Scripture reading: Ephesians 3:1-13.

Sermon text: Ephesians 3:14-21.

“Mystery.” This word makes us think of something hidden, something we must reveal. We try to uncover clues that point us to the solution, hoping to assemble a clear picture of what happened.

In the time of St. Paul, “mystery” pointed to something else hidden in life. The society of the first century A.D. Roman Empire was home to numerous “mystery religions” in which observers never revealed the true rituals or beliefs of their religions to any outsiders. These religions held the promise of secret knowledge that would point to true salvation. Only the true believers would know these secrets and therefore find eternal life.

St. Paul told the Ephesians about another mystery, a mystery that no one would have ever guess or deciphered. Unlike the mystery religions who hid knowledge, St. Paul wanted everyone to know about this mystery. In His hidden wisdom, God had always planned to provide reconciliation and salvation to humanity; God had always planned to provide a way for humans to restore their relationship with their Creator.

St. Paul started a thought in verse 1, only to interrupt this thought in verses 2 through 13. In these verses, St. Paul revealed one of the greatest mysteries humanity had ever witnessed.

St. Paul began by reminding the Ephesian believers of the “stewardship of God’s grace” that he received for them. God revealed this “mystery” to St. Paul directly; he didn’t receive this mystery from the original Apostles. St. Paul had “written” about this revelation in his letter to the Galatians (2:2-9). Now, St. Paul wanted the Ephesians to receive his “insight into the mystery of Christ,” a mystery unknown by previous generations. Christ had revealed this mystery “to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.”

It’s hard for us to understand the impact of St. Paul’s next words to the Ephesians: “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.” Remember that the words we just read came from the pen of a Pharisee, one of Judaism’s staunchest defenders. Every morning, every Pharisee prayed a prayer thanking God that He had not made him “a Gentile, a slave, or a woman.” Now, one of the foremost Pharisees of the first century told the Ephesians that God had united Jew and Gentile in salvation through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

It seems we’re constantly trying to divide ourselves into factions of some sort. Most denominations began because of disagreements of some sort. (I’ll say more of this next week.) Humans seem to divide instinctively into groups, in spite of God’s desire for our unity. (See John 17 for more details.) God had called the Jews to serve as a “kingdom of priests” who would point the Gentiles to Him for salvation (Exodus 19:6). When you read Jesus’ genealogy in Matthew chapter 1, you’ll find 2 Gentile women in His ancestry.

However, few Gentiles believed in God because of the Jews’ example of faithfulness. Instead, the Jews often followed the Gentiles into idolatry and sin, leading to the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. Only 70 years of exile cured the Jews of their unfaithfulness, but their return in 539 B.C. did not signal a wholesale turn to the Lord among the nations.

Yet, the Old Testament holds clues in almost every book that God planned to do something to reveal Himself more fully to the Gentiles. Read the the book of Isaiah for only a few of these clues; they begin as early as chapter 2. (cf. 2:3, 11:10, 25:6, 56:7, 60:3, for examples). Essentially, God began revealing that Gentiles, too, would come to believe in Him through faith in His love.

Finally, Jesus’ death and resurrection changed everything. According to St. Paul, Jesus’ gospel transformed believing Gentiles into “fellow heirs” of the Jews; they became “members of the same body” of believers. Through Jesus, Gentiles became “partakers of the promise” that Jesus had made with His death and resurrection, the promise of eternal life to all who believed (John 3:16).

St. Paul said that God had made him “a minister according to the gift of God’s grace.” Through God’s grace, St. Paul had received the final clues to the mystery of God’s salvation for humanity. St. Paul, as Apostle to the Gentiles, revealed to Gentiles throughout the Roman Empire that God had flung open the floodgates of salvation to Gentiles.

St. Paul called himself “the very least of all the saints;” he never believed he had received the privilege of this revelation by his own merit. By grace, St. Paul could “preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” These riches include a wonderful mystery: “through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.”

The Church bears the responsibility of bringing God’s wisdom to the world, a responsibility that would overwhelm us if we tried to do this on our own. Fortunately, “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.” By the eternal purpose of God, we bring His wisdom to the world knowing we have “access with confidence through our faith” in Christ. We can call on God at any time, knowing He hears us and answers our prayers.

St. Paul now continued his interrupted prayer from verse 1: “For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named.” Did you catch that? “From whom every family in heaven and on earth.” Any person from any nationality on earth can call on God for salvation through Jesus and receive an affirmative answer to his prayer.

St. Paul continued to pray, “that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.” St. Paul prayed that God would strengthen the Ephesian believers so they would boldly present the gospel in spite of his imprisonment.  St. Paul also prayed God would reveal to the Ephesians “the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge,” a love that eclipsed the puny secrets of the mystery religions. St. Paul also prayed that the “fullness of God” would fill the Ephesians, that the Holy Spirit would empower them to carry the gospel to the nations.

St. Paul closed this passage with a glorious doxology: “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.” The “power at work within us,” the Holy Spirit, grants us access to all the power of Almighty God.

I see many lessons in this passage, lessons that still apply to the Church for all time.

For one thing, we Gentiles owe God far more for our salvation than we can ever pay. By His grace, God has planned for our inclusion in His people; by His grace, God has abolished the division between Jew and Gentile. Now, everyone who believes in Jesus will receive salvation (John 3:16) regardless of nationality. If you’re born again, you owe God everything, and even your everything will never repay your debt to Him for His love.

As believers in Christ, we can draw no lines between us and other believers or others who want to believe in Christ. Every person in your life either already belongs to your spiritual family or should.

I also see that God has given us a great responsibility. We, the Church, must reveal the wisdom of God to the world. The wisdom of God points to salvation for everyone through Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Through His death and resurrection, God has provided for our salvation.

We also see that God has granted us everything we need to accomplish our task of spreading the gospel throughout the world. We can pray to God for power and for strength, knowing He will answer our prayers and work through us to accomplish His greatest mystery in eternity: The salvation of humanity. God has revealed the mystery; now, let’s reveal this mystery to the world.