“Jesus Changes Our Stewardship (Ephesians 3:1-13)" | 9/29/24
Ephesians 3:1-13 | 9/29/24 | Will DuVal
What’s the most valuable thing you’ve ever been left in charge of? When I was probably 10 or 11 years old, and my sister was like 8 - and keep in mind, I had never even really done any HOUSE-sitting… or PET-sitting… the “training wheels” of adolescent responsibility… - but my Mom’s cousins came in town and SOMEHOW Whitney and I got asked to BABY-sit for them. Just one kid, she was maybe a YEAR old at the time; how hard could it be? They’d run out for a quick dinner; we’d be fine.
And we WERE fine… until the little monster decided to POOP. Now, they had left a DIAPER bag behind, so I suppose we were materially equipped for the task. But we were NOT mentally… psychologically… EMOTIONALLY equipped for it.
My sister tried telling me it was MY job - I was OLDER, I’d been reminding her all night long that I was the one they REALLY left in charge (Boy, did THAT one come back to bite me!).
I tried ordering HER to change the diaper - “You’re right: they DID put me in charge; and I’m delegating it to YOU!
“Plus, I said, “I’m a boy; it would be inappropriate for me to do it… PLUS, you understand all the nooks and crannies down there better than me anyway…” - she wasn’t buying it.
So ultimately we agreed to just let her SIT in the poop for another half hour til the parents got home, and try to play it off. I think they walked in the house and they could IMMEDIATELY smell our guilt, REEKING from all the way upstairs. We’re up there GAGGING, “Poop? What poop?”
So I actually made it 31 years without changing a diaper, til Ellery ruined my streak. And watching me try and DO so in the hospital, I think the nurse was really on the fence about whether or not she could safely discharge us and send me home with this baby. Polly’s still all drugged up, recovering… “And THIS guy’s gonna be in charge? He just asked me 5 minutes ago what kind of MILK to feed her if Ellery won’t latch - 2% or WHOLE? He’s got the CARSEAT in all backwards - this poor baby doesn’t stand a CHANCE!”
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Taking care of another human being - this TINY, completely HELPLESS baby - is a MASSIVE responsibility.
Some of you have jobs where you’re entrusted with millions and millions of dollars of OTHER peoples’ money…
Or you oversee DOZENS of staff, and you feel responsible not only for their workplace satisfaction, but for their livelihood.
Some of you are PHYSICIANS, and every day people are coming to you, entrusting their LIVES in your hand. Talk about a weighty responsibility!
But according to God’s word, NONE of that is the most significant stewardship you and I have been given. That’s what we’re talking about this morning - what the apostle PAUL is gonna talk about - in Ephesians ch3: his… our… STEWARDSHIP. Here’s how it’s defined: “the responsible overseeing and protection of something considered worth caring for and preserving”. And the MORE worthy of care and preservation the thing is, the weightier the stewardship.
You say: “Okay, Pastor, I get it; but you’re trying to tell me there is something God has entrusted to me - given ME the “responsibility” of “overseeing” - that is MORE valuable, MORE “worthy of my care and protection” than my KIDS… than millions of dollars… than people’s LIVES?! What could that POSSIBLY be?!
I got FIVE things for you, as a matter of fact. Paul’s going to mention five overlapping, interrelated stewardships that God has given EVERY believer.
Even though Paul’s writing in the first person in the passage we’re about to read - “I, Paul, was given this stewardship…” - make no mistake: the SAME stewardship that God once gave Paul, He now entrusts to US, God’s church TODAY. And I wanna SHOW you that, in God’s word, as we unpack each point. But I’m mentioning it NOW, so that even as we read the passage together in a moment, you can already start - in your minds - to bridge that historical and personal DIVIDE, and think LESS about the responsibility, oversight, protection, care that God was giving PAUL here, and think MORE about what God might be calling YOU to this morning. I wanna make this passage, this STEWARDSHIP, really PERSONAL and really PRACTICAL for you. Some Sundays we’re heavier on the THEORY and THEOLOGY; this morning I believe that Paul’s words are pretty straightforward here - they don’t require tons and tons of translation and exegesis - more than interpretation this morning, we need IMPLEMENTATION. “How do I put this STEWARDSHIP into PRACTICE in my day to day life?” That’s the question we need to ask and answer here, with guidance of God’s Spirit.
Would you STAND… Ephesians 3:1-13. Hear the word…
“For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— 2 assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, 3 how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. 4 When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. 6 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.
7 Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace, which was given me by the working of his power. 8 To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things, 10 so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. 13 So I ask you not to lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.”
[This is the word of the Lord… Seated…]
God has entrusted us - those who have been “saved by grace through faith”, not just the BELIEVERS in the church of Ephesus to whom Paul is most directly writing here, but really ALL believers in all PLACES, throughout all of HISTORY - we have been given, by God, a stewardship over 5 massively important things.
And of all the FIVE, the MOST important and most EXPLICITLY spelled out in the passage, is:
#1) We are stewards of God’s GRACE. (vv1-2, 6)
Paul says EXPLICITLY in v2 that “the stewardship of God's grace was given to me”.
But before we even get THERE, he opens in v1 with “For this reason”. WHAT reason?
Paul is continuing his train of thought, from the end of ch2 last week; remember what he just got done reminding them? “You, Gentiles… were once upon a time SEPARATED from 5 vitally important, spiritual LIFE-lines: from CHRIST, from God’s PEOPLE, from God’s PROMISES, from all HOPE, and from God HIMSELF… but NOW, in CHRIST, Paul wrote: “you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ”. Because in his death and resurrection, Jesus has “made PEACE” for us in TWO directions: most importantly, VERTICALLY - peace between ALL of us, sinful humanity, and a HOLY GOD; Christ has now reconciled us - but he ALSO makes peace HORIZONTALLY - peace BETWEEN us, namely, Paul said, between us JEWS and you GENTILES. Those of us whom God chose and adopted 2,000 YEARS ago, the “commonwealth of Israel”, WE - Paul says - have now been RECONCILED with those of YOU who, if I’m honest, we Jews USED to look down our noses at - we called you “the foreskins” - and yet NOW, through CHRIST, that “dividing wall of hostility has been “broken down” and “we now BOTH have access in one Spirit to [our ONE, shared, heavenly] Father,” through our one, shared, gracious SAVIOR, Jesus.
Jesus is SO gracious, he refuses to limit his work of salvation to just us JEWS; he’s for EVERYONE! EVERY nation, tribe, people group - Jesus is UNITING us in HIMSELF as ONE body, one FAMILY, one TEMPLE - a “dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”
That’s where ch2 ended. Now Paul says, “For THAT reason” - BECAUSE Jesus is uniting us… Because he left the Church with a commission in Acts 1 to “be my witnesses [not ONLY] in Jerusalem [but] in all Judea and Samaria, and [all the way] to the end of the earth” (1:8)... because He sent the Holy Spirit at Pentecost in Acts 2 and empowered the Church to actually do it - to SHARE the good news in EVERY different native tongue… because God even sent persecution on the church in Jerusalem, cuz they lingered there too long, for 6 chapters, but God wanted them to get OUT of their Christian bubbles, so he SCATTERED the church and sent guys like Philip up to SAMARIA, and then reassigned him down to GAZA to preach to just one solitary guy, this Ethiopian eunuch, through whom, though, in God’s providence, the gospel would then spread to all of northern Africa… because the Church STILL didn’t grasp God’s global mission to the Gentiles, his heart for ALL the nations, God sent a VISION to the apostle Peter to convince him to go to Caesarea to share the gospel with a Gentile named CORNELIUS, and yet, STILL, the Jews REACTED by getting UPSET with Peter for taking God’s salvation to the foreskins…
In light of ALL that, Paul says, ““For THIS reason” - because God is DETERMINED to save people from every nation for His glory - he called ME, of ALL people,” Paul says, “God chose ME, to be a STEWARD of his GRACE… towards YOU, Gentiles.”
Paul SUMMARIZES this grace for us in v6; remember: grace is a “gift from God”. And what’s the GIFT?
In a word: INCLUSION. Here’s the gift: “that the Gentiles are [now] fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.”
Inclusion in God’s FAMILY, inclusion in Christ’s BODY (the CHURCH), and inclusion in God’s PROMISE of everlasting life, for all who simply believe in the gospel, trusting in Christ by FAITH.
We once were ESTRANGED from God, orphans; but now, by God’s GRACE - his gift of his son JESUS - we can be INCLUDED, adopted, as God’s own children. This is the glorious good news of the gospel.
But look back at verse TWO now, where Paul says something really interesting; he says: “the oversight, the responsibility OF God’s GRACE was GIVEN to me… FOR YOU.”
If grace is a GIFT, Paul says, “God gave ME the gift, to then give it to YOU.”
Now why in the WORLD would God do THAT? I mean, if God wanted to get this “good news” of his GRACE, his inclusion of ALL peoples - not all “people”, mind you; we know biblically that not every individual PERSON out there will be included in God’s family, his body, his promise of eternal life, in fact MOST won’t; they won’t RESPOND to God’s gracious invitation to the party - but God is including all “peopleS”; in fact, Jesus said in Matthew 24:14 that he wasn’t COMING BACK until the gospel is preached throughout the WHOLE world, to ALL nations”, every people GROUP; as of this morning, there are still 7,220 ethnes, peoples, considered “unreached” with the gospel (https://www.joshuaproject.net/); virtually NO access to the gospel, to JESUS, to GRACE, to SALVATION; so if we wanna get the party STARTED… new heavens and new earth… we better get busy taking the GOSPEL to them - but returning to the question at hand: if you’re GOD, and you desperately desire that ALL people would have access to the gospel - the good news of your GRACE, your GIFT of your Son JESUS, to forgive and rescue from SIN - why on earth would you ENTRUST the STEWARDSHIP of that grace to US? To PAUL… to ME… to YOU?
True or False: God has the power to part the clouds RIGHT NOW, as we SPEAK, and personally announce the good news of salvation in Christ (or have legions of ANGELS do it), in the mother tongue of every single ONE of those 7,220 people groups… to every single PERSON… to announce the gospel in plain ENGLISH to YOUR next-door neighbors, who mistakenly think that the gospel is the “good news” that if they try their best to be mostly good people, that’ll probably be good enough and God’s gonna ACCEPT them and let ‘em into heaven - true or false: God could personally CLEAR UP that misconception HIMSELF, and WARN them of his perfect JUSTICE - that ALL sin must be paid for, and they can spend the rest of ETERNITY trying in VAIN to pay it off themselves, or they can say “YES!” to God’s GRACE, and charge all of their sin to JESUS’S account, paid in FULL on the cross… Could God get the word out HIMSELF, if he wanted to?
Of COURSE he could. So why DOESN’T he? Why entrust a guy like PAUL with this stewardship of his grace, that he wants PAUL to then turn around and DELIVER TO the Gentiles? Why entrust a guy like YOU… a gal like YOU… to do the same for your NEIGHBOR? Your co-worker? Your friend, family member? Why not just extend the invitation, offer the GIFT… HIMSELF?
For the same reason I entrust gifts to MY kids to turn around and give to their MOM on MOTHER’S day: so they get the BLESSING of being a PART of making her day. How much do you think they chipped in for that new, fancy electric foot massager? That’s not THEIR gift; that’s MY gift to her. But I let them IN on it - the BLESSING of causing that smile on Mom’s face.
But we can find a better illustration than THAT. Because GOD’S gift isn’t JUST for the Gentiles to whom Paul’s ministering, and God’s grace isn’t JUST for your NEIGHBORS, is it? It’s for YOU too! For ME too! For PAUL too!
My daughter Ellery would really really love to go to Harry Potter World, in Universal Studios. But to this point in her life, she has remained a “stranger and alien”; she’s been “separated from the commonwealth” of Hogwarts. Her younger brothers - they don’t even realize yet how much there IS to be excited about at Harry Potter World. But imagine Polly and I decided to take the whole FAMILY there for Christmas, and we told Ellery first and then we let HER get the joy of SHARING her joy - the good news - with her brothers. And you ALL get the gift!
But our stewardship of God’s grace is even BETTER than that, isn’t it? Because we haven’t just DREAMED of experiencing it - we have TASTED and SEEN the Lord’s goodness, his grace and love, for OURSELVES, in our OWN lives.
I LOVE the story - I know I’ve told it many times in sermons, but it’s so GOOD - Shane Claiborne tells the story of interning at Mother Theresa’s orphanage in the slums of Calcutta, and celebrating a birthday for one of the kids there, who had never celebrated his birthday before, and never tried cake and ice cream. And Claiborne remembers how AS SOON as the boy tasted the ice cream, he called all his friends over and ordered them to line up, and then he went down the line and gave every ONE of them a LICK of his ice cream.
Because when you get a taste of the best thing you’ve ever experienced in your entire LIFE, you naturally wanna share it with everyone you can, ESPECIALLY those you love.
When we were in CORSICA, over Sabbatical, I had this calzone - I took one bite, and I literally started WEEPING, it was so good; you ever had a meal like that? So POLLY, after she got done making FUN of me, she got up and started walking around to the other tables of tourists - we’re pretty easy to spot, wearing our fanny packs and these dumb looks on our faces as we try and make out this incomprehensible menu - and Polly’s saying, “Don’t worry about the menu: just order the SPECIAL of the DAY; see my husband over there - she’s pointing at me from across the restaurant now; I’m trying to MOP up my tears; I’ll be honest: I don’t even think I CARED; the calzone was THAT good; you can WATCH me cry… - THEN she moves on to the NON-tourists: “Especial Del Dia... Wait, that’s SPANISH - is Corsica FRENCH? I dunno - we’re dumb Americans; y’all probably know Spanish too… AND English for that matter; why is she even translating?!
But a calzone that good deserves to be extolled in EVERY language! You just HAVE to share it - it’s too GOOD to keep it to yourself.
Here’s the question we’ve gotta ask ourselves this morning: is the GOSPEL that good to us? It’s literally “good news”; but HOW good? Good enough to go table to table at a restaurant, sharing it with strangers? Good enough to pick up the phone, to share it with a friend who’s going through a tough time?
We’ll share all KINDS of good news: “I just found the BEST hair salon; I gotta let everyone know on social media…”
“We’re finally GRAND-PARENTS!!” Let the unrequested photo dumping begin…
“BAMA beat GEORGIA!! You’re texting everyone: “What a GAME!” (Not so much? City beat Sporting KC? The Cardinals might actually finish above 500… “GOOD NEWS!”)
How good is God’s GRACE? His forgiveness for sin, restoring relationship with Him? How good is our ADOPTION - that God wanted US as his children?! That WE are now “heirs” of all the “promises” of God, in Christ?
How good is JESUS?
Cuz the better He is in your eyes, the more He will be on your LIPS. That’s a FACT:
The better Jesus is in your eyes, the more He’ll be on your LIPS.
The more PRECIOUS He is to YOUR heart, the more PASSIONATE and PURSUING you will be to share him with OTHER hearts.
Church: we are stewards of God’s gloriously GOOD, immeasurably RICH, astonishingly amazing… GRACE.
SECOND: We are stewards of God’s REVELATION. (vv3-5)
Paul uses a really interesting WORD now, to refer to God’s grace in vv3 & 4, and it’s sort of implied in v6 as well: “MYSTERY”. “This MYSTERY was made KNOWN to me… God’s given me INSIGHT into the MYSTERY of Christ… The MYSTERY is this: that the Gentiles are now INCLUDED.” God’s saving ALL the nations; NOT just the Jews - his grace is too BIG for that; too GOOD to be limited anymore, to just one nation.
But we discussed LAST week at LENGTH just how PARADIGM-shifting that was - and not just “shifting”, but “paradigm-EXPLODING”, really - for 1st c. Jews. As far as they were concerned, for 2,000 years now, God’s election, adoption, covenant promises, His salvation, God’s LOVE was reserved EXCLUSIVELY for THEM, ISRAEL.
So the idea that a Savior - their MESSIAH - would come, not just for them, but for the NATIONS: that was a MYSTERY. In the NT, the word “moos-TAY-rion” refers to a plan of God that was once concealed, but has now been REVEALED. Paul used the term once already back in ch1: God has “made known to us the MYSTERY of his will… his plan… set forth in CHRIST.”
OF this plan, Paul says now in ch3, v5 that it “was not made known to the sons of men in other generations… AS it has now been revealed”. Notice: he didn’t say that it wasn’t made known AT ALL in previous generations - totally ABSENT. No, it was THERE; it was just CONCEALED, hidden. We find TRACES of God’s plan to include ALL the nations sprinkled all THROUGHOUT the OT:
Starting as early as God’s choosing of Abram, and Israel, to be his own, SPECIAL nation: “I will make of you a great nation,” God promised; but then he continued: “...and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Gen 12:3).
Ps 22:27 “All the ends of the earth shall… turn to the Lord,
and all the families of the nations
shall worship before you.”
Isa 49:6 - God says of his coming Messiah: ““It is too light a thing that you should be my servant… to bring back the preserved of Israel [ONLY]; I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.””
Isaiah 56 & 60… Jeremiah 16… Ps 117…
Zechariah 2:11 “And many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be my people.”
So the mystery was THERE - God’s WORLDWIDE, Gentile-including plan of salvation - it was always THERE, but you’re talking less than a dozen passages sprinkled throughout a THOUSAND pages that are otherwise pretty Israel-centric. So Paul says: “It wasn’t MADE KNOWN to them like it has been NOW to US.”
And HOW was this mystery of God’s grand plan of GRACE made known? V3: “by revelation”; v5: “it’s been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.” What’s he TALKING about?
I’ll give you a HINT; PAUL gives us a hint, in the SECOND half of v3: “the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have WRITTEN briefly.” He goes on, v4: “When you read this [this letter that I’m writing you as we SPEAK], you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ”.
He’s talking about THE NEW TESTAMENT! God’s “revelation… to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.” The BIBLE.
What’s so great about the Bible? It’s our source of revelation - it’s how God makes KNOWN to us - his plan of salvation: by grace through faith in Christ.
Romans 10:17 - Salvation comes from FAITH… and “ faith comes from hearing [you can’t believe good news that you haven’t HEARD…] and hearing comes through the word of Christ.” If grace is the SONG we need to hear; Scripture is the BOOM BOX.
If grace is the gift itself - the calzone - then SCRIPTURE is our means of DISCOVERING it - it’s the MENU. It may have been mostly incomprehensible to you at first; and the Bible probably WAS for most of us - it felt inaccessible - but the more you realized just how GOOD God’s grace was, the more you wanted to learn French so you could explore the REST of the menu.
But Scripture is not ONLY the repository of God’s grace; it is ITSELF a grace - a good gift of God.
It is His WORD, 2 Tim 3:16, which he BREATHED out to “profit” us, “for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness”.
It brings us “encouragement”, Romans 15:4; it is through the Scriptures that “we have HOPE”.
It’s a “lamp unto [our] feet and a light unto [our] path,” Ps 119:105.
God’s word is our “JOY”, Jeremiah 15:16, “and the delight of [our] heart”
To the extent that we MEDITATE on it, Joshua 1:8, God promises to “make our way prosperous, and [we] will have good success.”
And Church: God has ENTRUSTED this good gift - his word - to US. May our Bibles never collect dust on our shelves. God has given us the greatest gift in the world in his Son Jesus, and the SECOND greatest gift in the world in His WORD, that we might “READ this” and “perceive INSIGHT into the MYSTERY” - that we might come to KNOW God in all of his holiness, and come to know OURSELVES in all of our sinfulness, but come to know CHRIST, in all of his GOODNESS and grace.
We only know ANY of it, through his WORD: God’s written, inspired, self-revelation to us. May we STEWARD it well.
According to Wycliffe, there are still 3,640 languages in the world for which NO Bible translation is available (https://www.wycliffe.net/resources/statistics/ ). No WONDER all those people groups still have no access to the gospel! Can you imagine if this church financed - it takes MONEY, time, people, resources… - but imagine EMPOWERING an entirely new BIBLE translation, a whole language group of people who can now read God’s word in their own native tongue.
I don’t know about you, but MAN… I know we wanna build a bigger sanctuary… new bathrooms… but THAT - providing BIBLES to people who have NEVER had access to one - THAT excites me. Let’s steward the revelation that God has entrusted to us, far and wide.
#3: We are stewards of God’s MINISTRY. (vv7-10)
Now, I told you these stewardships had some OVERLAP, because as Paul TELLS us here in v7, the “ministry” he’s been given is that of the GOSPEL, the good news OF the GRACE of Christ from point #1: “Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God's grace”.
V8: “To me,” Paul says, “this grace was given: to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ”. He says, “It’s a GRACE, a GIFT… to be able to TELL ‘em about God’s GRACE!”
Elsewhere Paul says: “Necessity is laid upon me. Woe to me if I do not preach the gospel!” (1 Cor 9:16) I can’t HELP but share it - this news is just TOO GOOD! I can’t keep it IN; like Jeremiah’s “FIRE, shut up in my bones” (20:9) - I gotta get it OUT!
Cuz not only is the NEWS good; the SHARING is good too. The GIFT is good, and it’s a gift just to be able to SHARE that gift with others. “To PROCLAIM the unfathomable RICHES of Christ… to bring to LIGHT this mystery hidden for so many ages”.
We get to bring LIGHT into darkness; HOPE into hopeless - what a JOY. Some of us, if we’re honest, treat God’s calling to evangelism like he’s asking us to change a dirty diaper. “Ehhh, I’ll leave that to the professionals… the parents… the pastors… It could get MESSY…”
Look: if you had a friend who worked at NASA, who tipped you off: “Hey, just thought you should KNOW, there’s a METEOR heading for earth, but here’s the thing: we’ve found another planet - even BETTER suited for life than EARTH; as a matter of fact, life on THIS planet is gonna be PERFECT! - and we’ve developed a space shuttle that can actually GET us there…”
You’d say, “Well THAT’S good news; but how many SEATS are there on the shuttle?”
He says, “As many as we need; we can make trips. But here’s what I need YOU to do - I need you to go TELL people… spread the word… INVITE them! IMPLORE them, to come!”
Yeah, it might get messy. There are gonna be folks who don’t BELIEVE the news, LAUGH at you; they won’t even bother LOOKING for the shuttle cuz they don’t think they NEED it; they don’t believe the BAD news about the METEOR - God’s righteous WRATH against sin.
You might not know every answer to every question they might ask: “How long’s the FLIGHT? What’s the in-flight movie?” Are you gonna let that DETER you from getting the WORD out? Sharing the GOOD NEWS, that there is HOPE, a RESCUE plan?!
What a JOY to be able to tell them, even if only a FEW ever respond.
Listen to this, now: look at what Paul says in v10: “through the church the manifold wisdom of God may now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places”; who’s that?
That’s ANGELS and DEMONS. We’ll hear more about them later, in ch6, when we suit up in the armor of God to wage war “against the rulers [and] authorities… [and] spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” (6:12) But elsewhere the apostle Peter writes to HIS churches and says “concerning salvation… the things that have now been announced to you through those who preached the good news to you… [these are] things [MYSTERIES] into which angels long to look.” (1 Pet 1:12)
The angels were THERE when God created everything GOOD in the beginning… they were THERE 2 chapters later when we BROKE it all… and for EONS and EONS now, they’ve been scratching their heads, wondering: “How in the WORLD is God gonna FIX it? Put all this MESS back TOGETHER again? Pull this rescue mission off?”
And according to Paul here, we get the PRIVILEGE of not only “bringing [God’s plan] to light” for those all around us who are LOST, by sharing the love and hope of Christ with them, but as we DO so, we are actually unveiling and un-FOLDING - we are ENACTING, living OUT - God’s plan of redemption before the watching, longing eyes of all the heavenly host ABOVE us. Imagine that, next time you’re sharing your testimony with someone, and you’re starting to get self-conscious about what THEY’RE thinking about you: just remember, you’ve got a whole HOST of angels watching, and you are blowing their MINDS - “Wait a minute: THIS is how God’s fixing it? By using someone that - no offense - ORDINARY… and this conversation over coffee that seems so ORDINARY… to convey a truth that is so SIMPLE - “Jesus died for your sins; repent and be saved!” - Thad was telling me just the other day about a pastor we both like, JT English, how that was his testimony: he was a stupid, lost, college student and some guy he barely knew on his hall who attended Campus Crusade for Christ came and knocked on his door and said, “I’m supposed to share the gospel with 3 people by next Friday… my pastor gave me HOMEWORK… Could I have 5 minutes of your time?” And the kid sat down and stumbled through the 4 spiritual laws: “1) God is holy… 2) we are sinful… 3) Jesus died and rose to FORGIVE us and BRIDGE the gap… and 4) Faith in Him is sufficient to SAVE us; all you gotta do is say “YES!” and walk across the bridge” - the kid was looking down at his notes, his cheat-sheet the entire time… and yet God used that - frankly, pretty pathetic - gospel presentation (remember JONAH’s “sermon”, in Nineveh? “Yet 40 days…”; he didn’t even WANNA warn them; he WANTED God to judge the Assyrians; he was mumbling under his breath: “Repent… repent…” - trying his best NOT to draw a crowd; and yet GOD did a supernatural work in the people’s hearts, in SPITE of Jonah’s feebleness!) - and God used this bumbling college kid to radically CHANGE the course of JT’s life and his ETERNITY, and now through him, hundreds, maybe THOUSANDS of others have come to Christ.
It’s alright to be FEEBLE, Church; we just need to be FAITHFUL.
Look at v8: Paul HIMSELF was “the very least of all the saints”; he tells the church in Corinth: “I didn’t come to you preaching the gospel in lofty speech”, words of eloquence; your salvation wasn’t a result of the power and PERSUASIVENESS of my oratory skills. He says “I came to you… in weakness and in fear and trembling… so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” He says, “I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.”
Raise your hand if you know Jesus Christ… You know his crucifixion? What Jesus ACCOMPLISHED on the cross, “It is finished” - my work of salvation on your behalf; your sin paid in FULL” - you KNOW that?
Then according to God’s word, you are equipped for the work of evangelism. Sure, you can do the “Evangelism Explosion Boot Camps” and sit through the “How to Share your Faith” classes - we’ve got one coming up here in just a few weeks actually; mid-October; Jerret and Megan Henley, our missionaries to Japan, before they fly back over, they’re gonna do a 1-hr “all things evangelism” crash course for us, on a Wednesday night; it’s gonna REPLACE life groups that night, youth group, kids min - we’re ALL gonna attend: may NO ONE at West Hills ever use the excuse again that, “I just don’t feel equipped”; we’re gonna EQUIP you. But according to Paul, we need to be wary of relying too much on “10 quick tips for sharing your faith” ANYWAY, if it’s a replacement for relying on GOD’S power, HIS Spirit, and the inherent, intrinsic power of the GOSPEL itself, “Christ crucified”. That’s MORE than enough to equip you.
And that brings us to stewardship #4… But first, last quick point on how GOOD it is - what a GIFT it is - to SHARE Christ with others. We just got back from our annual, overnight ELDERS RETREAT yesterday, and we spent a good deal of time TALKING about all this… answering the question: “What would we love - by God’s grace - to be DIFFERENT about our church, this time next year?”... a passionate culture of evangelism… And Austin reminded me of one other ulterior motive for witnessing: you will feel closer to God… [his story?]
You wanna feel closer to Christ? Share him with someone else.
#4) We are stewards of God’s PLAN & POWER. (vv11-12)
Paul said in v7: this gospel ministry “was given me by the working of God’s power.”
And he says now in v11: and this was ACCORDING to God’s “eternal purpose that he has now ACCOMPLISHED (better translation) in Christ Jesus” - God’s decision to use broken vessels like us as the CONDUITS of his grace to others - that was plan A from the start; it’s not like God WANTED to use the angels, but had to go with his BACKUP plan- Church: we ARE God’s plan for bringing redemption to the world, and there IS no backup plan. We WILL take his gospel to all the nations; Jesus PROMISED so in Matthew 24:14; the only QUESTION is: how LONG is it gonna take us, and how faithful to that calling will you prove to be, personally? Will WE prove to be, collectively, West Hills?
But here’s the thing: before you leave here all fired up, ready to go DO it - “I’m gonna SHARE the gospel… Honey, we’re going out to lunch, cuz I need a waiter, a waitress to witness to…” you resolve in your mind FINALLY to have that gospel conversation with your family member, that you’ve been putting off for so long now; this is the nudge, the SHOVE that you needed from the Holy Spirit to quit making excuses and waiting for the “right time” and just DO it - that’s great, praise the Lord. But I should probably mention the most important part of the whole evangelistic equation… the X factor, WITHOUT which the whole endeavor is doomed to fail: you may be able to change someone’s MIND, but you have ABSOLUTELY no power to change anyone’s HEART, their SOUL - friends, that ONLY comes by the power of the HOLY SPIRIT. Only God HIMSELF can pull that off. But here’s the most amazing part of God’s call to evangelize, to steward the good news: He promises to go WITH us! To EMPOWER us. “Go and make disciples of ALL nations… for BEHOLD, I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS!” (Mt 28:19)
“you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and THEN you will be my witnesses…” (Acts 1:8)
So we can have, v12, “boldness [in sharing, because we’ve got] access [to God himself, HIS power at work within us, the Holy Spirit; which brings us] confidence through our faith in him.”
God purposely left us a plan that on our OWN, is “mission IMPOSSIBLE”, so we’d HAVE to rely - we’d GET to rely - on HIS power to do the work, so that HE might get ALL the glory.
Lastly: ready for the big twist ending…
#5) We are stewards of godly SUFFERING. (vv1,13)
“Go tell them the good news; oh, and by the way, they’re gonna HATE you for it. MANY of them, anyway; “Who are YOU calling a SINNER?!” They’re gonna MOCK you, “Angels and DEMONS? Really? I guess you believe in Santa and the Easter Bunny too…”
Jesus says, “That’s alright; they mocked and hated me too. If they did it to me, they’ll do it to you.”
You might have noticed I skipped over one really important word in v1 that gives some really important CONTEXT to this whole passage and our calling to “stewardship”: “PRISONER”. Don’t forget: Paul’s writing this letter from PRISON, in Rome.
So he CONCLUDES in v13 by encouraging them: “do not lose heart over what I am suffering for you, which is your glory.”
How can he SAY that? How can Paul be so POSITIVE, have a SMILE on his face while they’re STONING him in Antioch for evangelizing, STARVING him in prison in Rome?
2 reasons, in closing: 1) Because Paul knows that suffering makes him more like JESUS, which is the purpose of all of life ANYWAY, not our happiness, but our HOLINESS.
And 2) Because Paul knows in the END, it’s all gonna be WORTH it. He knows “this light momentary affliction is not worth COMPARING to the eternal weight of glory” God has in store for us. “BLESSED are those,” Jesus said, ““who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”
Paul says, “I’ll take the suffering now, to get the KINGDOM later”.
ESPECIALLY, if it means I can recruit a few brothers and sisters onto the space shuttle with me…