Ephesians 3:1
At the end of chapter 2 Paul told us that Jesus was the cornerstone. It is by Him that the walls of separation between the Jews and the gentiles had been knocked down and a new building was erected. This new building was the church. Instead of people entering the temple to meet God; God made the people the temple and enters them. The new temple is you and I individually and together as we make up the church. These two bodies, Jews & gentiles were now joined as one, becoming one in Christ, the cornerstone. Being unified under Christ in the church, we are now the temple of the Living God. He resides in us now. We are that holy place. We are the dwelling place of God in the Spirit.
This was the new thing God was doing in Paul's time. In all of the history of man as detailed in the bible, nowhere did it reveal that Jew and gentile would be united under Christ. The bible told us the gentiles would be blessed. The bible told us that Jews would be saved by their messiah. But it was a great secret kept since the beginning until that age that the Jew and gentile would be joined together. This was a great mystery hidden in the ages until it was revealed in Christ. All would be united, as one, under the headship of Christ.
That is why Paul said, "For this reason" at the beginning of chapter three. The reason is this great mystery continued to be revealed in the Ephesians. In the same way it is being revealed in us as Christ continues to build the church.
Jew and gentile were being fitted together at the cornerstone. These believers were to grow into the holy temple of the Lord. It’s this reason that brought Paul to be a prisoner; not a prisoner of Rome as it may have appeared, but a prisoner of Jesus Christ. Paul didn’t think for one minute that there wasn’t great purpose in everything that was going on in his life. He was never at the mercy of Rome. He was never serving the plan and timing of the Roman Emperor. He was in prison because that’s where God chose for him to minister. At that time, it was his base of operations. It is this great work of reconciliation that drives Paul. It is his call and motivation; the reason he got up every morning. Paul was a prisoner of Christ for the Gentiles. This was the call and work of His new life in Christ.
This thought side-tracked Paul until verse 14 as he inserted a parenthetical explanation of this work done through him. It served as a reminder of God's love for all his creation and how God moved in Paul’s life to allow him to be part of showing God’s love to gentiles.
To see the parenthetical, verse one should be read as if attached to verse 14. Verses 2 through 13 are an inspired parenthetical rabbit trail.
Old Testament Scripture pointing to gentile salvation:
I will bless those who bless you,
And I will curse him who curses you;
And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” (Genesis 12:3)
All the ends of the world
Shall remember and turn to the Lord,
And all the families of the nations
Shall worship before You.
For the kingdom is the Lord’s,
And He rules over the nations. (Psalm 22:27-28)
It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant
To raise up the tribes of Jacob,
And to restore the preserved ones of Israel;
I will also give You as a light to the Gentiles,
That You should be My salvation to the ends of the earth.’ ” (Isaiah 49:6)
Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth,
And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy;
Then I will say to those who were not My people,
‘You are My people!’
And they shall say, ‘You are my God!’ ” (Hosea 2:23)
It was always in God’s plan to save the Gentiles. The greatest part of the mystery was how this would happen. No one could foresee that He would render the temple worship obsolete and create one entity, the church, from both Jew and Gentile. In addition, no one saw it being accomplished by God coming in the flesh and dying for the sins of man and then rising again.
Ephesians 3:2-7
Paul seems to specialize in long sentences. There is nowhere for Paul to stop in the middle of this thought; there is nowhere to get a breath. You have to read this multiple times to really grasp it. It's a big thought from a high view. Paul isn’t in prison wondering how he got there and why God was doing this to him. It had never entered his mind that his ministry work was harmed in any way by being in prison.
God locked Paul in prison in the middle of the gentile capital of the world. This was Paul’s missionary home office. The entire purpose of his ministry and the reason he was in prison was to bring the gospel message to the gentiles. This was the purpose and plan of God for Paul’s life. The word ‘dispensation’ just means the strategy or game plan that God had. The word dispensation is like a lightning rod at times – think of it as stewardship. It was God’s means of delivering the gospel message through certain people at His perfect time and in certain places. For Paul personally, it was the authority of the office of apostle and it was the presence of the Holy Spirit that did works and miracles to authenticate this dispensation. This all happened by the grace of God.
Paul wasn’t making this up as he went along. God had revealed it to him by revelation. He made God’s plan of salvation to the gentiles to Paul. This is the mystery that was revealed. This ‘mystery’ is a little different understanding than how we might define the word today. This word mystery means a divine secret. God had kept it silent for many years – then in His perfect timing, He made it known openly. The ‘how’ and ‘why’ asked in the Old Testament are answered by the revealed mystery of the New Testament. Paul had apparently written about this mystery previously. This causes many to speculate there is another letter to Ephesians lost to the ages.
This mystery was revealed by the spirit to the apostles and prophets. The crux of the mystery: that Gentiles should be fellow heirs. The gospel hope was for them also. They were to be part of the same body, that is the church, the body of Christ. This was Paul’s life work, to share this with them. He’s careful to state that this ministry work was a gift of grace from God. It was the power of God at work in his life. How else could you explain the abrupt change in Paul’s life. He went from a destroyer of the church to builder of the church; from a Pharisee to an apostle; from an educated legalist of the law, to a purveyor of God’s grace.
This word for minister is the word diakonos. We get the word deacon from this word. The diakonos was a servant, someone who executed the commands of a king. Paul set the standard for a deacon or minister as one who serves King Jesus and the people. He is to have the heart of a servant. Paul was made one of these servants to reveal this mystery to the gentiles.
There was an effective working of this power in Paul's life. And he was humbled by it. I doubt that he truly understood it all the time but he did everything he could to be faithful in it. God's plan of all the ages was being worked out in Paul's life. You know Paul had to be amazed at this and dumbfounded at all this happening right before his eyes. We shouldn’t forget that Paul was just a man; he certainly hadn't forgotten.
Ephesians 3:8-13
Paul considered himself the least of all saints. Any gentile saint in the presence of a Jewish saint might have felt inadequate or secondary. Paul counts himself below everyone. All were dead in sins prior to knowing Christ – Paul claims to have been as dead as any and maybe to be seen as buried extra deep. He had been the destroyer of the church, in his ignorance and flesh. If there was any to feel inadequate, it was him. Paul asks them not to look up, elevating him as an apostle, but to look down at this humble servant.
This grace was given to Paul to preach. This 'preaching' literally meant going around and telling everyone the good news. When something good happens to us, we can't help ourself. We're about to bust because you can't keep it to ourself. You can't contain the happiness and the joy. It shows in your countenance and it's revealed by your demeanor and attitude. You're just looking for someone to tell. This was how Paul felt about God saving him. He had been going through life spiritually dead completely unaware until God showered His grace on him. When God saved Paul, he knew something amazing had happened. He knew this God was real and living; that he loved us and cared enough to send his Son to die in our place. He gave us new life and that was exciting and worth preaching to the world.
Paul was called to preach:
- The unsearchable riches of Christ
- To make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery.
- To display the manifold wisdom of God known by the church to Principalities & Powers
The Unsearchable Riches
What are these unsearchable riches? To be unsearchable would be like trying to map out all the passages of an endless cavern. I remember going to a cave years ago, the entry was beautiful, expansive and breathtaking to man. Yet, it was essentially one large room. Then, years later, the water level dropped in a pool to reveal a passage to another cavern. This one leading to twists and turns and many tributaries. The unsearchable riches of Christ could never be documented, mapped out and completely comprehended. We grasp them and the more we come to know, the more we realize we don’t know.
To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27)
Paul was burdened for the Colossians and Laodiceans:
“…that their hearts may be encouraged, being knit together in love, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, 3 in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” (Colossians 2:2-3)
These unsearchable riches point back to the Spiritual blessings in heavenly places mentioned first in Ephesians 1:3. There is a spiritual wealth in our standing with Christ. It is a different wealth than that of the earth. It is immeasurable and able to bless us in every way, in every place in our standing in Christ, regardless of earthly circumstance.
The fellowship of the mystery
Paul wanted to preach the fellowship of the mystery to the Ephesians. This fellowship was hidden in God, the creator. All things were created through Jesus.
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:1-5)
God’s plan was always to redeem fallen man to Himself through Christ. The gospel is the revealed mystery that had always been. This fellowship is koinonia; an invitation to the Ephesians to apprehend and enjoy the mystery revealed to them.
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:
God was manifested in the flesh,
Justified in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Preached among the Gentiles,
Believed on in the world,
Received up in glory. (1 Timothy 3:16)
The Manifold Wisdom of God
The preaching brought the good news to fallen gentiles, that they might be redeemed and become part of this one body, the church. Then Paul said in verse 10, ‘to the intent’ that this manifold wisdom of God might be known by the church and to the principalities and powers.
The word ‘manifold’ is one meaning many and varied, having many features and forms. The word is used to describe many colors or shapes. The church is the picture of this manifold wisdom. It is an intricate and complex thing. We’re a collection of people that might otherwise never cross paths in this life, but God brought us together by the gospel salvation. His saving grace at work in our life, brought us under the power of the Holy Spirit to become the church. We come, of various backgrounds and heritage; of different cultures and geographical origins; of differing education, various traditions; of numerous means and ways. There is one way, to which we, from all our variety might come together by Christ, in Christ, under His Lordship. This is the power of God at work in your life. This is power of God that formed the church. We came to know this wisdom, but can never fully know it.
Then, this wisdom, known by the church is revealed to the principalities and powers. These principalities and powers are ranks of angels seeing God’s wisdom through us. There are good angels and bad angels. These are the principalities and powers. They are finding out about the manifold wisdom of God, for the first time, from us. This is all happening according to God's purpose. Yet to others, all this is foolishness. The scoffers and mockers have a heyday, to them all this Jesus stuff is crazy talk. (1 Corinthians 1:18. See also 1 Peter 1:10-12 and Ephesians 2:2 & 6:12.)
Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you, 11 searching what, or what manner of time, the Spirit of Christ who was in them was indicating when He testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. 12 To them it was revealed that, not to themselves, but to us they were ministering the things which now have been reported to you through those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven—things which angels desire to look into. (1 Peter 1:10-12)
The angels in heaven must be constantly amazed, saying, "Did you see that? Did you see what God did to that one? He was rotten through and through. He was spiritually dead but God gave him life. God raised him up!”
Angels were amazed and rejoiced at your salvation. God has a similar purpose for saving you. This makes us uncomfortable because God will stretch you and grow you in unimaginable ways. He will take you out of your comfort zone. There is a specific calling on each of our lives. For that reason, the gift of grace was extended to you. You are to be preaching the good news.
God set you on your path in life. As he saved you, He didn't make your path all downhill in the soft lush grass. No, in fact, you will likely feel like you’re going uphill in a land you don’t belong. We are walking in the spirit in a physical world; but we have a story to tell. For those that cross your path, for the people God puts before you, it’s our job to preach to them. If we are saved, we have incredible news to share.
We sometimes allow the good news to become old news or humdrum as if we are just hanging out here until the end to see how it all turns out. We know how it turns out, and for us we're getting a great deal because we aren't going to get what we deserve. Jesus took what we deserve, we got the riches. What a deal! That should excite us at least enough to get the frown off our face, if not enough to shout it in the streets. Every small little fellowship of believers is part of something big. We are part of God's eternal plan to reveal Jesus Christ to the world. For that reason, we are here! What is our response to that? There must be a response both personally and corporately.
There is an abundance found in God that we could spend our entire life trying to grasp and we should do just that. There is a profound knowledge found in God that can be found nowhere else.
Boldness & Access
Verse twelve tells us we have ‘boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him.' This boldness is a freedom to speak. It's a right to be heard by The King of kings. By our faith in Him, a faith that was given to us by Him, we have access to the throne room and we can access our King confidently and boldly. We can now approach God with freedom and confidence. We can speak to Him openly and be heard. How awesome is this!! Remember, Paul wrote all this while in prison in Rome. He experienced this boldness and freedom from a prison.
And finally, verse 13 gives us a ‘therefore’ pointing to the conclusion we can draw from the facts presented. The Ephesians must have lost heart because Paul was in prison. Their leader had lost his freedom. What should they do? Where was God? How can this happen? Paul answered them. This is all happening for God's purpose and glory. He told them not to lose heart.
God's plan hadn't changed and it still hasn’t today. The world had not thwarted the will of God. The powers of that day could not derail what God was doing across the ages. As the worlds powers struggle to control men and fight wars and exercise evil to achieve it, there authority is only granted for a time, allowed for a season. Nothing they attain is lasting. They’ll be forgotten to the ages soon. God’s plan is unchanged, His power everlasting and never forgotten.
Even from a prison, Paul had that access to the throne room. This was Paul's burden; set on him by God. He in turn walked the path set before him, leaning on God and taking full advantage of the access he had to the throne. This is where we need to be. Wherever we stand, wherever we find ourselves, God knows. He knows every detail of your life. As you walk the path laid out before you, bearing your burden, have you taken full advantage of your access to the throne room? You have that freedom to speak to the King, have you used that freedom? Do we take advantage of the right to speak to the King? When you find yourself in a bad place do you speak to Him?
“God, I can think of a thousand other places I'd rather be. but I know you allowed this to happen in my life, for your purpose, for your glory. Father, reveal yourself to me in these circumstances. I know you are right here in the middle of it with me.”
For Paul that place was a Roman prison. It was the place God put him and was the setting of the work God was doing in his life. For the Ephesians, that setting could have been in a thousand places, in a thousand settings, in countless situations of life. And God was doing a work in the life of every saint there, in each of the life situations. He was right there with them.
Ephesians 3:14-19
What was the reason? This verse picks up the thought that was put on hold in verse 1; verses 2 through 13 were a rabbit trail. The reason was that God was doing something big; he was in the process of revealing the mystery of the gospel. He was joining the Jews and the gentiles into one holy house called the church. Because God was doing big things using small men like Paul, because he was right where God placed him, and because he was doing the very thing God had called him to do, Paul was driven to his knees.
The ‘name’ was a way of identifying who you are and whose you are. In Christ, all believers, both in heaven and earth are one in Christ. The Jews and gentiles were always separated, in Christ they are one. In Christ, we belong to a great eternal family and bear the same name.
Paul prayed that these believers would be granted these things in proportion to the riches of God’s glory:
- Strengthened with might
- Through His spirit
- In the inner man
- Christ might dwell in their hearts
- Through faith
- Have comprehension of the love of Christ
- Rooted and grounded in love
- It’s width, length, depth and height
- To understand it goes beyond knowledge (experience)
- To be filled with all the fullness of God.
Strengthened with Might
To be strengthened with might is to be built up to possess His supernatural influence over the reality of your life. This is the power of God at work in your life. The source of this strengthening is the Holy Spirit. The location of this ‘might’ is the inner man. This is the moral center of the spiritual man. See also 6:10; Col. 1:11; 1 Pet. 5:10.
10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
(Ephesians 6:10)
“…that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, (Colossians 1:10-11)
Elsewhere, Paul said we are clothed in this corruptible body, imperfect and dying away. Some day we will put on the incorruptible. The inner man is the real you. This inner person is the eternal creature that will stand before God someday. It is within God's riches to strengthen that inner man (or woman). The Spirit will work on the inner person to give us that inner peace; a sense of purpose and contentment in this life.
Christ might dwell in their hearts
For Christ to be in the church and His power displayed in the church, the individuals must have Christ in them. This is not just to claim the presence of Christ but have Christ dwelling in you is to be living in the power of Christ.
This dwelling place is the spiritual picture of something physical. The word implies a permanent residence. Our heart that pumps the lifeblood through our body. To have Christ in your heart is to have Him as the source of that life; the enrichment of our spiritual lifeblood. This can only happen through faith. It’s by believing He is who He said He is and He did what He said He did and that He will reside in your inner being. This can’t be seen or measured; but its’s very real.
9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.
(Romans 8:9)
Possess a comprehension of the love of Christ
This comprehension is far beyond knowledge. It’s not reading about it or hearing of it. It is experiencing it and knowing from experience that this is Christ’s love. As believers we are rooted and grounded in Christ’s love. This is an agricultural picture – roots provided the nutrition and life while at the same time grounding the plant in stability. The rooted and grounded are firm and unshakable, a foundation from which to operate. This is our place in Christ. Paul wanted the Ephesians to take it further though.
Is it really possible for us to grasp the dimensions of His love? It is a love that surpasses knowledge; our understanding of it doesn’t come from our natural mind. To comprehend the width, length, depth and height completely is impossible. It is to only glimpse just how boundless His love really is. We’ll always want more and know there is more to comprehend.
It is interesting that Paul describes this love in 4 dimensions. These same four dimensions were known to have been frequently used in the texts of magic. They were uses within magic spells relating to light and brightness. Paul may have been taking something that previously represented power to them and subsequently became a source of fear, and is replacing this thought with the love of Christ.
There are numerous ways we might look at this to perceive these 4 dimensions:
The fourth-century biblical scholar Jerome said that the love of Christ reaches up to include the holy angels, that it reaches down to include even the evil spirits in hell, that in its length it covers all who are striving on the upward way, and in its breadth it covers those who are wandering away from Christ. [(Barclay, W. (2002). The Letters to the Galatians and Ephesians (p. 152). Louisville, KY; London: Westminster John Knox Press.]
Barclay works it out saying: In the breadth of its sweep, the love of Christ includes every individual of every kind in every age in every world; in the length to which it would go, the love of Christ accepted even the cross; in its depth, it descended to experience even death; in its height, he still loves us in heaven, where he lives always to make intercession for us (Hebrews 7:25). No one is outside the love of Christ; no place is beyond its reach. (Barclay)
Lange explains it: The “breadth” refers to the nations lying beside each other on the earth, over all of whom the love of Christ will extend itself; “length,” to the successive ages during which it will reach; “depth,” to the misery and corruption of sin, into which it will descend; “height” to the glory at God’s throne and near His heart to which it would elevate all.
To be filled with all the fullness of God.
To be strengthened, indwelt, rooted and grounded and comprehend the love of Christ is moving towards this bigger understanding of the fullness of God. The fullness of God can't be measured by any measure or contained by any dimensions we know. Yet, all these things lead us toward that fullness; the completeness, perfection and holiness.
God’s dimensions are too huge and our understanding is too small. We will only know the fullness when we are outside these bodies. The proximity of the fullness of God caused Moses’ face to shine with His glory. Isaiah caught a glimpse of God's glory and said, "Woe is me, for I am ruined!" Ezekiel peered into the throne room of God and he fell on his face. When Jesus came to John at Patmos, John saw a hint of the fullness of the Lord and he fell at his feet like a dead man. And we can't forget Paul was taken up to heaven. Now he describes the fullness of God in four dimensions and that may the closest Paul can come to describing what he saw.
Ephesians 3:20-1
And He does these things, ‘according to the power that works in us.’ It's not some other power, or something special brought in at different times. or for special people. It's the power that works in us today, right now, right here, in your life. Normal people, average people like us, doing normal things as we serve an amazing God.
The angels stand in awe as they watch this work God is doing. The extraordinary and eternal results that come through normal people, as they do normal things in fellowship as the church bring glory to Him.
***
In 1962, JFK was visiting the Nasa Space Center. During his visit, he saw a janitor carrying a broom. He stopped the tour to talk to the man. He introduced himself and asked what he was doing. The janitor replied that he was helping to put a man on the moon. This man certainly had a wider perspective. What is your perspective of God working through your life? Do you see yourself participating in something grander, something bigger than we could have ever have imagined we would be part of.
We aren’t powerless saints holed up in our corner of the world just trying to get by until Jesus comes. We are children of the Most High God. We are filled with boundless power of the Holy Spirit; driven by a limitless love. We are workers, right now, today, in the Kingdom of God!!
Amen
©2010, 2017, 2023 Doug Ford
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