Right off the bat, I have to tell you that if you have time on Sunday mornings, you should joins us at 9:30 for a live discussion about Ephesians. We are learning and growing so much together as a group. Nothing can replace one-on-one building of relationships and discipleship, so please join us!!!!
Ephesians 3 marks the beginning of a transition in this letter to the Ephesians. He spent the first paragraphs of his letter explaining who we are without God, what God did for us through Christ and how that grace translates into the lives of Gentiles as well as Jews. So he's explained a bit and before he goes, he wants to make clear to the Ephesians what exactly His purpose in Christ is. This chapter is about God's plan and how Paul fit into it. It is a brief "testimony" of his life with Christ.
This week I have chosen to use The Message Bible. It's probably the easiest read for this chapter. Let's start with Ephesians 3:1-13:
This is why I, Paul, am in jail for Christ, having taken up the cause of you outsiders, so-called. I take it that you're familiar with the part I was given in God's plan for including everybody. I go the inside story on this from God himself, as I just wrote you in brief.
As you read over what I have written to you, you'll be able to see for yourselves into the mystery of Christ. None of our ancestors understood this. Only in our time has it been made clear by God's Spirit through his holy apostles and prophets of this new order. They mystery is that people who have never heard of God and those who have heard of him all their lives stand on the same ground before God. They get the same offer, same help, same promises in Christ Jesus. The Message is accessible and welcoming to everyone, across the board.
This is my life work: helping people understand and respond to this Message. It came as a sheer gift to me, a real surprise, God handling all the details. When it came to presenting the Message to people who had no background in God's way, I was the least qualified of any of the available Christians. God saw to it that I was equipped, but you can be sure that it had nothing to do with my natural abilities.
And so here I am, preaching and writing about things that are way over my head, the inexhaustible riches and generosity of Christ. My task is to bring out in the open and make plain what God, who created all this in the first place, has been doing in secret and behind the scenes all along. Through followers of Jesus like yourselves gathered in churches, this extraordinary plan of God is becoming known and talked about even among the angels!
All this is proceeding along lines planned all along by God and then executed in Christ Jesus. When we trust in him, we're free to say whatever needs to be said, bold to go wherever we need to go. So don't let my present trouble on your behalf get you down. Be proud!
Have you ever felt like Paul? Completely inadequate? I know I have. In fact, this testimony that Paul shares could be the testimony of many Christians today. Why me? Isn't there someone more qualified? Paul was the "chief among sinners." He persecuted the very thing he became. It was before Christ his life mission to persecute and kill Christ followers. And then He encountered Christ and Christ transformed his life to be more than he ever imagined. Christ gave him a purpose.
We see a couple of things in this part of the passage:
1) Paul had a clear sense of what God's purpose for him was
2) Paul realized that this purpose was only going to be fulfilled in obedience to God and by the grace and gifts of God, alone he was nothing.
Pastor Rick Warren said, "The purpose of your life is far greater than your own personal fulfillment, your peace of mind, or even your happiness. It's far greater than your family, your career, or even your wildest dreams and ambitions. If you want to know why you were placed on this planet, you must begin with God. You were born by His purpose and for His purpose."
Paul thoroughly understood this. He knew that God has a plan and that God alone has the power to make that plan happen. He will use you in ways that you never thought possible if you will just be willing to let him.
The last part of Ephesians 3 (verses 14-21) Paul begins another prayer for the brothers and sisters of Ephesus. As we've seen before, Paul's prayers are amazing. They are not just prayers to God but also sendings to us. So let's end this chapter of Ephesians with this sending from Paul to discover what God has for us, to be open to His will in our lives! To reach for the greatest gift ever! Soak it in. Read it twice. Read it three times. Know that Paul, if he were here today, would pray the same for you and your life!
My response is to get down on my knees before the Father, this magnificent
Father who parcels out all heaven and earth. I ask him to strengthen you by his
Spirit-not a brute strength but a glorious inner strength-that Christ will live
in you as you open the door and invite him in. And I ask him that with both feet
planted firmly in love, you'll be able to take in with all followers of Jesus
the extravagant dimensions of Christ's love. Reach out and experience the
breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full
lives, full in the fullness of God.
God can do anything, you know-far more than you could ever
imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us
around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. Glory
to God in the church! Glory to God in the Messiah, in Jesus! Glory down all the
generations! Glory through all millennia! Oh, yes!
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