Gospel Mystery of Christ in Everyone

Gospel Mystery of Christ in Everyone

Ephesians 3:3a

This is probably one of the most important days, to my mind, for our study of Ephesians. This seems to me to be the key to the gospel that God has given us. So, you’ll find it in Ephesians 3:3. And of course, Paul does go on for a few verses, so we’ll obviously be spending more than just today on this verse. But at least this will introduce the subject clearly to you, if it needs any introduction. Ephesians 3:3, now we’ve reached. He says in Verse 1, “For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles – assuming that you’ve heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you,” v.3, “How the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly.” The mystery: that’s really it. “How the mystery was made known to me by revelation.” And he refers to that mystery in different places in the New Testament.

I never bothered with it in the early years. I thought, “Oh, he just means the gospel.” And then I thought, “Well, he must mean more than that.” But I thought, “Well, I don’t know what he meant,” so I just let it be: “How the mystery was made known to me by revelation.” For a while it’s easy to accept the conventional statement, “Oh the mystery is that the gospel was for the Gentiles as well as the Jews.” But really the truth is, that’s no great mystery, and there’s nothing difficult it seems, to understand about this.

But what is the "mystery was made known to me by revelation?" If you look up then, the RSV, it gives you a couple of references. And the first one is Romans 16:25 that makes reference to it again, simply. “Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which was kept secret for long ages but is now disclosed and through the prophetic writings is made known to all nations, according to the command of the eternal God, to bring about the obedience of faith.” So it’s elaborated a little more there, "the revelation of the mystery which was kept 'secret' for long ages but is now disclosed and through the prophetic writings is made known to all nations."

So, that kind of verse made me think, “Oh well, maybe this is something.” And of course those of us who have studied theology think of the Gnostics and all of the "hidden knowledge" that became popular there in the first century, second century AD. And you think, “Oh, maybe it’s something mysterious like that, something esoteric that only the few advanced spiritual people know.” So it interested me but I really didn’t know what it was, "But is now disclosed and through the prophetic writings is made known to all nations." Generally, I just kind of dismissed it virtually as the gospel, that you were saved by grace through faith and not by the law, and then that was made available to the Gentiles as well. But it never satisfied me completely, and yet I had no understanding really of what it was until these recent years.

You get a little further in 1 Corinthians 2:7. And of course, you know the way we do that: we look up the concordance and find the cross references. And so you get a little further in 1 Corinthians 2:7, “But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glorification.” And that arouses your interest, “Which God decreed before the ages for our glorification.” So it’s as if God decreed something so that we would be glorified. "To be glorified" is to be seen as we really are. So that we would – that’s what we really mean by the 'glory of God': God as he really is. We shall see him. We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. "We shall share his glory and reflect his glory," is the promise. So it’s being as we are, to be seen for what we are.

And then it seems to me that the answer is found in another cross reference in Colossians 1:27. “To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is 'Christ in you', the hope of glory.” Now, I know that that seems like a letdown, maybe, to you, but it seems to me the mystery that Paul is talking about that has been decreed from before the foundation of the world is what we have been sharing for some time.

And it’s based on those – you don’t need to look it up. If you just listen to me you’ll remember the verses. "Jesus is the image of the invisible God, the first-born of all creation. In him all things hold together." And then Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” And then, of course, the one in 2 Corinthians where, "Christ has died for all and therefore all have died." It seems to me it’s that truth that we have been discovering over these months and years now, that Jesus is not just "more than a prophet," as we say. "Mohammad is a prophet. Buddha is a religious leader, but Jesus is more than a prophet. Jesus is the Son of God." It’s not just that, but that each one of us has been made in Jesus. That’s how we came into existence, before the beginning of the world, when he himself was the first-born of all creation, when he was not only God’s divine Son, but was the first human being.

He was the first-born of all creation. And inside him God made all the rest of us. And so we have been part of Christ from -- away from the beginning, and that he bore us, and bore all our willfulness in himself, and allowed that to be borne by his Father inside him. And then, inside him was expressed the agony and the pain that that caused him and his Father; that dreadful agony whereby he, himself even went through death, and went through separation from his Father, and then that in him we were all remade. And what we have here is a picture of life if it were lived without him and also the opportunity ourselves to accept that we are in him and that he is in us.

Now loved ones, you may have got used to that, because we shared it several times. But people have no idea of that. They have no idea of that. That guy who says, “By Christ I won’t do that;” he has no idea of what he’s doing or what he’s saying. That’s part of why Jesus said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.” He has no idea that he is living at that very moment and using the breath of the very person whom he is cursing. They have no idea of that. They have the conventional idea that Jesus was a great religious leader; the Christians obviously believe he’s the Son of God. That doesn’t mean anything to them. They can say that, “Oh yeah, he was the Son of God.” But they don’t even know what they are saying. But least of all, have they any belief that they were created inside Jesus? They have no idea of that at all. They think you’re talking absolute drivel and philosophical mumbo jumbo. They have no idea of that at all.

And, it’s maybe good to remember that in the light of Paul’s words, you remember. In that 1 Corinthians passage he says, “To the mature we impart wisdom.” And he does make a distinction there, and we need obviously, the wisdom of the Holy Spirit, as to how we’re going to share this both personally and on the web. But it does seem to me that of course, it’s the heart of the gospel that will lift men and women.

Now I’d put it to you. I have done this, I have done as faithfully as I can what Finney [Charles Grandison Finney, 1792 – 1875, an American Presbyterian minister and leader in the Second Great Awakening in the United States], what Wesley [John Wesley, 1703 - 1791, Anglican evangelist and founder of Methodism and the Wesleyan Tradition] himself, what these guys did; I have preached sin as faithfully as I could over the years. Now I think there’s a place for it. But I think today’s generation -- I’m sure it will recognize that it’s committing sin if you preach sin to them, but that itself will not give them any rising hope. What they are convinced of is that, though they try to make a lot of themselves, and would suggest to us that they’re really quite conceited, and whether it’s the Elton John [Elton Hercules John, born Reginald Kenneth Dwight, 1947, an English singer, songwriter, composer, pianist, record producer, and occasional actor.] or the artists that have totally different attitudes from the Bob Hopes [Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope, 1903 – 2003, English-born American comedian, vaudevillian, actor, singer, dancer, athlete, and author]. The old entertainers seemed to be preoccupied with entertaining us; the new ones are being preoccupied with 'us' admiring 'them'. Even though that is very strong, and the little guy that flies his plane into the high rises [high apartment or condominium building] is 'utterly' and 'obviously' preoccupied with himself, yet I would say that underneath the normal 20th Century human being, is a dreadful sense that finally he’s a nothing. He’s just a cipher [number]; he’s just a little bit of nothingness.

Indeed, the whole theory of evolution encourages him to think that he’s little better than a piece of scum on the pond that has evolved for a few seconds and will disappear forever. So, no sense of himself as being part of the divine Son of God. No sense of that at all. No sense of how precious he is to the Maker or the Creator. A dreadful indifference to the Creator and the Maker and therefore as a result, as Schaeffer [Francis August Schaeffer, 1912 – 1984, American Evangelical Christian theologian, philosopher, and Presbyterian pastor] would have said, "A dreadful indifference to himself and to all other human beings." And so the hardness that we get on the streets, in Oxford Street, the hardness that we get in business, the harshness that we see on the millionaire show, that harshness and hardness, that indifference to other human beings, comes from the fact that they actually are, in a strange way, quite indifferent to themselves and quite hard in their attitude to themselves and don’t think of themselves as in anyway valuable.

Now of course, our present sick society is offering to them what is useless, the adulation of men, the temporary approval of the psychiatrist or the psychologists, or the temporary approval of the guy who wants to sell them something. But underneath that even, there is something of God’s image in them that says, “They don’t really think that about you. They don’t really admire you. They don’t really approve of you.” And so, underneath in our society is a great unreality, a great sense of mendaciousness, of lying, of deceiving each other, of feeling that nobody really cares for you, and deep down, "I don’t really care for anybody else."

So there’s all this emphasis on outward smiling, and outward signs of approval. And you must 'encourage' the little child. Why? To get him to do something. You should encourage people. Why? Because, well finally, it will pay you. But no sense of value themselves. And it stems directly of course, from their total failure to understand the very basis of their life: that God their Father lovingly made them inside his Son and has put his Son’s Spirit within them and that’s where any good they feel comes from. And that’s desperately the gospel that they need.

And there is good news in that. I used to think – to tell you the truth, I used to think, “Good news, good news, good news. What’s good news about I’m a sinner and I have to have my sins forgiven? I suppose that I can have my sin forgiven, I suppose that..." But you see, when you preach forgiveness of God, they think, “Why? Why have I to be forgiven?” Well, then you’re into the whole business of proving to them that they commit adultery, that they do sins in their lives.

They need to know that God loves them, but 'why' he has loved them, and 'how' he has loved them, and 'what he is doing at this moment' in loving them. They don’t need all the old general stuff, “God loves you.” They don’t believe that. And why should they? “God loves you.” “Oh, he loves me? That’s great.” But that God has personally created me, not as a little fly, not as a little British person, not as a little American, not as a little temporary human being. But he has created me 'inside himself', 'inside his only Son.' "No, it can’t be. No, Jesus came down to earth and went back up again. And he’s okay. And he’s done something..." "But that Jesus is permanently part of me? That Jesus is the Father of us all? He is the great human being in whom we all – without him we could do nothing?" They know nothing of that, nothing at all. And it seems to me this is the mystery of godliness: "Christ in you, the hope of glory."

If you say, “Do you think they have any hope of glory?” No. I mean, they’ll talk; they’ll defend themselves, “Oh, I’m as good as the next person, you know. Oh, I love my neighbor, that’s all a person can be asked.” All that silly stuff, they’ll say all that, but underneath they don’t think... “Me get into heaven? Oh well, I hope I’ll get in with the next man.” But they don’t really think that they have any "hope of glory". They really don’t think there is anything invaluable in them. And all the time our Savior is in each one of them. That’s it. All the time our Lord is in each one of them, suffering every moment, bearing the strain and stress that they create in their lives, and that they create in their families, and in their homes, and in their jobs; bearing all the strain and stress that they inflict upon his Father, and all the time sending up to them little impressions, little thoughts, little beauties: enabling a little James Galway [born 1939, a virtuoso flute player from Belfast, Northern Ireland, nicknamed "The Man With the Golden Flute"] here, to play the flute better than he could himself, enabling Previn [André George Previn, born 1929, German-American pianist, conductor, and composer, considered one of the most versatile musicians in the world] to play the piano, enabling somebody else to paint the beautiful painting, enabling some other little girl in the German prison camp to say, “This is my brother, I will die with him;” all the time Jesus alive in different human beings creating beauty.

And our job is to say, “This dear person is in you. You were created in this person, that’s why you feel this at times.” Sure, sure, they need all the historical documents, and all the intellectual backing. Sure, that needs to be done. But the purpose of doing that all is to somehow bring home to them the reality. And that is the mystery, it seems to me, that has been hidden through the ages and is revealed here. And it's found – of course, it’s plain and obvious that it’s there. It’s there in John 15; it’s there in every piece of scripture that we know so well where Jesus says, “I abide in you and you abide in me.”

The tragedy is that we have interpreted that as, “I abide in his 'principles' and his 'principles' abide in me,” or, “Somehow he’s a mysterious spiritual being here in the world, and I’ve to get close to him, and I’ve to be a friend of his, and his beauty will rub off on me: spirit dwelling with spirit.” But little sense that, “I, Joe Selzler am actually part of him.” Even, you’re his body. We’ve done it the same, “Oh yes, we’re his body." Joe does a certain thing in his body that can be looked upon as the limb of Christ. And Joanne does something else in his body that is kind of a gift that she’s been given. And so she’s in sense the body of Christ.” In a sense? But that's not it! It’s not just in his 'function' that we are part of him, it’s, "We are his body and individually members of it, of his own body; not just of his church, but of him himself."

And that is a privilege that is so beyond our dreams, that we think it’s impossible. But that, it seems to me, is the whole mystery of creation itself. It’s the whole wonder of it! And so of course, here we are inside our Father. We’re inside our Father. We’re inside Jesus who is inside his Father. We are all part – and so both of them are experiencing every little movement inside our hearts, and our minds. And that is the reality. And that transforms everything. That just transforms all of life, transforms our own attitude, but most of all, transforms our wellbeing and our existence at this moment. Of course, you can see yourselves obviously it means there is no division. All around us Wesley, Peter, Paul; all around us: our grandmothers, our grandfathers. There is no division, there’s obviously no division. But of that, our dear friends have no idea; none at all!

So loved ones, that’s our gospel. And I’m convinced that God has given us a remarkable opportunity set. If you say to me, “Are we up to it?” Not at all! We’re not bright enough; we’re not intelligent enough; we’re not clever enough: all those things, not at all! But it does seem that God has graciously made us aware of it, and he will give us grace to do what we are able to do during our years. But that is it.

Are you going to make the same mistake as I did? You’re going to throw pearls before swine? Yes! We’re going at times... We need to study 1 Corinthians there where Paul talks in that chapter there about imparting to the mature, wisdom, and that sort of thing. And only the Holy Spirit will give us light to know when to say it, and when not. And I’m sure we’re going to say it, and we’ll realize they haven’t a clue what we’re talking about. They'll think that we were bonkers!

But it seems to me, that is the glory of the gospel that God has given us. I think it’s great, because I think it’s relevant. I think it exactly hits them exactly where they live. They live exactly in that place, where they regard themselves as utterly unimportant, utterly valueless, and having no connection with the One Whom -- as C.S. Lewis said, "they regard as painted on the stain glass windows." That’s about it: the Christ of the stain glass window is about as close as they get to the idea of Christ. Where of course, it’s utterly different! Utterly!

Let us pray.