\\Ephesians 3:2-12

A Mystery No More!

2Surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, 3that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. 4In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5which was not made known to people in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. 6This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

7I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. 8Although I am less than the least of all the Lord's people, this grace was given me: to preach to the Gentiles the boundless riches of Christ, 9and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. 10His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, 11according to his eternal purpose that he accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. 12In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confi -dence.

God is a God of mystery! That is not to say that nothing can be known about God as the agnostics main-tain. It is simply that the concept of who God is and what he is like is so grand, so far beyond our ability to comprehend, that it is impossible for us to fully understand God. His very nature and characteristics re-main a mystery to us, even though we are told all about all these things in Scripture.

For example, God is eternal. We know that means he has no beginning and no end, but we don’t know how that can be. It is a mystery! We know what a spirit is, but we don’t understand how a being without a body can do what he has done. It is a mystery! We know that God is everywhere, but we can’t grasp how that can be, considering the size of the universe. God is, from beginning to end, a mystery to us!

Certainly the greatest mystery of them all is found in God’s essential being – the characteristic that best defines him. In 1 John 4:8 we are told that God is love!. Take careful note of what John says and does not say. He does not say God is loving. or God loves a lot. He says God is love. Love is his primary attribute, the characteristic that adminsters and completes all the others.

That is, by far, the biggest mystery about God, for the object of God’s love is us, you and me, people ev-erywhere! We understand that all this – the heavens and the earth – were brought into being by God be-cause of his love for us. He designed it and brought it into being just for the benefit and enjoyment of hu-man beings he would also bring into existence!

We who are the beneficiaries of such a love have to be awestruck by the mystery of his love for us! Even if things had gone exactly as planned and we had remain holy, of what benefit could we have ever been to him? We are mere specks in the universe, we are nothing compared to him. Why would God show his love to us in this way?

What benefit do we bring him? He doesn’t need our companionship or our worship or our praise. So, why would the God of love show his love to us in such an overwhelming fashion? Why, especially, would he create us knowing that we would rebel against him, as carelessly as we did? What kind of being shows that kind of love, knowing that it will be so quickly and so thoroughly rejected?

Who understands a love that knows it will not be able to abandon his failed creation and, instead, will send his one and only Son into their world to rescue them from their sin and its consequences? What kind of love must God be to sacrifice the One who is dearest to him for the sake of those who want no part of him? God is a God of mystery! He tells us exactly who and what he is, but we can never fully grasp it!

In our sermon text for this morning, the Apostle Paul talks about a mystery. He refers to it as the mystery of Christ. This mystery is different from the mysteries of God we just discussed. Those are true mysteries, mysteries we can’t fully comprehend on this side of the grave. The mystery of Christ Paul speaks of, is not a mystery created by God, but a mystery about God created by human beings!

The mystery Paul discusses involves God’s intentions regarding his love. It centers our attention on two questions. First, To whom does God reveal his love? God, from the beginning, had been very clear about the objects of his love and his plan of salvation. The promise had been given to all the offspring of Adam and Eve, which is all people!

When he came to Abraham and set his family apart, he assured Abraham that all nations of the earth would be blessed through one of his descendants. As late as 700 BC, God inspired Isaiah to record the words of today’s First Lesson which proclaim that all nations will be gathered to their Savior. Jesus, as he commissioned his disciples, instructed them to go to all nations.

Throughout the ages, there was no mystery. God loves everyone and wants everyone to experience his love and salvation! So, how is it that Paul would write This mystery is that through the gospel the Gen-tiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.?

Why would he consider this to be a mystery that needed to be revealed? Why would a Bible scholar like Paul feel compelled to lay all this out for his readers? The answer, as you might expect, lies in man’s sin! In order to prepare the world for the arrival of their Savior, God chose one group of people to represent him in this world and to serve as his instrument by which salvation could come to all!

The Jews were set aside for this task. God’s Word was given in Hebrew – their language! God established a covenant with the Jews – a model of the relationship he wanted with every nation. God encapsulated his plan of salvation in a religious system entrusted to the Jews that daily depicted what had to be done to atone for man’s sin.

God even promised that the Savior would be born as a Jew in the land of the Jews. But never did he in-tend for the Savior to be only a Savior of the Jews! That could not satisfy his love! That would not reflect his will! But sinful man thought otherwise. And perhaps, as we consider it, it might seem logical for Jews and non-Jews to think of it that way!

For their part, the Jews saw only the privilege that came with being God’s special instrument. They didn’t embrace the obligation it involved. They pridefully figured that they must be special, that they – and they alone – were somehow worthy of their status as God’s unique people. And who could blame them? God’s Word, God’s promise, worship of God, was given to the Jews! If that didn’t make them special, then what else could it possibly mean?

The Gentiles, those who were not Jews, figured the same way! Clearly, God had richly blessed the Jews with his love. He must have had a pretty good reason for not blessing the Gentiles in the same way. The inescapable conclusion was, therefore, that only the Jews were the heirs of a place with God in heaven! What the Jews would not accept, what the Gentiles did not know, was that the Jews were to be the means by which God shared his love with all mankind.

The Jews didn’t want to see themselves as God’s vanguard to the rest of the world. They were not willing to be used by the Lord to bring life to all mankind. And so, God’s will regarding the Gentiles was turned into a mystery! But now we know better, you are the answer to that mystery. God will reveal his love to all people – Jew and Gentile! God reveals his love to you!

That brings us to the second question regarding God’s intentions regarding his love. The question this time is Through whom does God reveal his love? Again, sinful man missed the point. The Jews misun-derstood the Temple worship instituted by God for their use until the Savior arrived.

The heart of Temple worship rested in the priests who served there. The priests served as intermediaries, as middlemen between God and his people. Only they were allowed to make sacrifices on behalf of the people. Only they could return from the sacrifice with the news that sin had been forgiven. It was a richly symbolic system which foreshadowed exactly what the Savior would do!

The Savior, as true God and true man, would be the ultimate priest, the one who could come directly into God’s presence. He would also be the ultimate sacrifice, the atonement for sin that once and for all satisfy divine justice. His would be the sacrifice that ended all sacrifices. All the sin of all mankind would forever be forgiven by his service as high priest.

No longer would earthly priests be needed. Now, every believer had direct access to God. Now, every child of God – what we know as the holy, Christian church – could confidently proclaim his love and for-giveness. The whole system of Temple worship would no longer be used.

His intent was that now, through the church, the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms, according to his eternal purpose that he accom-plished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with free-dom and confidence.

However, the Jews firmly held onto Temple worship and would not release God’s people from it. This turned God’s plan into a mystery. But the answer was now clear. You are the answer! You are the one through whom God will reveal his love for every man, woman, and child, in this world. Through your prayers, your personal witness, your financial support, you are the one the Lord uses to bring the good news of salvation to all people everywhere!

Our God is a God of mystery in many ways. We can only praise him for his majesty as God and wait for the mystery to be more fully revealed to us in heaven. But the question of who God loves and who is to reveal his love to all, is a mystery no longer! You are the answer!

Amen.