1. "Any religion you are following which tells you that your goodness can be good enough to make up for your badness is mistaken and is lying to you. Eliminate all of those religions from your consideration, which will leave you with one, the truth about Jesus Christ and the price Christ has paid for sinners like you and like me."

2. "Gospel stewardship means that the gospel is from God to us, for those who don't know. So simple. The gospel is from God to us for others who don't yet know. That's the gospel stewardship we have. From to for."

3. "The word Christian was first given us by our enemies. The word Puritan was first given the Puritans by their enemies. The name Baptist was first given to Baptists by their enemies. Friends, there's a long tradition of our being defined by those who oppose us."

4. "We speak of love and it's called hate speech. We speak of forgiveness, and it's characterized as intolerance. In the newspeak of the 21st century West, even language like boy or girl is rejected as prejudice and narrow-mindedness. Brothers and sisters, keep going. Keep telling the truth."

5. "All the continuity in the world can't hide the fact that there is something new in the New Testament."

6. "By your mere attendance here on Sunday mornings, by God's work through your Sunday school teacher when you were growing up, you are getting an education in the plans and ways of God that is of stunning clarity compared to what even the greatest recipients of God's grace in the Old Testament period would have known."

7. "Any ideology that is trying to convince you that how you respond to COVID or how you would vote in an election is more important than Jesus is a lie from the pit of hell and is setting out to divide the body of Christ exactly at the point where our witness is so intriguing and weird to the world."

8. "There is no reconciliation to be had, either vertically with God or horizontally with each other, apart from Christ and our being united with Him."

9. "Paul rejects any unity which would eclipse the significance of our second birth by God's Spirit merely by the circumstances of our first birth by the flesh. We are more fundamentally citizens of the coming Jerusalem than we are of any passing nation of this age."

10. "Understanding all of this theology about the mystery is essential and it is insufficient."

Observation Questions

1. In Ephesians 3:1-2, how does Paul describe himself and what does he say was given to him for the Ephesians?

2. According to Ephesians 3:3-4, how did Paul come to know about the mystery, and what does he say readers can perceive when they read his writing?

3. In Ephesians 3:5, what contrast does Paul draw between how the mystery was known "in other generations" and how it is known "now"?

4. According to Ephesians 3:5, to whom has the mystery now been revealed, and by what means was it revealed?

5. In Ephesians 3:6, what three descriptions does Paul use to explain the Gentiles' new status, and what phrase does he use to identify where this status is found?

6. Looking at Ephesians 3:8-9, how does Paul describe himself, and what does he say his purpose is regarding the mystery?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why is it significant that Paul identifies himself as "a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles" (v. 1) rather than simply as a prisoner of Rome? What does this reveal about how Paul understood his suffering?

2. Paul says the mystery was "not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed" (v. 5). How does this help us understand the relationship between the Old Testament promises about the nations and the New Testament revelation in Christ?

3. In verse 6, Paul uses three compound terms (fellow heirs, members of the same body, partakers of the promise) that all emphasize "sameness" or "togetherness." Why does Paul stack these images together, and what do they collectively communicate about the nature of Gentile inclusion?

4. The sermon emphasized that the phrase "in Christ Jesus" (v. 6) is the unique location where this unity is found. Why is it theologically important that this unity exists only "in Christ Jesus" rather than through other means of reconciliation?

5. How does the phrase "through the gospel" at the end of verse 6 clarify the means by which Gentiles become fellow heirs and members of the same body? What would be lost if this phrase were removed?

Application Questions

1. Paul's faithfulness to his stewardship of the gospel resulted in imprisonment. What "costs" have you experienced or might you experience for sharing the gospel with others, and how does Paul's example encourage you to view those costs?

2. The sermon described gospel stewardship as "from God, to us, for others who don't yet know." Who are specific people in your life right now who don't yet know the mystery of Christ, and what is one step you could take this week to share the gospel with them?

3. Paul emphasizes that in Christ, former divisions between Jews and Gentiles are overcome. What worldly divisions (political, racial, socioeconomic, or cultural) are you most tempted to let define your relationships more than your shared identity in Christ? How might you actively demonstrate unity with fellow believers who differ from you in these areas?

4. The sermon challenged listeners to consider whether their social media presence draws attention to Christ or distracts from Him. If you were to evaluate your recent posts, texts, or conversations, would they reflect that Christ and His mystery are the most significant thing in your life? What specific change might you make?

5. Understanding the mystery is described as "essential and insufficient" without love (1 Corinthians 13:2). Is there a fellow believer from a different background or with whom you disagree on secondary matters that you need to pursue in love this week? What practical action will you take to demonstrate that your unity in Christ matters more than your differences?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Genesis 12:1-3 — This passage records God's promise to Abraham that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him, which is the Old Testament foundation for the mystery Paul reveals about Gentile inclusion.

2. Acts 10:1-48 — This passage describes Peter's vision and his visit to Cornelius, demonstrating God's revelation that Gentiles receive the gospel without first becoming Jews.

3. Acts 15:1-21 — This passage records the Jerusalem Council's decision about Gentile believers, showing the early church wrestling with and affirming the mystery Paul describes.

4. Romans 15:7-13 — This passage explains how Christ became a servant to confirm promises to the patriarchs so that Gentiles might glorify God for His mercy, reinforcing the same mystery Paul addresses.

5. Colossians 1:24-29 — This passage provides Paul's parallel teaching on the mystery revealed to the saints, summarized as "Christ in you, the hope of glory," and his labor to make it known.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Introduction: Roger Nicole and the Appeal of Mystery

II. How Much Does This Mystery Cost? (Ephesians 3:1-3)

III. Is This Mystery New? (Ephesians 3:4-5)

IV. What Is This Mystery? (Ephesians 3:6)

V. Application: Understanding Theology Must Be Paired with Love

Detailed Sermon Outline

Roger Nicole has to be one of the most captivating people I've ever known.

He went to be with the Lord at age 95 back in 2010. From 1982 to 1986 he was my systematic theology professor at Gordon-Conwell Seminary up in Boston. To me at that time, He seemed some combination of ancient and timeless. Now that I'm just six years younger than he was then, he makes a lot more sense to me. Though he's no less interesting.

I say he was interesting, let me mention just eight ways. Number one, he was born in a German prisoner of war camp. During World War I, where his dad was a chaplain to the French prisoners.

Number two, he had the best Swiss-French accent. Number three, when he was here for my installation as your pastor in 1994, Matt Schmucker was trying to introduce him to Carl Henry, and Roger simply smiled and said to you something like, Brother, I've known Brother Henry before you were even a twinkle in your mother's eye.

Number four, he called everyone brother or sister. Number five, every day after lunch he would lay down and take a 15-minute nap. I was his teaching assistant. I had my own desk in his large office. He had a couch he would lay down, and he would say to me, Brother, wake me up in 15 minutes.

I would sit there, be grading papers, and when 15 minutes came, I never, not even once, needed to say a word. At 15 minutes he would go, what the devil, I think it's time, and he would get up and begin vigorously going about his afternoon's work. Number six, his eyebrows were wizardly. Number seven, he had two earned doctorates. One of them from Harvard and the other from a better school.

Number eight, he had 50,000 books in his basement. 50,000, mainly theology books, including some early editions of Calvin. Doctoral students at Harvard and Boston University would sometimes ask to come up and consult something in his basement. But fully 10,000 of these books were detective stories. Whodunits.

Mysteries. He could not get enough mysteries. Why was Roger so interested in mystery novels?

Well, he liked detective stories where right and wrong are assumed and agreed upon. Where the satisfaction almost always comes in the resolution of the wrongs and the wrongdoers being revealed and getting some appropriate comeuppance? He agreed with Robert Paul who called detective fiction mysteries a uniquely Christian kind of literature.

Mystery is at the very center of our study passage in the Bible this morning. Ephesians chapter 3. Turn there with me now. Ephesians chapter 3. Find it on page 977 in the Bible's provided.

For this reason I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, On behalf of you Gentiles, assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed.

To His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Let me suggest three questions that will help us get to the heart of this mystery and really to the heart of Paul's letter to the Ephesians here in chapter 3. You remember in chapter 1, Paul has had that glorious prayer that he begins with, where he plumbs the eternal depths of God's plans. And then in chapter 2, he takes that individually as he reminds us of the fact that we were all dead, but by God's grace has been made alive.

And then in the second half of chapter 2, we saw how God was making us one, those who are of Gentile background and Jewish background, background together and for what purpose? Well, he reveals it most fully in that last verse we just looked at at the end of chapter 2, verse 22, In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by his Spirit. And then he begins for this reason, I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, and it's as if the thought occurs to him, oh, maybe some of them don't understand this. Let me just digress on the Gentile promise again and what's going on here. But you can see down in verse 14, if you look down, he picks it up again for this reason, I bow my knees before the Father.

And he goes on with a prayer that he shares with them for their strengthening in this purpose of being built together as a dwelling place for God. So what is this great digression that he goes on in this first part of chapter 3? Well, it's about this mystery. What is this mystery? I pray that as we explore these questions, the mystery about Jesus Christ will be revealed to you.

Let's jump in. This mystery, let me give these three questions again. First question, how much does it cost? How much does it cost? First three verses of the chapter we're going to look at for this.

Paul was imprisoned. Because of this mystery, or precisely because of the role that God had given him in making this mystery known. He was, in that sense, a prisoner for this mystery. This mystery is a costly one. We just sang a few moments ago about Jesus Christ who has felt the nails upon His hands, bearing all the guilt of sinful man, God eternal, humbled to the grave.

By the substitutionary death of Christ, Christ purchased a peace that no amount of human suffering, Paul's suffering in prison, or your suffering or my suffering, that none of ours could ever purchase. Our sins can't be paid for by our subsequent obediences. You doing something right after having done something wrong may, in a human horizontal sense, help make up for it. But in God's ultimate sense, humans cannot make sufficient reparations for our sins against him. For the injustices that we have committed criminally against him.

It is not in our capacity ever to do that. So any religion you are following which tells you that your goodness can be good enough to make up for your badness is mistaken and is lying to you. Eliminate all of those religions from your consideration, which will leave you with one, the truth about Jesus Christ and the price Christ has paid for sinners like you and like me. Paul's suffering here was not a part of the mystery itself in the way that Christ's suffering was. We'll think about that a little bit more later.

Paul's suffering was a part of God's plan to get the knowledge of the mystery out, to make known what he had done in Christ. Prison was the price Paul paid for being the messenger of this gospel message. Paul's previous life before Christ was one of upward mobility and advancement and growing esteem and respect and reputation. Since becoming a Christian, his world was turned upside down and his human prospects looked decidedly more dim. Paul regularly associated this stewardship of preaching the message of Christ with his repeated imprisonments.

So you can read over in Colossians, chapter 4, Paul says, Pray also for us, that God may open a door for the Word, to declare the mystery of Christ. On account of which I am in prison, that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. You see, if Paul would just stop preaching this message, a message which upset Jews and Gentiles, which stirred up unrest, sometimes cut across the wishes of earthly authorities, if Paul would just stop preaching such a message, he could be free. He could probably even to resume his previously promising trajectory. The preaching of a law-free salvation provoked Jews to object that he was a destroyer of their nation.

And at the same time, it had provoked the Ephesian idol makers to riot because of the falling sales of their idols. This is the kind of preaching that Paul would find would land him in jail. Like he was while he was writing this. Remember Paul was writing Ephesians while he was, looks like under at least the house arrest in Rome that we see at the end of the book of Acts. That's why we see this prayer request from Paul over in chapter 6 of Ephesians.

Look over at the last chapter, verse 19, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly as I ought to speak. We think that Ephesians, Colossians, Philippians, and Philemon were written in the early 60s when he was imprisoned in Rome. And he, in that sense, is exemplifying in his own life the cost to receiving and passing on this free gospel.

But friends, this cost is not limited to Paul alone.

Do you remember he wrote to the Philippians in Philippians chapter 1, it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ, you should not only believe in Him, but also suffer for His sake, engaged in the same conflict that you saw I had and now hear that I still have. Friends, you realize that this is heavy with importance for us. We see that threatened negative consequences are no excuse for not sharing the truth, whether you're a preacher or some other Christian. We're constrained by the stewardship committed to us. You see this language of stewardship in our passage in the first couple of verses.

It's that last phrase in verse 1, you see.

Where Paul says, On behalf of you Gentiles, he calls it the stewardship there in verse 2. He lays it out there at the end of verse 2, Of God's grace that was given to me for you, he says to the Ephesians. So simple, isn't it? Gospel stewardship means that the gospel is from God to us, for you, as for those who don't know. So simple.

The gospel is from God to us for others who don't yet know. That's the gospel stewardship we have. From to for. That's the gospel stewardship we have.

It's a great stewardship. It's a gracious stewardship. I love that verb there in verse 2, given. Paul says it was given to him by grace. He didn't earn this.

But Paul can't be the only one that we imagine has been given the gospel as a stewardship. Were there unique aspects to Paul's stewardship? Yes. He was declared the apostle to the nations. Paul was given a special charge as the most Jewish of all Jewish people to take the gospel to the non-Jews.

God loves to do that. He sends Aaron Menikoff from the Northwest down to Atlanta. He sends Michael Lawrence from the Southeast out to Portland. He sends Brad Wheeler from Northern California and Princeton to Arkansas. I mean, the Lord loves to send surprising messengers because that makes it clear that the gospel is not about human calculations.

It's from Him. He knows exactly why He has not moved some of you around for decades. And others of you have been carried into relationships and opportunities and places you would never have imagined because God is drawing attention to Himself, by the way, He does that.

Well, as I say, this inspired digression is an important one. In a few verses, we're reminded of how God conscripted the life of Paul for this surprising purpose of taking the gospel to the Gentiles. And he wants the Gentile Christians to understand why it is that Paul has such a clear understanding of Christ, of his work and purposes, of this mystery. We read here in verse 3 of this mystery, let's simply understand when he says mystery here, we'll think of that more in verse 4, but when he says mystery here in verse 3, it's not like, the detective genre, not in always. It's more like a theme that's subtle and incomplete in the Old Testament, but present.

And once somebody points it out to you, you can see it. And you even begin to notice how cleverly Central it is in a way that the more you look at it, the more clearly you see it. It's like the subtle fingers of light at dawn compared to what happens in the New Testament when it's all revealed and that's like the full sun at daylight at noon. So the themes are there in the Old Testament, but they're brought out through the resurrection of Christ, the pouring out of His Spirit, the calling of apostles like Paul. This is what Paul says here in verse 3, he had written briefly about and that's referring to the letter to the Ephesians so far.

He's written about the action of God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to bring new life back in chapter one with the planning of it, and then the account of how it comes in the individual's life in chapter two, and then bringing us together to be a dwelling place for God. That's what he's written about so far in Ephesians. Brothers and sisters, I pray that this will provoke you to understand the suffering that you encounter for following Christ is a part of a well-trodden path of faithfulness. Many Christians before you have gone this way. You are not being called to bear something uniquely.

You are being called to faithfully respond to the sovereign hand of your God and the trials He allows in your life so that your very pressedness and your response to it can bring a witness to him that apart from that pressure you wouldn't be able to give to those around you.

Lack of understanding with non-Christian family members is common. Falling out with friends you love but who are irritated by your decision to follow Christ is normal. The world having an ever-changing array of negative language to characterize and distort us and our message is as old as the temptation of Adam and Eve by Satan, as he uses his words to distort the reality and make God's grace seem like stinginess. His benevolence seemed like meanness. And the centuries since then have replayed this satanic ploy again and again to silence God's people from speaking His truth.

The word Christian was first given us by our enemies. The word Puritan was first given the Puritans by their enemies. The name Baptist was first given to Baptists by their enemies. Friends, there's a long tradition of our being defined by those who oppose us. And so today we speak of love and it's called hate speech.

We speak of forgiveness, and it's characterized as intolerance. In the newspeak of the 21st century West, even language like boy or girl is rejected as prejudice and narrow-mindedness. Brothers and sisters, keep going. Keep telling the truth. We have a stewardship from God for the everlasting good of others.

And that stewardship will outlast the passing fads of sin which wash over our nation. Well, that's something of what this mystery costs in terms of what it has cost and what it may cost us. Let's go on now to a second question Paul addresses here about this mystery: Is it new? Is it new? This is really in verses 4 and 5.

Is it new? Well, yes and no. Look at verses 4 and 5.

When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. So, to answer this question, notice the two little words in verse 5, not and now. Not and now in verse 5. The mystery of Christ, Paul says, was not made known to the sons of men in other generations. It was not.

This is the noted discontinuity between the Old and New Testament. Our dear Anglican and Presbyterian brethren, we love you very much, but this is where you all often feel a little uncomfortable with the Bible. Because this note of not, it wasn't there. Our Anglican and Presbyterian brethren stress the continuity of the Old and New Testaments and praise God for the wonderful continuity that's there. But all the continuity in the world can't hide the fact that there is something new in the New Testament.

And you see evidence for that in this little word not.

Was it made known to the sons of men in other generations? Not, according to the Bible. But now Paul says it has been. So it was, as Paul says down here, going down to verse 9, it was hidden. Paul is really following Jesus here and what Jesus was teaching throughout His three years of earthly ministry with the disciples as he taught them the Old Testament.

You find this in many places. One simple example would be the parable of the sower. When he gives this famous parable and then he pulls the disciples aside and when he's just with them he says, to you has been given the secret or the mystery of the kingdom of God. But for those outside, everything is in parables. So Jesus said, this has been revealed to you but not to them.

Friends, there's an advantage in coming along in salvation history a little bit later, when more has been revealed, when more can be quickly and easily understood. Paul characterized this in Romans 16:25 as the mystery that was kept secret for long ages, or as he described it to the Colossians as the mystery hidden for ages and generations. And don't misunderstand me, there were glorious truths revealed about God and His will, about sacrifice and forgiveness, about a coming prophet and king and suffering servant, and even about the worldwide reach of the gospel. All of that is in the Old Testament. Jesus repeats it and elaborates on it and illuminates it.

But also, Jesus was starting to put some of these old Scriptures in a very new light. And so Paul could refer here in verse 5 by way of contrast to what has now been revealed. So now something else has been revealed. He calls it in verse 4 my insight, not meaning what Paul had figured out by his cleverness, but what God had revealed to him, especially on the road to Damascus. And then through later time, as we see, as we read through Paul's own testimony, the mystery of Christ, Paul calls it here in verse 4.

Do you understand? For example, a couple of Sunday nights ago, we had a wonderful message brought to us from Isaiah 19, verses 25 and 26, about the hope that Israel will be the third among Egypt and Assyria, calling them my people as well. What a wonderful picture of the nations coming to Christ. So many other places in the Old Testament Scriptures like that, where the salvation of the nations was promised. So that part wasn't new.

What is new is that the Gentiles would be saved without becoming Jews, without adopting the Jewish particularities. That's what the vision that God gave Peter in Acts 10 was about. That's what the discussion in Acts 15 is all about. The Christians come to understand that the location the Gentiles moved to to be saved isn't Jerusalem physically, but it's to being in Christ spiritually. More on this in a moment when we come to verse 6.

But just notice here the contrast between in verse 5 between that not and that now. Now is the time when God has revealed the mystery and when we are to join Him in taking that revealed mystery to others. Mysteries in this sense left mysterious don't profit anybody. So as a church we're about making things clear and plain. That's why I speak to you in an almost condescending fashion when I say words like clear and plain.

I don't mean to insult you, I mean to simply labor to make as clear and simple as possible these Scriptures. We gather in one sense you could say for a lecture every week. It's a celebratory lecture. It's a Jesus Got Up from the Dead lecture. And so we come to open the Bible and to learn from it what is the truth about God.

What would he teach us from his word? How can we understand more about what he has revealed? That's the contrast that he's given, and that's why we're so much about teaching and explaining. If you look over in 1 Corinthians 14, you'll see an example of this very clearly. In some verses that are often misunderstood.

Just the first few verses of 1 Corinthians 14 will make this point.

Paul has just done this beautiful chapter 13 on love, and then he says, Pursue love and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy. For one who speaks in a tongue speaks not to men but to God; for no one understands him. But he utters mysteries. In the Spirit. On the other hand, the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation.

The one who speaks in a tongue builds up himself, but the one who prophesies builds up the church. Pause right there. I had a sojourn as a young Christian in the Charismatic Movement, and I was taught there that there are two great things. Praying in tongues to edify myself and speaking in a way that can be understood to edify others. I am confident that is not what Paul meant.

Paul is condemning self-edification, at least by comparison. He's not actually completely condemning self-edification. You should obviously want to edify yourself. But his point here in chapter 14 is you should want to edify the church. That's the point of the gathering.

So what you privilege are those gifts that will edify everybody. So what we want to do when we gather is find what will build the church up. What testimony of grace in Lois's life where somebody else will share it with me by email that God has done that could be shared with all of us will build us up in Christ. That's what we want to see when we come. And that's why we want to give the teaching of God's Word such a clear centrality in our meetings.

We want to build up the church. We are speaking to others for their upbuilding and encouragement, as Paul says here, and consolation. That's what the Bible teaching in a church is supposed to do. And that's what God says here, He was doing through His spokesmen, His apostles and prophets. You think of the role of Paul and John and Luke and others who wrote the New Testament.

They gave the people then, and really us now, the Word of God. Their role was to reveal the mystery to everyone. Go back to Ephesians 3 and skip down to verses 8 and 9.

To me, though, I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things. Brothers and sisters, what a privilege we have here! We are getting to share truths about God that even Isaiah might not have grasped as clearly as we do. Just by your mere attendance here on Sunday mornings, by God's work through your Sunday school teacher when you were growing up. You are getting an education in the plans and ways of God that is of stunning clarity compared to what even the greatest recipients of God's grace in the Old Testament period would have known.

What a time he has had you to be born in. Where you can hear the words of Paul to the Ephesians, you can hear the whole Bible, and you don't even have to hear it, you don't have to know Greek. You can hear it read and translated into your own language. And not just English, but into countless languages around the world through the hard work of brothers and sisters who've gone before us. You can be taught Ezra and Ecclesiastes and Romans and Isaiah's prophecies and David's Psalms in the light of God sending his Messiah.

Jesus Christ. The Bible doesn't teach us that we are all born knowing everything we need to know. We are dependent on God. We are as dependent on God for our spiritual food and light as we are for our physical food and light. So, my friend, it is part of God's grace to you that you are hearing this Scripture passage read and explained right now.

What a wonderful A privilege for us. At this point, dear old congregation, what story do I tell too often to illustrate the privilege of hearing God's Word? Anybody? Yes, Mark? The Puritans with the the Puritans with the hourglass holder, yes.

Raise your hand if you remember that story, that illustration. Yes, that's most people here, thank you. If you don't remember it, just ask your neighbor afterwards. I'll save us time right now by skipping it. But just ask your neighbor, what is the Puritan hourglass holder story?

It's a great story. We are living, as Sib said in his will, in the best times of the gospel. And that's what we're trying to promote around the world, as we support workers who take the gospel elsewhere where it's not as well known. We want it to be better known. That's why we give the money that we do and we pray like we do and we partner like we do.

And this is also why pride is so out of the question for Christians. We're going to have the odd experience next month in America increasingly of being in a place which takes this word pride in a positive sense and applies it in a most unbiblical way. And for us it's just the strangest thing. We know that we are utterly dependent on God's graciously revealing himself. We can do nothing to cause God to show us the grace that that He has shown us.

We trust His gracious hand in everything we hear, in everything we read, in every providence that He brings into our lives to the particular people that we work around each week. My Christian brother or sister, are you realizing that you are living as one so privileged by God, so cared for by Him, treated so well by Him? Does this echo in your social media posts, or are your posts and tweets turning eyeballs away from the mystery of God revealed in Christ to lesser matters? Kids, why don't you talk to your parents about what they do or don't do with social media? Ask them that over lunch today.

Parents, you're welcome. So kids, ask your parents, what they do or don't do on social media and why? Ask them to help explain to you the way they use Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or things I've never heard of.

Are people being helped to see more of Jesus by what you post or do or say? Or are you effectively hiding him, distracting them with other things? We recalibrate our understandings regularly here by the public reading of Scripture. That verb, very interesting, verse 4, that verb is particularly meaning when he says, when you read this, it's when you publicly read this. That's the assumption, that's how that verb is used.

So Paul is assuming this letter is going to be read publicly, which is why we in our services intend to have so much Scripture reading. You realize we've already heard a reading from Romans 5, Daniel 2, we've had the Lord's Prayer, and now Ephesians 3, Lord willing, we'll hear tonight. From our pastor, Riley Barnes, from Daniel chapter 2, the last couple of verses that Pat read for us. Every Sunday we try to make sure you hear from one Testament in the morning and the other Testament in the evening. So every Sunday, the two services work together for you to be built up in understanding the richness of God's word.

Praise God for giving us a life and a time and a place in a church where God's word is taught from both the Old and the New Testaments. So, this mystery isn't new, but the revelation of it so clearly is. Last question, third question, this morning about this mystery. What is it? Mark, why didn't you start with that?

Because I'm following the order of the text, which I don't always do, but I did this time.

This mystery is, here it is, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

I think that is the longest and most complete explicit definition of the mystery Paul gives. He gives others that are similar. He gives a number that are summaries that are shorter parts of it. But this is really it laid out. Together he's saying we believers of Jewish background and other backgrounds have our backgrounds swallowed up and succeeded in significance by being in Christ.

Together we share the inheritance. Together we're in this body. Together we have the promises in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Now there are other mysteries spoken of in Scripture like the mystery of lawlessness in 2 Thessalonians 2 or some mysteries in the book of Revelation that are quite specific. And Paul can speak more generally of other things as mysteries, sort of like presents wrapped up that are gonna be unwrapped.

And, oh, like when he talks in 1 Corinthians 15:51, Behold, I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed. I don't think he's saying about that fundamentally only in terms of this mystery. It is related to it theologically. I just think he's using that word mystery to mean Here's something that was always laying there, kind of wrapped up, and now it's been unwrapped.

Oh, isn't this great hope that we have. But generally, when Paul's talking about the mystery, he is talking about things related to this mystery. So he sometimes he talks about aspects of it, like in Romans 1125. I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers. A partial hardening has come upon Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.

So to be mysterious in this sense means to be hidden. It's there, but it's concealed. He summarized it even more briefly to the Colossians in Colossians 1:27, the mystery which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Well Paul had been preparing the Ephesians to hear this. In chapter 1 verse 9 Paul mentioned that God had been making known to us the mystery of His will according to His purpose which He set forth in Christ Let me just point out four things in verse 6 for you to understand, particularly to understand this mystery.

Four things. One, the Gentiles. Two, same. Three, in Christ Jesus. Four, through the gospel.

One, the Gentiles. Two, same. Three, in Christ Jesus. And four, through the gospel. First, the Gentiles.

It is clear that the inclusion of the Gentiles, the nations, that's all of the non-Jews, It's clear that the inclusion of the Gentiles is at the heart of this mystery. Both in the sense of how complete their inclusion is, their inclusion is so complete that there isn't Jew or Gentile anymore. It is that complete.

And in the sense of how it would be affected. Back in Genesis 12, God had promised Abraham that all the nations would be blessed through Abraham. But how would that happen?

This mystery has now been revealed in Christ, the Gentiles. Number two, the second matter is to understand the completeness of the sameness here in verse 6. There are really three images he uses to show this sameness, the fellow heirs, same body, fellow partakers. In the original language, you can see it's very clearly marked out by the prefix sun, or sun, that's added to three things right in a row, so it's together, together, together are same, same, same though it doesn't really work out in English. You see the three things depicted here, these images which depict this union which results from our being united in Christ.

Here there is a new internationalism, a church fellowship across national and language and racial lines that we see throughout the New Testament from the marching orders in the Great Commission to the final fulfillment in the book of Revelation. You know, we noted last week in the study of that last verse in chapter 2 in verse 22, that we are being built together into a dwelling place for God. Well, if you look there, back in verse 22, that dwelling place is in the singular. There's only one dwelling place. Unlike Ephesus, where there were temples galore to God's glory.

Why is there one dwelling place? Because there's one God. Friends, our unity is not a matter of, oh, I like my church better if we don't fight as much. No, our unity is a matter of reflecting the truth about God. There is one God, only one God.

And you see these three overlapping images He uses here, heirs, He says, implying that we've been adopted. We are all heirs of the promise of Abraham. What was it Jesus said?

I tell you many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. In our being adopted, we become co-heirs with Christ. Our relationship to God follows the model of the Son's relationship to the Father. And this is the unity that Paul has been explaining to the Ephesians throughout chapters 1 and 2. And then he uses this image of body.

The same indwelling Spirit makes us one new man. So just as Jesus told us in John 10 that there would be one flock and one shepherd was coming, Paul wanting to show the new reality of our being made members of the same body, he coins what really from all we can tell is a new word. Word was never used before. This word that the ESV renders as members of the same body, it's just one word. It's same body did.

We're same bodies. We are made to be together in---we are transformed into one body. It's a new thing that's being done. There is no good analogy to it outside of the church. The closest thing we can get to is the analogy of the relationship that we have with Christ.

Which Paul will talk about in chapter 5 in marriage. So the universal church is the body of Christ, as we see here in our passage. And the local church, which I think Paul must have had in mind in the passage we were looking at last week, divisions of race and ethnicity, hostility between Jew and Gentile, between genders and classes, political factions are submerged in the church. And smothered by the greater, deeper, more comprehensive unity with one another that we have as fellow members of his body. And any ideology that is trying to convince you that how you respond to COVID or how you would vote in an election is more important than Jesus is a lie from the pit of hell and is setting out to divide the body of Christ exactly at the point where where our witness is so intriguing and weird to the world.

Where the world does not understand what's going on here. Why are all you people together? When I know from what you post and what you post, you guys don't agree on how to deal with the mayor's order. And yet here you all are loving each other through it. It's like you see something much larger going on.

Yes, we do. And that's why we are so kind to each other. That's why you see people deferring to each other when they think this or that is wrong or silly or, because they love each other more than they care about those particular conclusions. And then you have this promise that he says, We are made partakers in this promise. We share this same promise only by the gospel.

Paul wrote to the Roman believers in Romans 15, I tell you, this is verses 8 and 9, Romans 15:8 and 9, I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcised to show God's truthfulness in order to confirm the promises given to the patriarchs, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. Okay, how will the Gentiles experience God's mercy only through being made partakers in this same promise that Paul was referring to here? Okay, so to summarize: expecting the same inheritance, members of the same body, partakers of the same promise.

Why? Why all this sameness? Well, only because of our third thing to understand about this mystery, number three, that phrase there toward the end, in Christ Jesus. All of this sameness and unity is not something we can teach the world.

Our neighborhood is not going to experience some wonderful restoration to a bliss of Eden.

Apart from Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ is the one in whom this unity is found. Jesus Christ is the unique location of this unity. There is no reconciliation to be had, either vertically with God or horizontally with each other, apart from Christ and our being united with Him.

It's clear from 1 Corinthians 2 that this mystery centers on Christ crucified. Paul writes, When I came to you, brothers, I did not come proclaiming to you the testimony or mystery of God with lofty speech or wisdom, for I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's why Paul could summarize this mystery as Christ in you, the hope of glory. The eternally generated Son of God is the natural heir of all things. So how do we, sinners, get in on that inheritance?

How do we, whether we're Gentile or Jewish by background, it just doesn't matter. How do we get included? That brings us to the fourth thing to understand. He says here the last words of the verse, of verse 6, Through the gospel.

So the mystery was not that the nations would come under the law of Israel. They would move physically to Israel, the Holy Land. No, the mystery was that the forgiveness of sins would come to them by the substitution of another in their place.

That their faith in Christ then is their faith in Him as their life-giving substitute. Oh, friend, if you don't know Jesus, this is the point. The God who made you and will require your life of you soon will hold you correctly guilty and will punish you because he's good. Your only hope is a substitute. And there is no such thing as a human substitute that will do you any good at all because they're as bad as you are, except for this one, Jesus Christ.

Jesus died on the cross in the place of all of those who would turn and trust in him. God raised him from the dead. He ascended to heaven and presented his sacrifice to his heavenly Father who accepted it. And he calls us all now to trust this one and to tell others. That's what we're doing here together as a church family.

This is the way these two people become one new man, as Paul puts it up in chapter 2, verse 15. And again, this is why the pastors of this church are so careful with our unity. Because it is the precious witness to the truth of the gospel. You know that threat to the Jerusalem church in Acts 6? Did you notice where it came?

Right along natural cultural lines of division between the Jewish-speaking widows and the Greek-speaking widows. The people who outside the church were divided, Satan wanted to make sure they were divided inside the church, and that would prove to the world there's nothing in the church to look at. You hear that narrative all the time in the press about evangelical Christians?

Nothing here to look at. That's false. It's wrong. And the world desperately needs to get that across because they oppose what we're saying. Friends, there is truth in the mystery of Christ.

I think this sensitivity over this point is why, very interesting little sideline here. In 1 Timothy 3, when Paul is giving the qualifications for the elders and the deacons, he mentions the mystery in regards to the deacons, not the elders. And he says that the deacons, he says they must hold the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience. And I wonder if it isn't because they have to especially be aware of how these natural divisions have been overcome in the church and how important those divisions being overcome is to the witness of the church. A lot more there to think about.

Anyway, this message would not have been welcomed by the world in Paul's day. And it isn't welcomed by the world in our day. The Jews did not want Peter to eat with the non-Jewish Christians when they came. He went and sat with them and Paul rebuked him for it. The Jews wanted the Jews to stay together.

Whether or not they called themselves Christians. And the Gentiles didn't want their number becoming entangled with this odd sect of the Jews. Brothers and sisters, I wonder, do you feel that same kind of pressure today? To relate more to those outside of Christ who view COVID the same way, or race the same way, or President Biden or President Trump the same way. Paul rejects any unity which would eclipse the significance of our second birth by God's Spirit merely by the circumstances of our first birth by the flesh.

We are more fundamentally citizens of the coming Jerusalem than we are of any passing nation of this age, even the one of which our fair city is the capital. Your earthly father matters less than your heavenly Father. This is the mystery that has now been revealed through Jesus Christ. This unity we know here today will long outlive all of this world's divisions.

Understanding all this theology about the mystery is essential and insufficient. Let me say that again. I did that deliberately. Understanding all of this theology about the mystery is essential and it is insufficient. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:2, if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge.

I can teach the biblical theology class. If I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

I think in Colossians 2, there seems to be a connection between grasping the mystery and love. Where Paul writes in Colossians 2:2, being knit together in love to reach all the riches of full assurance of understanding and the knowledge of God's mystery, which is Christ. The point of Paul telling this mystery again to the Ephesians, the challenge would really be here, to love those different from you, to love those of a different background, those formerly separated by hostilities, to love them as your own brothers and sisters. And friends, I would just ask you, how are you doing with this?

Can you find a worldly division you care about? Don't go feeling all morally superior because you don't care about certain issues and you see other people getting worked up over them. We're on Capitol Hill. We are by nature full of people who are worked up over lots of issues. That is our constituency.

Thank you very much.

It makes us a super weird church and we trust God's providence in it and we're really happy to be here. But it also means that we've got to be vigilant and not be conformed to the world. We have to learn how to try to work for this good in a way that we really do think matters. And yet we realize it does not matter as much as this. How are you doing at that?

If you've got good friends, talk to them about that. Ask them how they think you're doing. If you're married, ask your spouse. These are good things for you to think about and pray about for your witness. I can't tell you how many people have said to me in this last year, Man, I don't know how you---what you say to people at a time like this.

Our times are just so unprecedented. I've been a pastor a long time. Twenty years ago when I last preached on this passage from this pulpit, here's what I said. This is why, my Christian friend, when you find another Christian, you shouldn't be surprised that the main thing you have in common is Christ. You may have baseball or a love for Ford trucks.

That was a brand back then. Or fried chicken. Or early French impressionists in common, but you may not. You will though have in common what you claim to be the most significant thing in your life. And so in our church we find unity not by merely searching for unity itself, but we find unity is the fruit of our all being in Christ.

If we are those who have been convicted of our sins, and have turned to Christ for our salvation and who have been given a new life in Him, then we have a tremendous ground for unity. Our unity is the fruit of our roots as a church being in Christ. Note that the Gentiles are made sharers together with the Jews in the promises only in Jesus Christ.

Preached pretty well 20 years ago. Preaches pretty well today. Some of the nouns can change. But friends, you see that temptation is a natural part of the fallen world. And God's purpose for the church stands firm, full of light and giving hope to a dark and distressed world.

It's all still true. As a church, we have no solutions for the world's splintering identity issues. As they collapse into subjective black hole, defining themselves as if they are God, which they are not, and which they learn to their own sad chagrin. No, all of our solutions are in Christ. But all of our solutions are in Christ.

My non-Christian friend, make a break from the failing investment you've made in the world. It is the wrong entity to trust with your identity. With your selfhood. It's all crazy. The idea of rebelling against an all-powerful, all-good God.

There's just no future in it. Don't do it. Get on the right side of history. Accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. Trust Him alone.

Submit to Him. And then you'll understand this mystery that Paul is talking about here. Be reconciled to God in Christ and find yourself with a whole new family, in which Israeli Christians and Palestinian Christians, and American Christians and Chinese Christians, and old Christians and young Christians find ourselves fellow heirs, members of the same body, partakers of the same promise in Christ Jesus through through the gospel. If you want to learn more about what this is like, listen to Jamie's great elders address from a few months ago back in March on the cost and glory of unity and diversity. Or come back tonight at 5:00 PM.

Every week this prayer meeting is so encouraging to me as we pray together, as we see more signs of God's sanctifying work. Or you know what, wait just a moment and listen to the testimonies we're just about to hear. From those who are to be baptized. Friends, this mystery has now been revealed. And looking around this room, you can see that it is now at high noon for us witnessing the nations come together through the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Amen. Let's pray.

Lord God, we thank you for the work you have done through Christ for us. Lord, we are frankly amazed at your love for us. We pray that you teach us in our own lives how to oppose it to our pride and to cultivate in us a joyful, humble trust of you. We need that on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday. Lord, we pray that you would help do that in our hearts.

Help us to rejoice in youn now and in youn grace. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.