Sermon – Ephesians 3:1-12 A Mystery

Rev. Jeffrey T. Howard

First Presbyterian Church of Ocean City

Sermon – Ephesians 3:1-12 A Mystery

January 10, 2016

This is the first Sunday in the season of Epiphany. An epiphany is a moment when you suddenly understand something which has been hidden from your view. As Christians we celebrate the coming of Christ who revealed God's plan for us; a plan which had been there all along, but had been hidden from our understanding.

We love to discover things which have been hidden. We love to open an old book and find a letter our grandmother had received decades ago. We love to discover our grandfathers World War 1 uniform in the attic. We love to find our First Grade Report Card among our mother's things when we clean out her house. Suddenly you see something which had been hidden, you have an epiphany.

Epiphany is what makes mysteries so popular. A mystery is a story where the truth is hidden until a great detective uncovers that one fact which solves the case. My favorite mystery writer is Agatha Christie. Her novels usually feature wealthy people in an exotic locations. One of them is murdered. That's when Hercule Poirot arrives. He eliminates the suspects one by one and solves the case with a piece of evidence which had been there all along, but everyone had ignored. This piece of evidence becomes the key for solving the mystery. When we suddenly realize the solution that had been hidden we have an epiphany.

According to the Apostle Paul there is a mystery in the Bible. And when the solution is discovered we too will have an epiphany. We will get to this, but first let's pray.

O Christ, light made manifest as the true light of God, gladden our hearts on the joyful morning of your glory; call us by our name on the great Day of your coming; and give us grace to offer, with all the hosts of heaven, unending praise to God in whom all things find their ending, now and ever. Amen (Book of Common Worship p. 193)

We revisit today Paul's letter to the church at Ephesus. Paul had established this church and later sent his protege Timothy there as its pastor. Now, later in Paul's career, he is writing this letter to provide the church with a solid foundation for the future. Paul is in prison, and is unsure how much longer he will live. As he looks back over his ministry he realizes that he, like Hercule Poirot, had discovered a solution to an ancient mystery. The churches he had started had been born in the sudden awareness of this solution. They had an epiphany. Let's hear what Paul had to say. Listen to the good news from the Apostle Paul writing to the church at Ephesus.

Ephesian3:1-12 1 For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—2 Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, 3 that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4 In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 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.

In this passage the Apostle Paul talks about a mystery. A secret has been hidden for thousands of years. There have been many clues. But not until Jesus Christ did we have a solution to the mystery. Let's take a look at some of the clues and see what we have.

Thousands of years ago God selected a couple, Abraham and Sarah to begin a family which would become a great nation and the people of God. God said this at the time. From Genesis 12 we read:

12 The Lord had said to Abram, “Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you. 2 “I will make you into a great nation,    and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you,
    and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

So God has promised Sarah and Abraham that he would bless them richly by giving them many descendants. In return Sarah and Abraham are to bless others. With this covenant God's people were established and God blessed them richly. They were to bless others just as they had been blessed. But what could God have meant when he said, “and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you”?

God fulfilled his promise to bless his people by giving them kings. These kings were to rule in justice and righteousnes by caring for the poor in their nations. The greatest of all kings was David who wrote:

Psalm 2:6-8 “I have installed my king    on , my holy mountain.” 7 I will proclaim the Lord’s decree: He said to me, “You are my son;    today I have become your father. 8 Ask me,    and I will make the nations your inheritance,    the ends of the earth your possession.

Certainly God made David a mighty king with a powerful kingdom. But what could have God meant when he said, “I will make the nations your inheritance.”?

And when God's people where in exile in Babylon God sent a prophet with words of comfort. This is what Isaiah said:

Isaiah 42:5 -6 This is what God the Lord says—the Creator of the heavens, who stretches them out,    who spreads out the earth with all that springs from it,    who gives breath to its people,
    and life to those who walk on it 6 “I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness;    I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you     to be a covenant for the people
    and a light for the Gentiles.

So their God sent a prophet to hold their hands. But what could God have meant when he called them “a light for the Gentiles”?

Let's put all of this together and try to figure out the mystery. God told Abraham and Sarah that through their family all the the families on earth will be blessed. God told David that the nations would be his inheritance. And God told the exiles in Babylon that they would be a light to the gentiles. So, what could all of this mean? It's a mystery which dumbfounded the people for thousands of years. But then Jesus came and the mystery was solved.

Let's listen as the great detective, Paul of Tarsus, solves this mystery.

Ephesian 3

 6 This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

7 I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. 8 Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, 9 and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery,which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. 10 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,11 according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12 In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. 

The great mystery that Jesus came to solve was that God was not just the God of the Jews. Rather our God, who created everything in heaven and on earth, is the God of everything and everyone. God's people of the first century thought that God had come only for the Jews. But had an epiphany. Suddenly, they realized that their scripture had always said that God is a God who blesses both Jew and Gentile, non-Jew.

This epiphany led to two things. First was Paul's ministry where he offered faith in Israel's God to the Gentiles for the first time. This resulted in the explosive growth of the church as Gentiles came to the creator God through his son Jesus Christ. It also resulted in Paul arrest because the religious leaders of the day were frightened by this epiphany of inclusiveness.

And second thing this epiphany did was to establish the church where both Jew and Gentiles could worship together. Gentiles and Jews began worship on Sunday mornings in house churches celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christs. These gatherings grew and began renting and building places of worship. Churches were established, grew, and started new churches.

The religious leaders of the first century could not tolerate this. They had Paul put in prison. But as his churches of Jews and Gentiles grew it became obvious that he was right. God does want everyone, from every race and every nation to worship him. And that is the mission of the church today.

First Presbyterian Church has a membership the is basically white, but things are changing. Last year you made a Nigerian a member of your church and you called an interim pastor with a Korean wife. At our 1:00 pm service several Koreans have been attending and last week they were joined by several people from Cameroon and Sierra Leone. We have hundreds of international students coming here for breakfast in the summer. They also attend Christian movies, and ESL classes here in the church. This is our epiphany. Suddenly we have discovered what God wants us to do. We are becoming what God has wanted from us all along. We are becoming a multi-ethnic church in fulfillment of God's desire.

If this seems to be a sudden change, it is. Suddenly God has revealed to us what has been hidden, but has always been true. The mission of the church is to be a blessing for all families on earth. Christ is the king over all nations on earth. And all Christians are to be a light to all ethnic groups, welcoming everyone into our community. Let's pray.

Father in heaven, we thank you for revealing a mystery which had been hidden for so long. We had thought that you were a God for us alone. But now we have discovered that you are a God of everyone. Help us to be an inclusive church welcoming everyone to worship with us. This we pray in the name of your Son who revealed that this mission had been your plan all along. Amen.