
which was not made known
to men in other generations
as it has now been revealed
by the Spirit
to God's holy apostles
and prophets.
Two things Paul says here
about this revelation
of this news
that Jews,
Gentiles as well as Jews
are included.
First of all,
he says,
it was not revealed
in the past.
He said,
it was not made known
to men in other generations.
Now,
if you know the Bible,
you will know
that when God made
his promise to Abraham
and made an agreement
to covenant with him.
In Genesis chapter 12,
he said,
through you,
all nations on earth
will be blessed.
The prophets look forward,
the Hebrew prophets
look forward to people
being welcomed
from all over the world.
But the details
of the plan,
the amazement,
the enormity
of the detail
of this plan
was not revealed
until this present moment.
But Paul says,
it's now been revealed
in the present.
And Paul says,
it's been revealed,
first of all,
he says,
it was revealed to me
personally,
made known to me
by revelation.
Again,
it's hard to grasp
how revolutionary
and radical
and offensive it was
that Jews,
that Gentiles
as well as Jews,
were equally loved by God.
How radical this would have been
to a first century Jew.
So in order to make it known,
God chose the least likely candidate
to convince him
that it was true
so he could convince
other people.
And that man
was Saul of Tarsus.
And in order to convince him,
a direct revelation
was necessary.
If you think about it,
it's probably the only way
you could convince a man
like Saul of Tarsus,
convince Pharisee,
believe that Jesus
was a heretic,
crucified by the Romans.
How could he possibly
have been the Messiah?
Imagine the Apostle Peter,
an unlearned fisherman,
trying to persuade Paul
that Jesus was the Messiah.
He'd have probably
out-thought him,
out-quoted him
and everything else.
But it took an amazing revelation,
if you know the Bible,
as Paul,
Saul of Tarsus,
was on his way to Damascus
to round up more Christians,
put them in prison,
execute them.
A light shone from heaven,
a voice said,
Saul, Saul,
why are you persecuting me?
And he recognized
it was the voice of God
and he said,
who are you, Lord?
And he said,
I'm Jesus,
whom you're persecuting.
Interestingly,
when Paul relates this story
to a Jewish king,
this is later on
in the book of Acts,
chapter 26,
when he tells his story,
he says,
God then said to him,
now get up,
stand on your feet,
I've appointed you
as a servant
and as a witness
to what you've seen of me
and what I will show you.
You're going to tell people
about this
and I'm sending you
to them,
to the Gentiles.
I will rescue you
from your own people,
from the Gentiles,
I'm sending you
to the Gentiles
to open their eyes
and turn them
from darkness to light
and from the power
of Satan to God
so they may receive
forgiveness of sins
and a place among those
who are sanctified
by faith in me.
So Paul says,
this was revealed
to me personally.
But the question
you need to then ask
and which Paul anticipates
is,
was this some kind
of personal delusion
on his part?
No, for Paul tells
the Ephesians,
it was also revealed
to other church leaders.
It has now been revealed
by the Spirit
to God's holy apostles
and prophets.
If you go back
one book from Ephesians,
you come to another letter
written to,
again,
to Greek Christians
in the Roman province
of Galatia.
And Paul relates
how after his conversion
on the road to Damascus,
14 years later,
he's preparing
for this great ministry
to the Gentiles.
But 14 years later,
he decides to go up
to Jerusalem
to visit the apostles,
the leaders of the church there.
Why does he go?
He says,
I went there
in response,
this is Galatians 2 verse 2,
I went in response
to a revelation
and set before them
the gospel
that I preach
among the Gentiles.
I did this privately
to those who seemed
to be leaders
for fear
that I was running
or had run my race
in vain.
In other words,
he said,
I wanted to check this out
to make sure
I got this right.
And he shared with them
what God had revealed
to him
that the gospel
was also for Gentiles
as well as Jews.
Here's the conclusion,
Galatians 2 verse 7.
They saw that
I had been interested
with the task
of preaching the gospel
to the Gentiles
just as Peter
had been interested
with the task
of preaching
to the Jews.
James,
Peter and John,
those reputed
to be pillars,
gave me and Barnabas,
his colleague,
the right hand of fellowship
when they recognized
the grace given to me.
They agreed
that we should go
to the Gentiles
and they should go
to the Jews.
So Paul says
his insight
into the mystery of Christ
is the same
as the apostles.
Now again,
you may say,
well,
why is this important?
Well,
it's really important
for one reason.
With the regularity
of Halley's Comet,
but unfortunately
much more frequently,
around about every 20 years
in my experience,
people start to propagate
an interesting story
and the story is this.
Jesus was a simple teacher
who taught this simple message
and then along came Paul
who was a really bright guy
and he confused everything
by developing
a different kind of gospel.
So the gospel of Jesus
and the gospels
is different
to what Paul preached.
No, it isn't.
Paul says
we were in absolute harmony.
We agreed together
that this revelation
was a revelation from God
because if it doesn't include Gentiles,
we're not included.
If you're a Christian,
it's that gospel
on which you stake your life
and your eternal destiny.
So,
we're the most privileged people
of all
for we live in the day
when the mystery of God's plan,
the marvelous mystery
has now been revealed.
But great privileges
bring with them
great responsibilities.
So we're working backwards,
you'll be glad to know,
we now come to the opening verse
and what Paul calls
the administration
of the mystery.
Look again at verse 1.
It's kind of,
if you look in the NIV,
it says,
for this reason I, Paul,
the prisoner of Christ Jesus
for the sake of you Gentiles.
And then,
did you notice,
he breaks off.
He gets diverted
and he comes back in,
way back,
further down in verse 14,
he comes back to his,
for this reason.
For this reason I kneel
before the Father.
And he talks about
what he prays.
He's diverted because
what interrupts his thought
is his present circumstances.
He says,
I, Paul,
the prisoner of Christ Jesus
for the sake of you Gentiles.
The reason he says,
I'm in prison
is for the sake of you Gentiles.
And then he says,
surely you've heard
about the administration
of God's grace
that was given to me for you.
That is the mystery
made known to me
by revelation
as I've already written briefly.
Now he uses
an interesting word here.
He uses the word
translated administration.
Some versions
translate it stewardship.
It's a word
that was originally used
for a steward
or a person in charge
of a rich man's wealth
who was responsible
for administering
his wealth
and his property
and his assets.
In fact,
I think,
Derek,
you're into finances.
Do you not have
pension fund administrators?
Are you a pension fund administrator?
You're not?
No.
He just tells you
how to spend your money.
That's a different thing
altogether.
A pension fund administrator
is someone
who looks after
the wealth
in the pension fund
and makes sure
it gets to the right people.
Are you not tired
of picking up your phone
and someone says,
Are you aware of PPI?
My wife has done everything
to stop these calls.
She's written all these things,
tried to block the phone.
Every evening she goes mad.
Just as you start your tea,
you pick up the phone
and someone says,
Are you aware
that the bank has set aside
millions of pounds
for PPI?
I'd never heard of PPI.
I'd do until
the last few years.
But apparently,
and I've hardly ever met anyone
who got anything out of it,
but presumably there are people
here who are living
on the proceeds,
but their role is,
probably not these con people
who are ringing you up
and trying to get a share of it,
but the role is
that the banks
have set aside
certain funds
for people who are
mis-sold PPI.
That's my understanding of it.
You can correct me afterwards
if I'm wrong.
But the responsibility
of the people
in the banks
is to make sure
those who are eligible
get what is due to them.
And Paul says,
My role,
I'm the administrator
of God's grace.
All the riches
that are in Christ,
all the wonderful things
that we focus on
in chapter 1,
he says,
All those wonderful things,
I've got the responsibility
of making sure
the Gentiles know
that they qualify.
He says,
Paul's administration
is to share God's grace
with the Gentiles.
That's his responsibility,
that administration.
But notice what he says.
He says,
It is a costly calling.
For whenever Paul
carried out this responsibility,
if you read the book of Acts,
which is the story of,
second half at least,
of Paul's journeys
when he went around
the Mediterranean world
telling Gentiles and Jews
about the good news of Jesus,
if you read that account,
whenever he carried out
those responsibilities,
it provoked an extreme reaction
on the part of the people
who heard it,
in particular the Jews.
Whenever he said,
Gentiles are included
as well as Jews,
it caused a riot.
Because the Jews thought
they were the only recipients
who qualified.
And that's why Paul
is writing this letter.
He says,
I, Paul,
a prisoner of Christ Jesus
for the sake of you Gentiles.
Now, he's probably referring here
to a specific story.
How did Paul,
Paul is writing this
from a prison cell in Rome.
He's awaiting trial
before the Emperor Nero.
How did he get there?
It's an interesting story.
If you go back again
to the book of Acts,
Paul was visiting
the city of Jerusalem,
and he got with him
some companions
who were Gentile
by background,
and among them
was one of the,
probably a man
who was one of the church members
from the church in Ephesus.
The man named Trophimus.
A man named Trophimus.
And he was in Jerusalem
with these Gentiles.
This man called Trophimus,
he was visiting Jerusalem,
and the Jewish people
heard about it,
and they raised a rumor
and they said,
Paul has broken Jewish law,
he's taken this Gentile
into the inner courts
that are forbidden
to Gentiles.
And literally,
a riot ensued.
They dragged Paul
and his companions
out of the temple area
to stone him
and kill him.
And it caused
an absolute riot.
If you picture Jerusalem
in those days,
there's this riot
in the streets.
Now the Romans knew
that this was the kind of thing
that often happened
among the Jews.
So right in the middle
of the complex
in Jerusalem,
they had a fortress
called the Fortress of Antonia,
and the Jews put
a squadron of soldiers
up there
who sat on a tower
looking down,
watching out for riots.
And when they saw
this riot ensuing,
the commander
of the forces
dashed down the stairs,
out into the streets,
and ran into the middle
of the crowd
to rescue Paul
and to find out
what was happening.
It's a fantastic story.
You can read it in
Acts chapter 21 and 22.
And they literally
have to carry Paul out
because he's being
literally torn apart
by the Jews.
And as they're carrying him
into the fortress entrance,
Paul says to him,
can I just have a word
with them
before you take me in?
You might be glad
to get out of there,
wouldn't you?
And he said,
please,
could I just say something?
And the commander said,
okay.
And Paul turns around,
and if you read
the book in Acts,
he speaks in Aramaic,
which is the mother tongue
of the Jewish crowd.
And the book of Acts
says as soon as he spoke
in Aramaic,
they all were
absolutely silent
because they recognized
he was one of them.
And Paul then
told his story
of how he became
a Christian.
And everybody's listening
with rapt attention
until Acts 22,
verse 21,
he finally says,
then the Lord
said to me,
go,
I will send you
far away
to the Gentiles.
And as soon as
he said this,
the crowd turns ugly,
the crowd listened
to Paul,
Acts 22,
verse 22,
the crowd listened
to Paul
until he said this,
then they raised
their voices
and shouted,
rid the earth of him,
he's not fit to live.
And they had to bodily
lift him up
and carry him to safety.
And the outcome
of this is that Paul
appeals to the emperor
Nero,
and so he's carted off
to Rome awaiting trial,
and so he writes
to the Christians
in Ephesus and says,
you know,
I'm here in prison
for the sake of you Gentiles.
Probably,
for the sake specifically
of your church member
Trophimus,
who's the focus
of this riot.
You see,
sharing the marvellous
mystery,
in fact,
here's a test
of whether you really
are into gospel preaching.
It always provokes
a reaction.
It always provokes
hostility.
That's why Christians
today are suffering.
Why are Christians
so hated?
That's the politicians
who finally got on board
with this.
You see last week
that David Cameron
and I think Nick Clegg
and David,
yeah,
Ed Miliband,
get the right,
Miliband here,
they all mentioned
about Christians
suffering.
Why do people
go into school
in Kenya
and isolate
the Christian students
and kill 147 of them?
Why do they take
Egyptian Coptic Christians
down to a beach
and behead them?
What have they done?
They're Christians.
There is a cost
to proclaiming
the gospel
of Jesus Christ
and to speaking
for Christ.
But Paul knows
that all of this
is under God's
sovereign control
and we need
that assurance.
They need that assurance
for at the sharp end
of this.
We may need it
increasingly in our society
the way things are going.
And Paul says,
I'm a prisoner
of Christ Jesus.
John Stutt
in the Bible
Speaks Today
Comanche and Ephesians
writes,
Humanly speaking,
Paul was not
Christ's prisoner
but Nero's.
But Paul never did speak
or think in purely
human terms.
He believed
in the sovereignty
of God
over the affairs
of men.
Therefore,
he called himself
literally a prisoner
of Christ Jesus.
So convinced
was he
that the whole
of his life,
including his
wearisome
imprisonment,
was under
the lordship
of Christ.
See,
there is a cost
to administering
the gospel.
There's a cost
to administering
the gospel.
But all of that
is under God's
sovereign control.
I wonder,
do you and I
have that same
conviction as well?
Or do we look
and think,
this is just terrible.
It's happening
all over the world
to Christians.
It's terrible
how even in our society
Christians are being
discriminated against.
But it's under
God's sovereign
control.
Paul has this
responsibility
to share this
marvelous mystery.
The administration
of God's grace,
the good news
of Jesus Christ,
the gospel.
That is our mandate
as Christians.
We have this
amazing portfolio
of everything
that is offered
to us in Christ.
All these wonderful
promises.
Read them again
in Ephesians 1.
And as a church,
we have the responsibility
of sharing this good news
for everybody out there.
That you're included
in this.
You may say,
people don't want
to listen.
People don't want
to listen to people
telling you about PPI,
but it isn't stopping,
does it?
But this really is true.
It is for everyone
who will believe.
That is our mandate.
Almost finished.
Midnight last Sunday,
the 5th of April,
sweeping changes
came into effect
to allow people
to use their pension funds
as they pleased.
It's good news,
especially for over 55s.
2,000 years ago,
at 3 o'clock
in the afternoon,
on the day we call
Good Friday,
an infinitely more
important change
took place
when Jesus of Nazareth
died on a cross
outside the city
of Jerusalem.
Mark tells us
in his Gospel,
with a loud cry,
Jesus breathed
his last
the curtain
of the temple
was torn in two
from top to bottom.
The temple,
the curtain
that separated sinners
from a holy God,
was torn in two.
The door to heaven
was open wide
for all.
And Mark tells us
something quite amazing.
At that moment,
the first guy
to step through the door
was a Roman centurion.
when the centurion
who stood there
in front of Jesus
saw how he died,
he said,
Surely,
this man
was the Son of God,
the first of
an innumerable company
of Gentiles
who through faith
in Christ
enter into God's presence
and know in person
for their sins forgiven
with the hope
of eternal life
and all the promises
of God.
I hope we're among
that company,
each one of us,
if not,
make this your day.
And if we are,
it's good news
that we need to share
with other people,
with the Gentiles
out there
in Edinburgh
and to the ends
of the earth
until Christ returns.
It's a marvellous mystery
now been revealed.
Let's rejoice in it.
Let's just pray briefly
and then I'll hand back
to Paul.
Let's be bound in quietness
just for a moment.
Perhaps you've not yet
entered into all these
wonderful privileges
that are offered
in the gospel.
Never really repented
of your sin.
Put your faith in Jesus.
Take this opportunity today.
Now is the day of salvation.
Now is the day
of God's grace.
God's grace.
And for those of us
who have,
let's rejoice
in all that it means.
All the privileges
that are ours in Christ.
Gracious Father,
thank you for the good news
of the gospel.
That is good news
for all people,
Jews and Gentiles.
May we rejoice in it.
May we live in it.
May we not live
as spiritual purpose
when we have
all the resources
and riches of Christ
available to us.
May we rejoice in it
and as a church,
may we share this good news,
this mystery,
with the watching world
outside.
And we ask it in Jesus' name
for your glory.
Amen.
Thank you.