Grace Given to Me for You

Confess God as Sovereign:

"For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles."  — Ephesians 3:1

Prisoner, but not of Rome so much as Jesus

The reason is God’s purpose, not an accident

• Paul was suffering under false imprisonment. He was no enemy of Rome. But that is what he is arrested for.
• Paul’s preaching ministry was now interrupted by this incarceration. Yet he is not giving up on God’s plan. In fact, he believes that God’s plan is being worked out even in this very difficult circumstance in his own life.

The reason for Paul’s imprisonment and the gift of grace that he received is referenced in two ways in this very first verse:

• The verse begins with “For this reason…” He is connecting his current thought to his previous teaching about how you who were far away have been brought near.
• “For the sake of you Gentiles” is a second rehearsal of the reason both for his current status as a prisoner and for the grace that was given to him to preach to the gentiles the forgiveness of sin through Christ Jesus the Savior.

If Jesus is Lord, then you will see the reason for your own presence in the world, however difficult it may be.

1. God has called you into his service. You are not wandering aimlessly on this planet. You are under divine orders in your journey.
2. You are present for the sake of others, maybe even strangers whose language you do not speak, whose culture you do not understand, whom you know are loved by God.

Convey the Grace:

"Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you." — Ephesians 3:2

God’s grace came to Paul. It stabilized his life in every way. He found himself living out a powerful purpose, a great adventure. He was the ambassador of the King.

Grace was not given to Paul simply for his enjoyment or his personal growth. It did not stop with him. He was a conduit designed to convey to others the grace of God.

Pass on the grace. Pass it on. Pass it to your wife or your husband. Pass it to your children. Pass it to your neighbors and your friends. Pass it to the stranger among us.

Believe this Revelation:

"...the mystery made known to me by revelation..." — Ephesians 3:3

The nature of a revelation:

• Greek word apocalypsin or apocalypsis, a disclosure, a laying bare of the truth that was previously not known.
• It is the name of one of our New Testament books: The Apocalysis of John, the last book of the Bible.
• Here is the heart of it. God reveals to his chosen mouthpiece the truth that is eternal but has been hidden for generations. The Apocalypse happens, not in the end of time, but when the messenger of God announces the truth.
• So the Apostle Paul is now announcing the Apocalypse, the truth of eternity revealed in time.

It was given to Paul but not only to Paul.

• The prophets of the Old Testament announced it (Isaiah 49:6: “It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth.”
• Jesus himself declared it (Acts 1:8: You will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth).
• Peter also was chosen to receive this revelation: (Acts 11:18: When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.”

This is an uphill battle on every front:

• Convincing the Pharisee of Pharisees—Saul of Tarsus—that his special mission in life is to gather Gentiles into God’s household.
• Convincing Gentiles to believe in the Jewish Messiah
• Convincing Jews that their Messiah is bigger than Israel or Judaism or Abraham or Moses.

Hear this Mystery that Requires Revelation:

"Through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus." — Ephesians 3:6

Some cannot hear this.

• Many Jews—perhaps the vast majority of Jews in Paul’s day—felt this was a perversion of the pure religion handed down to them by their fathers.
• They thought these Gentiles were unclean and ignorant, unworthy of saving.
• They thought the enlarging of the circle of God’s grace threatened their culture, their heritage, and their way of life.
• They felt that they would lose themselves were they to give away their Messiah to strangers and aliens.
• They felt and believed this even though it contradicted the Abrahamic covenant in which God promised to bless all nations through them. They refused to accept it even though it was the clear teaching of the prophets. And they stubbornly stood against the gospel for the Gentiles even though the prophesy concerning the Messiah said that he would be “a light for the Gentiles, that my salvation may reach to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6).

Israel as a whole pulled back from this Mystery made known by Revelation to Jesus and Peter and Paul. They retreated into their own little enclave and so missed the truth—and the true activity of God in their world.

Some people today still want to insist that they are the chosen people and the rest of the world can go to hell.

• They believe that their exclusivity, their Christian tribalism, is true despite this biblical revelation and the clear message of Christ.
• They have no passion for the modern-day Gentiles, the lost of this planet who live at the ends of the earth.
• They have forgotten that their own inclusion in the household of God is not a reward for being good but an act of pure grace on behalf of we who were “dead in transgressions and sins” (Eph. 2:1).

The temptation to pull back into the turtle shell happens to every generation of believers. But it is a blatant betrayal of the gospel and an act of treason by any follower of Jesus. Our Lord emptied himself and left heaven’s throne to rescue we who were hopelessly lost in our sins. This grace is given so that we can pass it on to those in need, not so that we can elevate ourselves as morally superior to the rest of humanity, judging them unworthy of the gift of God’s love.

Refusing to allow strangers into our household of God is the most dangerous heresy that threatens the church. The greatest heresy in the first century was the one that they dealt with head on, straight up, in the Jerusalem Council of Acts 15: is the Messiah for Jews only or for the whole world? Had that council gone the other way none of us would be in the household of God. As important as Christology and Soteriology are, this heresy would have killed the church before it even got started. It would have embraced only Israel and abandoned the rest of the world.

The heresy of the Judaizers did not die after that council in Jerusalem. It surfaced again and again. People with a missionary zeal for Israel and the law of Moses infiltrated the churches in the Greek world, teaching that only Jews could be saved. It was a constant battle to keep the fledgling church focused on the Gentile mission field.

And so it is today. If we who say we have received the grace of God refuse to extend it to others, then one of two conditions apply. First, we have misunderstood the gospel of Christ. Or second, we simply do not really believe it.