Sermon Tone Analysis
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In chapter 2, Paul very briefly explained what God has done for all people-- Jews and Gentiles-- through Jesus.
God made one person, tearing down the wall separating Jew from Gentile, making it so everyone has peace with God and with each other through Jesus.
Jesus is our peace.
When most of us think about "the gospel," we view it on a much smaller level.
We say, the good news is about how you can have a relationship with God.
Or, it's about how your sins can be forgiven.
Or--and I really dislike this one-- the good news is about how you can go to heaven when you die.
That's gross.
Don't do that.
Paul is trying to widen their perspective on the good news, and help them to see God's cosmic plan.
When you look at the world as a whole, what God wants is to create one people, one nation, one family, who will live in peace with HIM.
Passages like this make me wish I was a Charles Spurgeon or Jonathan Edwards, who could lift your eyes up to the heavens, and help you really see this.
Your gospel is too small.
Your understanding of God is too small.
But how can I help you-- and myself-- understand this?
How can Paul help the Ephesians understand this?
It's at this point in Ephesians that Paul begins to pray for the Ephesians.
God can help us.
[Logos messes up the formatting/diagramming in here quite badly.
Anyone wanting a much better copy can email me at: garretttyson32@yahoo.com
Verse 1:
For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner for King Jesus for you nations/Gentiles --if indeed you heard about the stewardship of the grace/ministry of God given to me for you--
This is a confusing verse by itself, because Paul begins a rabbit trail that goes all the way through verse 13.
The easiest way to begin understanding what's going on in this verse is to skip down to verse 14:
"For this reason I bend my knee before the Father, from whom every family in the heavens and on earth is named."
Verse 14 is what Paul planned to write.
Paul has a specific prayer for the Ephesians, and he begins chapter 3 with every intention of telling them about this prayer.
What he wants to say is, "It's for this reason that I pray for you.
I pray that you'd understand what God has done for us through Jesus, and what his plan is for the entire world."
But instead, we read this in verse 1:
For this reason I Paul, the prisoner for King Jesus for you nations/Gentiles --if indeed you heard about the stewardship of the grace/ministry of God given to me for you--
Who is Paul?
Paul describes himself as a prisoner for King Jesus for "you" Gentiles.
But after Paul says this, he kind of checks himself.
Paul says, "It's just barely possible that you don't really understand who I am.
You know I'm an apostle; you know I'm in prison.
But--maybe?-- you don't understand how God is using me."
Most people have some topic that, if you start talking about it, is like putting a quarter in them.
Some people are huge Vikings fans, and if you even mention them, or talk about how Aaron Rogers is the greatest quarterback of all time--him, or Tom Brady-- you are guaranteed to get a response.
It's like you put a quarter in them.
Other people live for fishing, or hunting, or coffee, or video games, and they can talk to you about that for hours.
Paul lives as God's servant, to tell Gentiles the good news about Jesus.
But do you Ephesians really understand what that means?
Do you see the bigger picture of what God is doing in the world?
Do you Ephesians understand what a responsibility and a privilege that this is for Paul?
Maybe you don't.
So Paul says, "On the off-chance you don't really understand all of this, let me tell you.
This is the quarter in my back, and I'm happy to explain this."
Verses 2-7
Verses 2-7 are a single sentence.
Some translations break it up, to try to make it easier to follow, but I'm going to try to read it as a whole.
By revelation the mystery was made known to me,
just as I wrote above briefly,
about which you are able, (when) reading, to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ,
which in other generations was not made known to people,
as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and the prophets by the Spirit,
that the nations/Gentiles are fellow heirs
and fellow members of one body
and fellow sharers of the promise in King Jesus through the good news,
of which I became a servant
according to the gift of God's grace of God given to me,
according to the working of his power.
God had this vision for the world.
He was going to make a single, united, holy family, to live in peace with him, and with each other.
How could God accomplish this?
This is impossible, right?
The answer is found in Jesus.
Paul says, when you read what I've written, you'll understand my insight into the mystery of Christ.
Somehow, God was going to use Jesus to make peace between himself and all of creation.
No one knew what God was planning.
No one knew that the Gentile nations would be fellow heirs of God's kingdom, fellow members of one body, and fellow sharers of the promise in King Jesus through the good news.
No one understood that God would do this by abolishing the Mosaic covenant, and offering peace through Jesus the Messiah.
This is something that God has only NOW revealed to Paul, and to the other apostles and prophets.
God made Paul a servant to the good news.
This is Paul's responsibility, and it's his privilege.
Getting to tell Gentiles about what God has done through Jesus is a gift.
And God empowers Paul to do this.
Imagine getting to tell people about how God has made peace with them through Jesus.
Imagine being able to tell people, "God sent Jesus to die on the cross for our sins, so that he could make peace with the world through Jesus.
God is making one people, one family, for himself.
If you give your allegiance to Jesus, placing your faith in him, God will forgive your sins, and you become part of God's family."
Paul has the privilege of revealing God's plan to the Gentiles, telling them what God has done for them through Jesus.
How great would it be to have God working through you to offer his grace to people?
Paul says, "No one knew about this.
And now God has revealed this mystery to me, along with the other apostles and prophets, so that we can tell Gentiles about Jesus."
Verse 8:
To me, to the least of the least of all the holy ones-- this grace was given--
to proclaim the good news to the nations of the fathomless riches of Christ,
and to enlighten everyone as to what is the stewardship of the mystery hidden from the ages by God-- by the One who created all things--
Paul had the greatest job of all time.
He got to tell the nations how GOOD God had been to them in King Jesus, when they pledged their allegiance to him.
People like good news.
The story of what God has done for us through Jesus is the BEST NEWS.
Paul gets to tell people about the fathomless riches of Christ, to show everyone what God has done for us.
The astonishing thing about this, from Paul's perspective, is that God's grace was given TO HIM.
I've bolded and underlined the first part of verse 8, because Paul is giving emphasis to this.
"It was to me, to the super-least of all the holy ones, that this grace was given.
Paul isn't proud; Paul doesn't think he's something special.
He actually makes up a word to describe himself here.
If Paul said he's the least of the apostles, you'd all understand that if there was a list of apostles, Paul's name is way at the bottom.
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