“Sharing in the Promise” Ephesians 3:1-13

I’ve told you about my logic class when I was at Hardin-Simmons as an undergrad. The first day of class, the professor promised us that if we tried our best, we would not fail the class.

This promise came in handy as we looked at the results of our first test in the class. Apparently, no one did well, and the discouragement in the class was palpable. It got to the point that the professor felt the need to remind us of his first day promise.

With that assurance, and clinging to the promise, I plowed back into the studies. Eventually, something clicked and I was able to pass the class with flying colors. And it all started with a promise.

Promises are important in our world. We rely on promises many times, and with time we realize that a promise is far more than a plan. A promise is almost as good as a guarantee. When promises aren’t kept or are broken, we are disappointed and, sometimes, disillusioned. The trust level plummets when a promise is broken.

The Bible is filled with promises God makes to His people. As Paul has written in 2 Corinthians 2, all the promises of God become “Yes” in Jesus. In today’s passage, Paul reminds us that we share in the promise that is Jesus.

Background

One of the characteristics of Paul’s letters is he almost always spends the first half of each letter talking about the “theory” of our relationship with God through Christ and the Holy Spirit. The second half of the letter is spent on the practical side. Since the realities of the first half of the letter are true, then here’s how it should affect us if we will only take what we know and live it out.

In this passage, Paul is coming to the conclusion of his theory portion of the letter to the Ephesians. He begins the passage with a statement of his position as a prisoner for Christ for the sake of “you Gentiles.” He then stops his idea and jumps into a different tangent. He goes from wanting to expand on what he wrote in Chapter 2 and instead explains why God called him to preach the gospel to Gentiles. Building off the idea that ended Chapter 2, Paul explains to the readers and us how it is that we are reconciled with God through Christ, being brought near to Christ and having access to the Father through the Spirit. Here, he approaches it from a different angle.

Central Truth: By God’s grace and plan, we who follow Christ become sharers in the promise of Christ Jesus.

God’s mystery:

Comes from God (1-5)

When Jesus asked the disciples who they thought He was, Peter answered for the other disciples that they believed Jesus was the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus’ response to Peter was to say that his declaration wasn’t built upon what others had told him, but what God had revealed to him. It was this revelation of God’s will that would form the foundation of the Church and of our relationship with God.

Paul tells the Ephesians that his calling was to reveal a mystery, and that this mystery was God’s revelation at this time. Paul writes that he was given the task of administering this mystery. This isn’t like the mystery religions of the area and the time when Paul was writing. There were those who professed to know hidden secrets that came only through some sort of activity or membership. Paul says the mystery he was tasked to share with the Gentiles was a mystery that could only come from God and the work of the Holy Spirit. It is a mystery that is beyond any person’s ability to discern on their own. It is a revelation from God Himself.

Paul writes, “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 is now being revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets” (v. 5). God has a plan, and that plan is to bring us together in Christ Jesus. Through Jesus, God has restored our relationship with Him and has brought us into the household of God, where we are being built into a holy temple in which God Himself dwells.

Without God’s revelation, there is no way we can truly learn about Jesus and about our relationship with God. Nature reveals God, but it is God through His Spirit that reveals the specifics of what it is to live in Christ.

Revealed (6)

I don’t know about you, but I enjoy a good mystery, whether a book, television show or movie. The more twisted the plot lines, the better. Watching and reading about those tasked with solving the mystery are fun to watch. And the best part of any mystery is the plot revealed, and the culprit exposed.

In v. 6, Paul reveals the mystery that he has been tasked to bring to the Gentiles and to us. The mystery is this: that “Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.”

Three things about this verse deserve mentioning. The first is that God has enabled Gentiles to be joint heirs with Israel of all God’s promises. When the “reading of the will” is done at Jesus’ second coming, we won’t find ourselves on the outside, watching as Israel celebrates their special relationship with the Lord. No, we will join in the celebration, because all that is given to Israel will also become ours.

Second, we are members of one body, the body being Christ. Paul is saying that we are all in this together. As the body of Christ, we are given the responsibility to communicate Christ to our world. Just as the body is used to reveal our personalities through the things we say and do, so do we reveal Christ by the things we say and do as the body of Christ. When we come to a saving relationship with Christ, His Spirit comes to live within us, giving us access to Him and the Father and to not just know God’s will, but being transformed and enabled to perform that will. It is our calling, our duty, our privilege to carry out the ministry of Christ in our world—sharing the Good News, ministering in His name and being the body of Christ on earth.

Third, we share in the promise that is Christ Jesus. In Galatians, Paul wrote of a visit Peter made to the church in Antioch. At first, Peter was enjoying fellowship with everyone in the church there. But then a delegation came from Jerusalem, and Paul noticed that Peter began to separate from the Gentile believers at Antioch and associate only with the Jewish converts. Paul called Peter out on the matter.

Because we share in the promise that is Christ Jesus, we will never be in a position where Jesus begins to focus His fellowship on a particular group of believers to our exclusion. No, we are always sharing in His promise, in His body and in His calling.

Purpose (7-13)

Paul continues to write about his ministry and his calling, but the part that jumps out at us as we read these verses is what Paul says is God’s intent in vs. 10-11. “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, according to His eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In Ephesians 1:9-10, Paul wrote, “And He 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 on earth together under one head, even Christ.” When we as the Church come under the authority of Christ and join as one body to speak His word and do His work on earth, we give testimony not just to the world but to all creation. Because we are brought together through this mystery revealed only by the Spirit and made possible only through Christ and His sacrifice at Calvary, God expects us to become like Him and reflect Him in our world and in our cosmos.

We demonstrate the unifying work of God by joining together and becoming one body with one promise and one inheritance.

Once again, Paul reminds us that in Christ Jesus we have access to God. We can approach Him with freedom and confidence. The freedom we have before God is that we can speak our mind and our heart to Him with the confidence that He will not reject us or deny us. Our confidence is that God, who knows us better than we know ourselves, understands us and delights in fellowship with us. We come to Him to express our praise, our fear, our uncertainty. We come to Him and we find comfort, direction, peace.

All of this is from the mystery that God had planned from the beginning, and that He revealed through His holy apostles and prophets. He continues to reveal this mystery through us by the power of His Holy Spirit.

Conclusion

Promises and mysteries. The promise is a life lived with Christ, learning from Him and becoming more like Him each day. The reason is that we can share the mystery of the gospel with those who are also invited to come to Him to find rest for the soul. When we are God’s Church, the one body in Christ, we can become the effective voice of God on earth.

Are you ready to be what God wants you to be?