00:00:00:55 – 00:00:31:31
Clint Loveall
Hi, friends. Welcome back. Good to be back with you. And good to have 00:00:00:23 – 00:00:27:34
Clint Loveall
Hey everybody. Thanks for joining us midweek as we continue through the book of Ephesians. Moving into the third chapter today, just hear the first few verses. You might, if you’ve been with us the last few days or if you’ve been with us since the start of Ephesians. Pretty significant kind of turn of direction here. I’ve read some of it for you, and then we’ll come back and talk it through.
00:00:27:39 – 00:00:53:08
Clint Loveall
This is the reason that I, Paul, am a prisoner for Christ Jesus. For the sake of you Gentiles. For surely you have already heard of the commission of God’s grace that was given to me for you, and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote about in a few words, a reading which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ in former generations.
00:00:53:13 – 00:01:22:25
Clint Loveall
This mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the spirit. That is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. I think on one hand, Michael, this, you know, it’s very standard stuff for Ephesians, and it falls along the lines of what we’ve been talking about.
00:01:22:30 – 00:01:47:57
Clint Loveall
The idea that Paul is teaching the church a new teaching, that Gentiles have been included, that in Christ they have a place that they’ve been grafted into the covenant of the Old Testament of Israel. We’ve said a lot about that, and I don’t think we need to belabor the point. I think there are a couple of things of interest in addition to that here.
00:01:48:01 – 00:02:27:02
Clint Loveall
A that Paul identifies himself a prisoner for Jesus Christ. You could go back and revisit all the conversations about whether Ephesians is or isn’t written by Paul. Those who would say that they think this is a Pauline book, or that Paul is the actual author. They would take this as a literal reference that that they would believe Paul is referring to himself here, not in some general sense, as I belong to Christ, or I am owned by Christ or imprisoned by Christ, but that he is imprisoned for his faith and for his preaching.
00:02:27:07 – 00:02:41:12
Clint Loveall
And what’s interesting is he adds here, for the sake of you Gentiles. And I think that does give this a very specific kind of feel, and, certainly adds context.
00:02:41:16 – 00:03:08:22
Michael Gewecke
I think it’s really interesting that sometimes we think of the Bible as being, you know, perfectly put together. In fact, we sometimes talk about this, being a reliable guide. I think what is fascinating here, as we start in verse one, is that actually your English translation, or at least the one that I have in front of me here, ends this verse, one with a hyphen.
00:03:08:27 – 00:03:35:31
Michael Gewecke
And it’s worth noting that the grammar here, Paul, actually doesn’t finish this sentence. It actually is just left hanging at the end, and it’s not a complete sentence. It’s worth noting because Paul is writing this letter. It’s a letter being written to real people. There’s real people and mind real people being addressed and just like you. Not every time that you get the thought written out as exactly as you intended it.
00:03:35:31 – 00:03:55:59
Michael Gewecke
Sometimes it’s not fully formed here. This is the reason that Paul’s writing, Paul’s not a prisoner here of Rome, right? He makes it clear he’s a prisoner for Christ. So even if there is this idea that he’s a, under house arrest in Rome, which, if a scholar is going to argue that this is where it’s written, that’s generally where they’re going to argue.
00:03:56:04 – 00:04:23:25
Michael Gewecke
And so here, it’s not that some earthly power is capable of containing him, but it is for the sake of the Gentiles. And that then ends that sentence, and then it just rolls right into the next. You’ve heard the commission of God’s grace, which was given for from me to you. And here I think we need to recognize that Paul’s functioning in a very particular and very specific ministry for the sake of Gentiles.
00:04:23:27 – 00:04:47:12
Michael Gewecke
We see that traced out in the book of acts and here the the way that Paul is living out this faith as an apostle, not one who lived with Jesus, but one who found his commission from the risen Christ. He he’s now living and serving, and in this case, making the argument that he does so even at the cost of his own freedom for the sake of those Gentiles.
00:04:47:13 – 00:05:07:07
Michael Gewecke
And there’s a lot of leadership capital in that, Clint, somebody who’s willing to put their life on the line, someone who’s willing to, even risk their lives for the sake of the people that they are called to preach the gospel to. And here Paul is not just talking that talk, but we have very clearly he’s living it.
00:05:07:12 – 00:05:39:38
Clint Loveall
Yeah. And I think sharing with the church that it’s been pointed, his life has been pointed in a very specific direction. This idea of the commission of God’s grace that was given to me for you. Again, Paul understands his work to be a the gift of God to the Gentiles. And specifically to those reading the letter. Then I think the next part, Michael, is really interesting.
00:05:39:43 – 00:06:17:53
Clint Loveall
I, I appreciate this this kind of thought from Paul. I had to be careful maybe not to overdo it, but I love that Paul uses the word mystery here, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation. These are, I think, in the Christian tradition, two incredibly important words. First, the idea of mystery. The idea that there is a certain unknowable ness to God and to what God does, that God is not something we can figure out, not something that we can understand.
00:06:17:58 – 00:06:49:36
Clint Loveall
God is beyond our reasoning and therefore is inherently a mystery to us. So that then the second word, revelation, God is known to us by revealing himself. We can’t figure out God. We can only know what God shows us of himself. And I think, you know, putting these two words in conversation. And then Paul goes on to say, you probably know some of my story.
00:06:49:40 – 00:07:20:19
Clint Loveall
So you can know something about my understanding of the mystery of Christ. You can understand how I got there, but I I’m taken by the word mystery because I think too often in the church, or maybe the faith. We love clarity. And so we love the idea that we can get all the right doctrines and make all the right rules and create all the right hoops for people to jump through.
00:07:20:24 – 00:07:44:04
Clint Loveall
And then somehow we can understand and we can make sense of it, and we can make sure that we’ve passed down the right version of the faith and that we’re worshiping in the right way and acting in the right way. But I, I think sometimes on on intentionally, the church has found itself trying to squeeze mystery out of the gospel.
00:07:44:09 – 00:08:15:58
Clint Loveall
And I appreciate Paul’s use of the word here. Because I think it is always good to be reminded that when it comes to God, we never have the full picture. There will always be some cloudiness in whatever God hasn’t revealed directly to us, and that we stand in need. And the only way we understand God is by what God allows us to see and to perceive.
00:08:16:03 – 00:08:45:54
Michael Gewecke
You know, this idea was captured and carried forward in the reformed tradition. Actually, when Calvin wrote extensively about the secret work of the spirit, and a lot of his theological work does put against each other this idea that God reveals and that that revelation unveils the secret and yet that secret, because we’re not God still prevails, that there are still the innermost thing known things that we don’t know.
00:08:46:06 – 00:09:14:30
Michael Gewecke
And these things always live in attention. And we see that here. This isn’t exactly the Paul’s not writing a theological track about mystery here, but I think what you see is a really, really interesting connection between the idea that what God is doing for the sake of the Gentiles was not clear to everyone. And Clint, that is a struggle for us in the church to understand still today.
00:09:14:34 – 00:09:46:28
Michael Gewecke
There’s a lot of times in which the stuff that later became seen by the whole church to be God’s intention and will was not a thing seen by all, especially at the start. We see that as it relates to Peter in the book of acts. And then this idea of, you know, kill and eat. But here in this text, the mystery is a thing that God has made known to Paul by revelation, not Paul making it up, but it’s rather God letting Paul see this thing that isn’t clear to everyone else.
00:09:46:39 – 00:10:12:45
Michael Gewecke
And then Paul has a job, even a job, which at this point has him in a position of great, tumult and trouble, a job in which his calling is to share and let others into this thing that God intense. That that’s the nature of Christian mystery. Not to confound us, not to confuse us, not to cloud our ability to see mystery from the Christian sense is always because of God’s greatness and grandeur.
00:10:12:45 – 00:10:20:47
Michael Gewecke
And then the revelation helps us to see the character of the one who lives in, around, and through us in this mysterious way.
00:10:21:01 – 00:10:49:19
Clint Loveall
Right. And there’s there is so much to God and so much to God’s intention and plans that no one can see that all at once. So, verse five, here in former generations, the mystery was not made known, as it has now been revealed. So we see something now that we didn’t see before Christ. We see, an intention, a work, a plan in God’s work in Jesus Christ that was unknown to us before.
00:10:49:24 – 00:11:18:45
Clint Loveall
And Paul goes on to say explicitly what that is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and share in the promise of Christ through the gospel. So this is some of the language we’ve seen over the last couple of days. But here he explicitly states that in times prior, we weren’t aware of the mystery of God’s plan.
00:11:18:50 – 00:11:50:17
Clint Loveall
But now, through the lens of Jesus Christ, we see the thing that God wants to, to do, to accomplish, which is to bring everybody to faith in Christ and to make all people one. It’s just it’s really it’s really good. And I think it’s a nice corrective when we are tempted to think that we have, God and God’s work figured out, it is good to be reminded that there is always more to it than we can see.
00:11:50:22 – 00:11:54:16
Clint Loveall
And in fact, we can see none of it without God’s help.
00:11:54:21 – 00:12:27:42
Michael Gewecke
There’s a part of this section, the letter, Clint, and push back on me here. If you think that this isn’t fair. But this part of the letter makes me think of Paul as the pastor. And what I mean by that is, as this letter is unfolding, Paul is in many ways kind of swinging to different sides of the road as he makes his argument, because you might remember literally in chapter two, verse 11, he just said, remember at one time you Gentiles were called the uncircumcision.
00:12:27:46 – 00:12:49:49
Michael Gewecke
There’s a way in which he was calling Gentiles to humility, saying, hey, now, don’t forget where you came from. Don’t forget that God has had a place for the Jews far before you were aware of God’s place for you. And now Paul’s swinging back to the other side, where he’s making an argument that he’s been given this calling.
00:12:49:50 – 00:13:15:32
Michael Gewecke
He’s been given this revelation that, a mystery which needed to be known that the Gentiles were part of God’s plan, an intention that in this overall message of unity, there are different smaller words being offered kind of almost back and forth between the Jews and the Gentiles. You can almost imagine sitting in that room where they’re reading this, this text, for the first time.
00:13:15:46 – 00:13:42:33
Michael Gewecke
You can imagine people thinking to themselves, yeah. Gotcha. Got them. And then suddenly it comes back around to you and you say, oh, whoa. I guess this applies to me too. There’s a real kind of savvy inclusion of anybody who might still kind of want that dividing wall of hostility to be there. Paul is just systematically pointing this across each side of the aisle, so that everybody knows that the gospels addressing them.
00:13:42:37 – 00:13:55:01
Michael Gewecke
There’s a real kind of pastoral leadership wisdom, I think, in the way that this is written, because it makes sure that nobody can, count themself out of the circle being addressed.
00:13:55:06 – 00:13:57:37
Clint Loveall
Or count others out as well.
00:13:57:52 – 00:14:00:22
Michael Gewecke
Yes, that goes both ways. I.
00:14:00:27 – 00:14:42:23
Clint Loveall
I think there’s a certain beauty. Anytime we were reminded that God’s intentions and work are larger than we thought they might be. So I obviously we’ve talked about it, and in Paul’s context, this would have been a very difficult message initially for Jewish people to hear that this this separation that they’ve lived with their entire life, in fact, that they were taught to keep an honor and that it was the way it was to to now be confronted with this idea that what God has done in Christ has erased that, that that thinking is no longer helpful.
00:14:42:23 – 00:15:10:25
Clint Loveall
In fact, it’s counterproductive, and that they’re now called to embrace everyone and anyone who comes to faith in Jesus with them, and that they needed that as much as those other people did. We know that that must have been a difficult transition. But for those who got it, imagine the kind of joy in learning God is bigger than we thought.
00:15:10:26 – 00:15:54:52
Clint Loveall
And I think whenever we’re confronted with that idea, whenever we find ourselves, you know, again, marveling at some aspect of the faith that we didn’t naturally grasp or didn’t initially understand. I think those are whenever God chooses to reveal himself. It is a wonderful thing for those who get to see it. And and as we learn more about God and as we see God through new eyes, and we realize again and again and again, God is always bigger than the boxes and the lines and the systems with which we try to sort of hold him captive.
00:15:55:04 – 00:16:21:46
Michael Gewecke
Well, and let’s put some skin on this very last word in our section here in Christ Jesus through what the gospel that that’s a church where we use it a lot. The gospel is the good news, right? That this is the proclamation of good news, which is by definition larger than what we are aware. It’s pushing at the boundaries of our imagination.
00:16:21:48 – 00:16:52:48
Michael Gewecke
The good news is the great good news. We can’t contain it. It is absolutely enormous and that it reorients the entire universe if we even catch a glimpse of it. The fact that God takes on flesh, that God dies, that God is resurrected, that God, through God’s grace and love, restores us in relationship through this act that’s been done for us and that it extends far beyond the people that we thought that it was limited to.
00:16:52:55 – 00:17:22:44
Michael Gewecke
And it just keeps marching and marching like light, going from a single source. It we don’t know where it’s going to end. That’s the grandeur of the gospel. That’s the good news, is that fundamentally, we don’t control it and we don’t contain it. And the stuff that we appreciate and the stuff that we even desire and would like to keep as the boundaries, that those are not the things that keep the gospel set, but we ultimately are those who watch as God continues to work and we’re astonished and amazed by it.
00:17:22:58 – 00:17:28:03
Michael Gewecke
And that’s the kind of gospel that Paul’s proclaiming, to this church.
00:17:28:10 – 00:18:00:11
Clint Loveall
And it’s easy to forget for those of us who live in a world kind of obsessed with how the gospel separates people, whether that be denominations or believers and nonbelievers or conservatives and liberals. It’s good to be reminded that the first thing that the gospel does is unites people, is brings different people, aliens and strangers, I think, is the word that Paul’s, the words that Paul uses that takes the two and makes them one.
00:18:00:16 – 00:18:12:16
Clint Loveall
It’s it’s not that the gospel never separates, but it’s good to know that that’s not what it does first. That’s not its initial, impact on people.
00:18:12:21 – 00:18:31:58
Michael Gewecke
Is an amazing we’re back to unity again. This book is consistent in its force, and it is effective in drawing us back into the center over and over and over again. Certainly. I hope you will like this video if you found it helpful. That helps others find it in their own study. Subscribe so you can stick with us on studies like this one and we look forward to seeing you tomorrow.
00:18:32:07 – 00:18:32:45
Clint Loveall
Thanks guys!