From our Sunday service on March 23, 2025, Ephesians 3. This is part 3 of our Ephesians series. Watch the full message: The Mystery of the Gospel – Ephesians Series #3 on YouTube.
Last time we talked about the journey we take as believers through salvation. We started in a place of spiritual death, separated from God and enslaved to our sin. God stepped into the world through Jesus, gave us the opportunity for salvation, and transformed us through the blood of Christ. Through that same blood, He brought all believers together as one in the church, unified Jews and Gentiles into one family, raised us up together and seated us together with Christ. This third chapter is an interlude and a prayer. Paul starts with his circumstances and then seems to get sidetracked; many commentaries point out that he brings up his imprisonment and does not get back to it for at least twelve more verses. I want you to catch this idea as we go through this section of Scripture: God wants you to know that His love and power are incomprehensible, so we should embrace that power to bring glory to Him.
Paul's Circumstances and the Mystery Revealed
Paul starts, “For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles.” He’s in prison because he preached to the Gentiles, and we have this letter because he couldn’t go in person. About 30% of the New Testament books we have from Paul were written from prison. God allows suffering not only for our benefit, but for the benefit of others. Paul wasn’t simply sidetracked. God used this imprisonment so that churches like Ephesus could receive this letter. The “dispensation of the grace of God” is the idea of a household manager whose job is to distribute things, in this case the gospel. “If ye have heard” is almost playful. Of course they had heard of his reputation. Then he says this stewardship was given to him so that he could share the mystery of Christ.
Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:
Ephesians 3:5–6
A “mystery” in this sense is not another book of the Bible, and it is not a puzzle God is hiding from us now. It is something that was hidden and is now being revealed. Paul already used this word in Ephesians 1:9-10, that God has made known unto us the mystery of His will, that in the dispensation of the fulness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ. In Acts 9:15-16, at Paul’s conversion, the Lord said he was a chosen vessel to bear His name before the Gentiles, and that he would suffer great things. Paul knew from the beginning that suffering was part of his calling. The mystery is Christ, and more than that, “Christ in you, the hope of glory,” as Colossians 1:27 says. In the Old Testament, the Spirit of God would come upon a prophet or a judge for a moment. Now the Holy Spirit lives in every believer. That is a staggering change. Gentiles should be fellowheirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the gospel. They do not come in as second-class members. They inherit with Israel, they belong to the same body, and they share the same promise. That’s the mystery being revealed.
Paul calls this the “gift of the grace of God,” given unto him by the effectual working of His power. Remember, this is a man who was a murderer, a persecutor of the church. The Greek word behind “effectual working” is energeia, but don’t slide that into some mystical idea of energy. It is God powerfully at work. And look at how humble Paul is. The name Paulos means small or humble, and he calls himself “less than the least of all saints.” Yet unto him was this grace given, that he should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. “Unsearchable” means you can never get to the end of them. To “make all men see” is to shine a light so that others can see what was once hidden. Paul is not keeping this for a small group of experts. The unsearchable riches of Christ are meant to be preached among the Gentiles so that ordinary people can see them.
Who created all things? “By Jesus Christ.” That’s one of the passages I go to when people ask, “Where does it say that Jesus is God?” In Genesis it says, “Let us make man,” and in the Gospels Jesus says, “Before Abraham was, I am.” Here Paul says all things were created by Jesus Christ. The next part of the mystery is a request I still get: people ask if I would do a series on angelology. Here we have a little of it. The principalities and powers in heavenly places are not earthly governments. These are heavenly beings, angels. And now the church is teaching the angels the manifold, many-sided wisdom of God. In 1 Corinthians 4:9 Paul says the apostles are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men. Luke 15:10 says there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth. 1 Peter 1:12 says the angels desire to look into the things of the gospel. Angels had no opportunity to repent after they rebelled. They also lack the emotional spectrum and the diversity of gifts that we have as the church. God is using us to teach them something they could not have learned any other way, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. The wisdom is manifold, many-sided. Every time a sinner is saved, every time the church walks in unity, the angels are watching and learning what the grace of God looks like.
Access, Family, and Love That Passes Knowledge
In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.
Ephesians 3:12
“In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.” This is not the boldness of walking up to God and saying, “Give me a new car.” We have access to the King, but we still come with a bended knee. We are treated as royalty, and we still remember who we are talking to. Then Paul says, “I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you.” Don’t be discouraged because I’m in prison. He preached the gospel in the cells. He never stopped. His suffering was their glory. If the apostle could keep preaching from a cell, we do not have to faint when following Christ costs us something. God is still working in those hard places.
“For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.” The family in heaven includes the legions and myriads of angels, and the saints who have gone on before us. Revelation 19:10 calls an angel a fellowservant and of thy brethren. If you wanted, you could walk up to an angel and say, “What’s up, brother Michael?” That relationship is unsearchable. Paul prays that God would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith. This is not a quick visit. It is Christ making His home in you. And he prays that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height, and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.
Don’t get caught up trying to measure this in inches. It is a metaphor: God’s love is in every direction. It reaches all the way to hell and all the way through history. And then Paul says this love passeth knowledge. You can know it, and you still cannot fully know it. Picture standing at the edge of an ocean, looking out at the horizon. You can see it, you can taste it, you can know it’s real, and you still cannot take it all in. That is what it is like to know the love of Christ. We can be rooted in it, we can be strengthened by it, and there will always be more of it than we can hold.
Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
Ephesians 3:20–21
“Exceeding abundantly” means above and beyond, more than you would ever think to ask. If you think you’re not talented enough, or that your gifts are too small to matter, remember that this is about what God is able to do, not about what you can produce. He is able to work through ordinary people in ways that go above and beyond anything we would plan. Unto Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen. God wants you to know that His love and power are incomprehensible. Will you rest in that love, and will you let Him do exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or think?
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