Let's pray together, shall we? Father God, once more into your presence we're pleased to come to gather ourselves together again in this place, a place where the Lord Jesus Christ is made much of and spoken well of. This evening once again we pray our Father that it might be the delight of our hearts to once more meet with this lovely man of Calvary, once more to consider something from your word of the greatness of his person, of the wonder of his work of salvation, to consider once again the greatness of our Father God in heaven. We've just sung a wonderful hymn together that is expressed so much that is upon our hearts whenever we think of yourself, your word, and your lovely son. We just pray, our Father, that the Holy Spirit will encourage us together this evening and bring to mind and memory the things that you would have us to understand and to know and to learn from the Scriptures. Be with us in that to bless this evening. Our Father, we pray, for we ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus. For his sake. Amen. Ephesians and chapter 3, please. Ephesians and chapter 3. Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 1. For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given to me to you, Ward, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery, as I wrote afore in few words, whereby when you read you may understand my knowledge in 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 fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. 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. Unto me, who am the less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. 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, to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith in him. Wherefore, I desire that you faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. So reads God's precious word, and we'll leave the reading of the chapter there. Now as we've studied through chapter 2 of this epistle, we found there Paul enthusing believers with what he now refers to in verse 3 of chapter 3 as the mystery of Christ. Mystery. A word in our English language which would conjure up for us surely visions of detective novels. Of Agatha Christie and P.D. James and people like that. Mysterious. Mysteries. But that's not the meaning of the word of course when we come to the scriptures and particularly here where Paul is using it. The Greek word was Mysterion. And it means something that is beyond natural knowledge. but has been opened up to us by divine revelation through the power of the Holy Spirit. Mystery, as Paul uses it here then, something that is beyond natural knowledge, something that has been hid from natural man, but has been opened to them by divine revelation through the power of the Holy Spirit. It's something then, something that was previously undreamed of, that is now disclosed to believers. It becomes an open secret. Chapter 2 in verse 10, he told us there, For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained, that we should walk in them. Verse 13. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. Verse 15. Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace. So Paul is saying this amazing new life, this new humanity, this new race that has been brought to fruition through the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. this breaking down of the middle wall of petition, this bringing together of all believers, whether Jews or Gentiles together. He says, this is the mystery that God has revealed to he, Paul, that he might pass it on to us. Paul uses three amazing images, gripping images, to describe it. He speaks of a city, he speaks of a family, and he speaks of a temple. And our last study, we looked at that in that last, those last few verses there, verses 20 down to 22. 19 he says, now therefore ye are no more strangers. and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. We have a city, we belong, we are part of the family of God. And he says, not only that, but you've got a foundation, a solid foundation, with Jesus Christ as the chief cornerstone. then we come to chapter three and it seems as though paul is now going to once again give us a lovely prayer for he starts off in verse one for this cause i paul the prisoner of jesus christ for you gentiles But he leaves off the prayer, so taken up is he with this fact of the breaking down of this wall of petition, this bringing together in one all believers, so taken up by it is he, that he reverts to it again. And it's not until we come down to verse 14, where we stopped our reading at verse 13, we come down to verse 14 and he picks up the prayer again. For this cause, he says, I bow my knee unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. So he puts this, parentheses in here, in this chapter. Having started off with a prayer, he then goes into an even greater in-depth description for our appreciation of the situation that we as believers find ourselves in this side of the cross. He's so overwhelmed by this mystery, that he's going to give us another few verses on it. From verses 2 down to 6 of this chapter that we read, chapter 2, he gives an account of how the revelation of this mystery came to him, culminating in a tremendous, he says, threefold chord in verse 6 that we'll look at presently. The mystery that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, partakers, literally, sharers of the promise in Christ. Three things that were not available in Old Testament times to those who were Gentiles, save those who became followers of the Jewish faith. The mystery, he says, is that the Gentiles are now on the same footing as the Jews. And it's all been made possible, he says, by the crosswork of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. That crosswork which, as we were thinking last study, created a double union. That a union with himself, yes, as believers, we're joined to him. But more than that, there's the union of believers, joined one to the other. We are in the body of Christ as members of it, and therefore we're joined to each other. Something, of course, up until this time that Jews and Gentiles had never conceived in their wildest imaginings, wildest dreams, they couldn't imagine that this thing would be possible. Something which remained to Paul, of course, all through his writing, a constant wonder and joy. It brought him tremendous happiness and joyfulness that there was this footing that was equal between the Jews and the Gentiles. You'll remember how that on occasion, is it in chapter 24, 25, where Paul takes a gift from the Gentiles to the Jews there in Jerusalem, having a hard time of it. And Paul is away on one of his missionary journeys and he brings a gift to the folk at Jerusalem, the Jews of Jerusalem. And they have this common bond in the Lord Jesus Christ that causes not only the Gentiles to want on this occasion to help the Jews, but it also causes the Jews to accept the gift willingly and gratefully. And then if we came to John's gospel in chapter four and we meet there the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman there at the well. Let me just read to you what she says. You'll know the words well I know, but let me just read it so that we get it correct. She says to him, our fathers worshiped in this mountain and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where we should worship. But in verse nine she says, The woman of Samaria says, how is it that thou, being a Jew, askest a drink of me which am a Samaritan? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Literally nothing in common at all. Here Paul again is enthusing over the fact that the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ has brought together all believers in one body. He then goes on from verse 7 down to 13 and he talks there, he talks now about the ministry of this mystery. He says that I've become a minister for this particular fact, for this wonderful mystery that's been revealed. And in verse 7 he says, whereof I am made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me who am less than the least of all the saints. If you go back to the original text, you'll find that Paul has used a completely new word here. He's taken the word less and he's enhanced it in some way because he wants to make the point clear to those who are reading that he really is the least of the believers and the word he uses here the only way we could translate it and if you stick it in your word processor it'll come immediately up with a big red line under it saying you've misspelt it and the word that he uses here is leaster he says i'm the least of you all of believers and what he's thinking here is i am small paul he says in effect i am small paul well of course he was small we believe in stature but he's saying here that he was small in morality and in spirituality he said i'm the leastest the least of all you who believe We might say, is he being sincere? Well, of course, certainly he is being sincere. He was well aware of his background, of where he'd come from. The fact that he comes onto the pages of scripture as an ardent enemy of the Christians. And now here he is as the top theologian, if you like, of the church. And he's saying to them, I've got a profound understanding of where I come from. I've got a profound understanding of my sinful nature. When he's writing to Timothy in 1 Timothy 15, he says this. This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief, he says. And in 1 Corinthians 15, writing there to the church at Corinth. 1 Corinthians 15, verses nine and 10. He says, for I am the least of the apostles, that I'm not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace, which was bestowed upon me, was not in vain. But I labored more abundantly than they all. Yet not I, but the grace of God, which was in me. Paul says, I know, I know what I was. I understand the enormity of the grace of God in saving me. And throughout his writings it's clear that he never ever got over the immense privilege that it was to him to be chosen by God to be a minister of the mystery of salvation and the mystery of the church. This just consumed him so often in his writings. So to whom and to what end was Paul to focus his ministry? First eight and the second half of it says that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. He says to preach Christ to the Gentiles. That's the focus of my ministry. And of course it was as throughout his life he traveled. through all that part of the land there around the Mediterranean and eventually up into Rome itself, amongst the Gentiles preaching the, as he says here, the unsearchable riches of Christ. That was my mission, he says. And then in verse 9 he says, And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hidden God, who created all things, to Christ Jesus. Firstly, he says, my ministry is to the Gentiles. Secondly, is to inform the world, to tell the whole world of this wonderful mystery, particularly the mystery of the church, that body of Christ. This was his second focus of the ministry. And then thirdly, in verse 10, he tells us, to the intent that now unto the principalities and power in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. Incredible, isn't it? His third focus of ministry is to instruct, to inform the very angels of heaven. So those three things were the focus of his ministry. To preach Christ to the Gentiles, to inform the world of the church and what it meant and what it signified, and to inform the angels themselves. Amazing. This is what he's saying in these three verses here, 8, 9, and 10. So the first thing, to preach Christ to the Gentiles. This was his, as we've already said, his raison d'etre for being, for going out on these long missionary journeys to preach to the Gentiles. It is said that on an occasion Toscanini, the great conductor, conducted a concert at one of the Beethoven symphonies. And as he finished the symphony, the applause was deafening. People stood on their feet and cheered him to the rafters. He played several encores and still they cheered him and still they feted him for the wonderful performance that he and the orchestra had given. And eventually he turned his back on the audience and he looked at the orchestra and he said to them in their hearing, He said, I am nothing. You are nothing. But Beethoven, he is everything. This is what Paul's trying to tell us here, you know, whatever we seek to preach, we must preach Christ and we must make much of him. It is he who should be central to all of our speaking and our preaching and our thinking and our sharing with those whom we come by day by day. Christ then, the centre. Christ is everything. Paul says, I'm going to preach to them the unsearchable riches of Christ, a word which is difficult to find one word or two words or three words almost to describe the unsearchable riches of Christ, inexplorable unfathomable, untraceable, inexhaustible, illimitable, incalculable, infinite. We could go on. All of these words sum up something of the unsearchable riches of Christ. And riches, of course, that overflow to believers in saving us, in sanctifying us, in giving us a relationship with God, in practical matters, and even in eternal matters. All these things are bound up in the unsearchable riches of Christ. They're yours, they're mine. Primarily, Paul says, it's Christ that enriches life. He is the one who enriches our lives. He always enriches and enhances. He never subtracts from our lives, save that which is sinful. He would always build up, always encourage us to explore and to increase our knowledge of him and of the Father God and his word. And so we have to recognize of course that it's a tremendous benefit to be the recipients of these tremendous unsearchable riches. It puts a responsibility upon us to share those riches with others. to share them both amongst ourselves as believers, but to share them with the wider world as well, with those people that we come into contact with day by day. You know, somebody said to me once many, many years ago when I was very young, you need to be the very best employee that your boss ever had. You need to be the very best neighbor your neighbor's ever had, because that's what Christ would have been, and you are to dispense to them, to the wider world, the riches of Christ, that you might, through your life, show something of Christ to them, that they might be attracted to him. To then, to preach Christ to the Gentiles, he says. Then to inform the world of the church. And that's our responsibility as well. The mystery has been revealed to us through the writings of Paul. We understand the mystery. We understand God's plan of salvation. We understand the way in which he's made one nation of us, if you like, in and through Christ. The Jews and the Gentiles joined together. This family of God, we understand that if we've really understood chapter two of Ephesians. but he says you need to demonstrate that to the world at large so that they get some glimpse some picture of what the church is the body of christ is all about the very way we live our lives and particularly the way we behave to each other as fellow believers. They are watching us and they want to see us. You know as well as I do that they will catch you out if they possibly can. If they see you behaving in a way which is not the way in which they expect you to behave, they will pull you up for it. I've told you the story before but it comes to mind again as I think of this fact. How that when we were staying in France some number of years ago now, somebody that we know down there, the guy who used to mow our grass for us and things like that and do some odd jobs, he said to his wife one Sunday morning, I must ring Robin up and make an appointment to go and cut the grass. And she said, don't be silly. He'll be in church this morning. It's Sunday morning. He won't be at home. Wait till this afternoon. so when they came round next time she told us this story she said told told him that you would be out of church well you were out of church weren't you i wasn't Somehow or other we'd overlaid and we didn't get to church that morning. They expected us to be there. They expected us to be there. The world expects us, you know, to demonstrate that we are different, that we are the body of Christ, that we are not like them. We shouldn't be concerned about... I'm not saying that we should go out and thrust it in their faces and make ourselves a nuisance to them. But you know they should understand what we are and what we are doing and where we come from. Inform the world, Paul says, of the church. It is as we preach, as I say, and live as members of this third race, this new race, that we will effectively reach the unbelievers. Preach Christ then and preach the church, the body of Christ, to the world. And then thirdly, he says, the focus of my ministry is to inform angels. And when I was thinking about this, I was researching it a bit, I came up with one commentator who gave a very, to me anyway, a very good illustration of what it means that we are actually instructing, informing the angels. And he said, imagine it as a cosmic drama, as a play, if you like. The theatre that it's placed in is the world. Sorry, is history. Is the history of the world. The stage is the world. The actors are you, the church, the believers. The writer is God, who also directs and produces the drama. So imagine that. Imagine that. We're on the pages of history, in the theatre of history. We're on the stage, which is the world in which we live. We are the actors, the Church of Christ. We're acting out a script that is written by God, who is directing it and who is producing it. And the audience, he says, are the angels. The angels are the ones who are watching this drama being played out. John Stott, the commentator, said, it is through the old creation, the universe, that God reveals his glory to humans. That's true, isn't it? As we go around in the world in which we live, we see the glory of God in everything that we see. Yes, it's been marred by sin, but we can see the glory of it. But he then goes on to say, it is through the new creation, the church, that he reveals his wisdom to angels. That's what this verse is saying. He's saying that his dealings with us, the church, the believers that make up the body of Christ, his dealings with us is that which instructs the angels on his purposes and his plans. The angels watch us because we are part of that mystery that Paul has been writing about. In 1 Peter 1 12 Peter speaks about it and what he says there in effect is that the angels actually stoop to look at the church, at the believers. They actually stoop to look. You know, it's true, isn't it, when you start to think along these lines that you recognize that we have a far bigger and more observant audience than we actually realize, don't we? You know, it causes us to recognize that it's not just our fellowship that looks at us and learns from us. It's not just the world around us, but it's the very angelic beings that are watching us to learn of God's wisdom in the way he's dealing with us. You think of those angels, messengers of God. They watch over his people. They were present at creation. They sing the praises of God. They observed the whole history of God's dealing with the people of God. They witnessed the birth of the Savior. They witnessed his perfect life. They witnessed his death, his resurrection, his ascension into heaven itself. Witnessed all that of their blessed Lord. And yet, there is still much more for them to learn. And they watch as God through the church displays, the verse tells us, displays his manifold wisdom. I looked up that word manifold in the original text. The closest you can get to understanding what it means is many colored. And I understand that it's the same word that was used of Joseph's coat of many colors. This is the wisdom of God that these angels are trying to understand. The manifold wisdom. The many-coloured wisdom. The many-coloured fellowship of the Church. Multicultural, multiracial. And yet, many-coloured is the Church, isn't it? We're all different. And this is what is impressing the angels and teaching them. Watching God reconcile first believers to himself. And then of course in a day to come he will reconcile ultimately everything in heaven and earth, it all being brought together in him. Ephesians 1 verse 9 and 10 we're back to again in that respect. And so verses 11 to 13, I'm sorry we're going over a bit of time. Verses 11 to 13, a view of the church which challenges us to the extreme. Verse 11 tells us that the church is central to history itself, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord. It's very central to history. It will rule in the universe with Christ the church. Believers We need to take heart, don't we, that we live in a world which is dominated by materialism today, dominated by sin and wickedness, threatened by extreme causes like Marxism and Islam. We need to comfort ourselves that it is only the church that will survive history and return with Christ to rule over the earth. Verse 12, he tells us, that the church is central to the gospel in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith in him. He says Christ died and rose from the dead not only to create and not only to save and create a new single humanity, a third race. but he died too and rose again from the dead that he might adopt us into the family of God become the church part of his body and then verse 13 tells us that the church is should be central to christian living 13 he says, wherefore I desire that you faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory. He says the church, the body of Christ, should be central to your Christian living. He says I'm willing to suffer. Why? That the church might prosper. He saw his sufferings as the church's glory. The church then is an option for the believer, is not an option rather for the believer, who becomes a member of it on conversion, because that's the truth of it. As soon as we are truly converted, we become part of the body of Christ, we are adopted into that body, into that church. But it's not only that, it doesn't envisage isolated members in the church, in the body. Paul says, don't neglect the assembling of yourselves together. Joining and attending a local gathering of believers won't save us, we know that. But it is a proclamation of the gospel, for it is the place where Christ is preached as the only saviour of the world. And it's incumbent upon us to be at the gatherings of the people of God, and to be part of that church and working in that church, such that the angels might watch us doing that, and learn of the manifold wisdom of God. Christ and the church then go hand in hand, Paul says. And we need to remember, do we not, that the angels are watching and longing to learn from us the manifold wisdom of God. Amen.