Ephesians 3:7-13
Faint Not
September 28, 2014
Lynchburg, Virginia
EXHORDIUM
Faith- in Christ
Confidence- of Forgiveness
Access- to the Father
Boldness- in His Presence
Obedience- motivated by
love
EXEGESIS
7 Whereof I was made a
minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the
effectual working of his power.
This sentence seems to stand in contrast to the
next one. This is why we need to understand both of these sentences together.
In the first, verse 7, Paul is claiming special revelation, God’s particular
kindness to him, and God’s power given expressly to him. In our modern world,
such claims are often accused of being boastful and full of pride. Who gives
you the right to claim some special knowledge? Why did God speak to you and not
to me?
Some of this accusation is the result of envy.
People have a hard time admitting that God’s favor should fall in one place and
not another.
But there is another reason as well. We have
been schooled to believe that claims to absolute truth are suspect. It is not
simply that Paul claims some special working of God towards him. It is that he
claims that this special working revealed that there is truth in Jesus Christ
and no other. The modern wants to say that as long as you say the truth is good
for you, I am with you. But if you say that your truth also applies to me, then
I am not with you. My truth is different than your truth. You see, this is a
rejection of truth as an absolute standard.
8 Unto me, who am less
than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among
the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
But Paul is not boasting, except in God’s
kindness and mercy. He is not making the claim that he has figured things out
of his own accord. Nor, is he making the claim that he is someone super special
or super spiritual, so God’s favor rested on him.
He is saying quite clearly that he does NOT
deserve God’s favor. He takes the lowest place of the holy, and reiterates that
it is grace. In fact, the phrase here means that he is less than the least. So,
Paul saying that he is not even in the same category as the saints. When God
called him to apostleship, the weekest little saint was better than Paul. He
means it. He here exalts both God’s plan and God’s people. That is, God’s gift
is what he is bragging about.
This is the way to glorify God. We are tempted
to show forth our own glory when it comes to our knowledge, or our natural
gifts, or even our good works, our children, our advances at our jobs, our good
marriages. But if we see things correctly, we know that we are receiving
manifold blessings because God has smiled on us.
Left to ourselves, we would not have fared any
better than sinful men gone astray. But God did not leave us in such a state.
He sent us His Spirit. He brought us to repentance and faith in Jesus and made
us citizens of His Kingdom and adopted us as children in His family. To God be
the glory. Amen.
Cross Reference- 1 Cor. 15:8 Paul saw Jesus last
because he is the least of the Apostles, 2 Cor. 3:13 bold access.
Paul is an interesting case study. He had been the
most zealous of the zealous for the Jewish nation. He persecuted Christ and His
people because he thought God’s plans were limited to distribution through the
Jews. We see, in Paul, God’s great irony. God took one of the most formidable
enemies of the gospel and made him the gospel’s greatest champion.
Paul was the one least likely to be the champion
of the gospel to the Gentiles. He was not part of the revelation on the day of
Pentecost where the nations were gathered to hear the gospel. It was to Peter
that the vision appeared making all foods clean. It was during Peter’s sermon
that the Spirit fell upon the household of Cornelius. Peter was the likely
minister to the Gentiles.
But for God, Peter was too obvious of a choice.
In fact, Peter, himself, must needs be rebuked by Paul for his lack of clarity
on his message and behavior among the Gentiles.
No, Paul was the one that God chose. God must
take a man and turn him inside out and then he is useful in the kingdom of God.
When Paul says that he is the least of all saints, he is not kidding. He is
referring to his own leaning, upbringing and zeal. The fact that he is turned
around, upside down, inside out, can only be attributed to God’s intervention.
Thus, Paul gets no glory. God remade him.
Unsearchable
Riches of Christ- This
does mean that riches of Christ had not yet been searched, unsearched riches.
It means that the riches of Christ cannot be fully discovered. We hear His
riches declared and we see them in great glory but the depths of them cannot be
sounded. This is why we get the Apostles great prayer for the Ephesians and for
us in verse 3:18 to know the breadth and
length and depth and height.
The glories that are in Christ are broad and
long and deep and high. There is always something more we can learn and say
about Jesus. It is not boring task to study Him.
9 And to make all
men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the
beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus
Christ:
See-
photidzo- the
sudden seeing as if a light switch had gone on. It is not just seeing the
gospel but seeing how the gospel makes all men fellowship together in Jesus
Christ. It is how the gospel restores fellowship to God and man.
This was hidden in ages past but is now revealed
in Jesus Christ. In ages past, men were befuddled as to how the peace of
mankind was ever going to be restored. There was at least a call to peace for
Old Testament Jews. They were supposed to get along within the Covenant. But
they could not even do that.
There were distant promises that the swords
would be beat into plowshares and they would war no mar. But how to get there
was hidden.
Even the Apostles of Jesus had the expectation
that He would ascend the throne and mandate a peace through power. Instead of
Pax Romana, there would be Pax Messiana. Peace by the iron fist of Messiah. But
we do not get this. We get this by the iron sword proceeding from the mouth of
Messiah. This is peace by the gospel. Unthinkable. Absurd.
In retrospect, Paul was the perfect choice. The
mystery long hidden is that the recreation would be in Jesus Christ. Paul
resisted this, even seeking to imprison and kill Christians. He was a Jew of
Jews, a Pharisee among Pharisees. How different than the Paul we know in
Scripture. But the murderers of St. Stephen did lay down their cloaks at the
feet of a young man named Saul.
10 To the intent that
now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known
by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
The church’s existence reveals the to the powers
the manifold wisdom of God. Who are these powers? Those angels that rule over
men. Their rule has been despoiled in Christ.
11 According to the
eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:
This was God’s plan all along.
12 In whom we have
boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.
We have boldness in the holy place. We have
access with confidence. Some read this the faith of Jesus. That is, Jesus’s
faith. But it the context implies our faith in Jesus. But our faith in Jesus is
to partake of His faith in the Father, so it is all one.
13 Wherefore I desire
that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.
Paul’s tribulations advanced the gospel of Jesus
Christ. Some might be ashamed that their great leader was in jail undergoing
persecution. After all, is not the life in Jesus supposed to be full of
blessing? How can we say that Paul’s constant opposition and then incarceration
was blessing? But Paul says that it is blessing. He says that his tribulations
are the Ephesians glory.
Paul intimates that since he is the Apostle to
the Gentiles, he gets to go all the way. His plan was that the gospel of Jesus
Christ was preached to the ends of the Earth. He was going to do just that,
preach all the way to and in Rome. He preached from the ends of the world to
the center of it.
EXHORTATION
John Calvin Quote- “There are three
stages in our progress. First, we believe the promises of God; next, by relying
on them, we obtain that confidence, which is accompanied by holiness and
peace of mind; and, last of all, comes boldness, which enables us to
banish fear, and to come with firmness and steadiness into the presence of
God.”
“To separate faith from confidence
would be an attempt to take away heat and light from the sun. I acknowledge,
indeed, that, in proportion to the measure of faith, confidence is small in
some and greater in others; but faith will never be found unaccompanied by
these effects or fruits.”
Different measures of faith, provide
different measures of confidence and boldness.
“A trembling, hesitating, doubting
conscience, will always be a sure evidence of unbelief; but a firm, steady
faith, will prove to be invincible against the gates of hell. To trust in
Christ as Mediator, and to entertain a firm conviction of our heavenly Father’s
love, — to venture boldly to promise to ourselves eternal life, and not to
tremble at death or hell, is, to use a common phrase, a holy presumption.”
Faith- in Christ
Confidence- of Forgiveness
Access- to the Father
Boldness- in His Presence
Obedience- motivated by
love
