Sermon Tone Analysis

*The Proclamation of the Mystery*

(Ephesians 3:7-9)

 

We’re in Ephesians 3:1-14 – a study we’ve entitled “The Mystery (the Gospel of Jesus Christ) Revealed”.

We’ve looked at the prisoner of the mystery, Paul, in verses 1-4, showing Paul’s divine perspective on his part in transmitting this mystery of the gospel.

Verses 5-6 revealed the plan of the mystery – the unity that exists among true believers in Christ.

Now, today we want to look at the proclamation, or preaching of this Gospel.

This is for all of us.

Paul is dead and gone from this earth.

The holding and proclamation of this precious message of the gospel is now committed to us and we need to get it right.

John MacArthur relates:  I remember a pastor’s saying to me one day after the morning service, “Do you see that man over there?

He is one of my converts.”

He went on to explain, “Not the Lord’s, but mine.”

MacArthur rightly commented, “The man had become a disciple of the pastor but not a disciple of Christ.”

It’s not about us – it’s about Him.

The Gospel points to Him – Jesus Christ.

A Rabbi and a New England Minister were getting to know one another.

Proudly, the minister exclaimed, "One of my ancestors signed the Declaration of Independence."

"I understand your pride," responded the rabbi.

"One of my ancestors signed the Ten Commandments."

Paul would never have put himself forward like that.

As Paul took great care regarding himself and the content of the message, he becomes a model for us all – not just pastors, but all believers – all of whom are ministers of the gospel as we shall see in chapter 4.

 

*The Proclamation of the Mystery*

* *

Verse 7-9 give us a wonderful, brief insight into the kind of attitude the Lord would like to see in us as we represent His message on earth.

*I.

** With a Sense of Humility*

* *

The first thing we note is that Paul had a profound sense of humility regarding the honor of representing the gospel.

Look at verse 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.

We might be tempted to suppose that when Paul speaks of being the least of all saints, he is speaking in hyperbole -- exaggerated language.

But I assure you that he is not.

Paul was genuinely aware that his background as a persecutor of the Church and murderer of early believers hardly qualified him to be not only a minister of the gospel.

His sense of being the least of the saints represented his true feelings.

When Paul says that he is the very least of all saints, it is a /very/ /striking/ expression.

He takes the superlative (“least” or “smallest”) and does what is impossible linguistically; he turns it into a comparative ( ‘leaster’ or ‘less than the least’).

Perhaps he was deliberately playing on the meaning of his name as well.

For his Roman surname ‘Paulus’ is Latin for ‘little’ or ‘small’,  and tradition says he was a little man.

‘I /am/ little,’ he is saying, ‘little by name, little in stature, and morally and spiritually littler than the littlest of all Christians.’

In affirming this he is neither indulging in hypocrisy nor groveling in self-depreciation.

He means it.

It is actually interesting to trace some of Paul’s statements about himself, for like many believers, as he matured, his sense of his own unworthiness increased.

In one of his early epistles, Paul said “I suppose I was not a whit behind the very chiefest /apostles/” (2 Co 11:5; 12:11) – words necessitated by the attacks being made on his character in Corinth.

Later he writes as we have in Ephesians, I “am less than the least of all /saints/” (Eph 3:8); while at the end of his life he says, “I am the chief of /sinners/!”

(1 Ti 1:15).

Does it strike you that this sense of personal unworthiness is missing in many of our preachers and many of us as ministers today?

Is it not possible that we have lost something?

Humility is not, unfortunately, something that we prize these days.

It has come to be seen as weakness.

But I assure you it is prized by God */for it encourages complete reliance on him.

/*

*/ /*

We are enamored of what we bring to the service of Jesus Christ.

I was in the top 10% of my class.

I was a first team football player.

I had the lead in every play that I ever tried out for.

I may not have brains, but I have beauty.

I may not have classic beauty, but I have a rare, exotic kind of attractiveness.

Think what God can do with my intelligence, my personality, my artistic ability, my creativity.

But remember,  Paul could rattle off a lengthy and impressive list of physical advantages  himself as he did in Philippians 3 -- and yet say, I count them useless as opposed to the */surpassing worth of knowing Christ/*.

When gazing at the beauty and perfection of Christ, Paul found it easy to get a proper perspective on himself, and so can we.

But perhaps the most important thing to see here is this.

Though Paul honestly saw himself as the lesser of the least saint – as morally unworthy, as a gifted, but flawed and imperfect instrument, /he didn’t just throw in the towel/.

He could have.

He could have said, “Well, okay.

So count me out.

I see that I am not worthy of my Lord, nor the gifts he has given me, nor the task he has put before me.

I get it -- so count me out.”

But, folks, that was not Paul at all.

As our example, that’s not where /he /went.

Look at verse 8 8) To me, though ( don’t you like the little “though”?)

though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.

Paul could have put a period after the word saint, and shut it down.

I’m the least of the least, unworthy, battered past, blunt instrument.

Let me put a period there and /asta la vista/, baby (that’s language you learn if you are from CA)!  Man – thank God he didn’t do that.

Do you realize we wouldn’t have half the NT had he done that?

Paul didn’t put a period there, he put a comma and went on to tell how God called him to preach even /though/ he was the least of the least.

Look at verse 7:  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.

Listen to me now.

Here’s what this passage is teaching.

It is teaching us that a sense of humility is an asset; it cannot be allowed to be an excuse, but it can be an asset, something God looks for, covets and promotes in his ministers.

*Paul** knew he wasn’t worthy /and he was right/*!  /No human person who has ever lived is worthy, outside of Christ*.

But he also knew he was qualified, chosen and under an imperative.

*/ */Almost a paradox, isn’t it?/*

And Paul humbly and willingly went about his work of preaching the gospel of Christ.

I suspect that if there is any one thing that has kept people from God more than any other it is the self-righteous, prideful attitudes of supposedly Christian people.

In his wonderful little book, /The Prodigal God, /Timothy Keller says this in commenting on the self-righteous elder son in the Prodigal son story of Luke 15, “There are many people today who have abandoned any kind of religious faith because they see clearly that the major religions are simply full of elder brothers.

They have come to the conclusion that religion is one of the greatest sources of misery and strife in the world.

And guess what?

Jesus says through this parable – they are right.

The anger and superiority of elder brothers, all growing out of insecurity, fear, and inner emptiness, can create a huge body of guilt-ridden, fear-ridden, spiritual blind people, which is one of the great sources of social injustice, war and violence.

It is typical for people who have turned their backs on religion to believe that Christianity is no different.

They have been in churches brimming with elder-brother types.

They say, “Christianity is just another religion.”

But Jesus says, no, that is not true.

Everybody knows that the Christian gospel calls us away from the licentiousness of younger brotherness, but few realize that it also condemns moralistic elder brotherness.”

Listen, if we are “in Christ” today, it is through no merit of our own but because God sought us out and brought us to faith in Christ.

Our representation of his gospel to a lost world must be from a profound sense of humility – always point to Christ, not ourselves.

On Thursday, February 1, 2008, David Tyree was in the same restaurant as Dan Patrick, a former sportscaster and now columnist for Sports Illustrated.

While in the restaurant, Patrick overheard a man introduce David Tyree as a wide receiver of the New York Giants who would be playing in the Super Bowl XLII the following Sunday.

Tyree, however, quickly corrected the man who introduced him saying that he was /just a special teams guy/.

Indeed, he had caught exactly 4 passes in 18 games that year for no touchdowns and a total 35 yards.

The longest was 24 yards.

Given this information, it was only natural that when Tom Coughlin, the coach of the New York Giants, asked Tyree to go onto the field the next Sunday in other than a special teams situation, Tyree said, “No, Sir, Coach Coughlin.

I can’t do that.