Listen for God’s word to you from Ephesians 3:1-13…
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles—
Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is, the mystery made known to me by revelation, as I have already written briefly. In reading this, then, you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which 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. This 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.
I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power. Although 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, and to make plain to everyone the administration of this mystery, which for ages past was kept hidden in God, who created all things. 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 accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord. In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.
Prisoner of Christ
I think anyone who writes or speaks to groups a good bit is bound to reveal themselves in what they write and in the speeches they give. This was certainly true of the Apostle Paul. In this passage, Paul reveals his own self-image, how he regarded himself. And the first thing we see here is that Paul regarded himself as a prisoner of Christ. This is quite a dramatic statement. Here Paul is writing from prison in Rome, but he does not regard himself as a prisoner of Rome. No. He regards himself as a prisoner of Christ.
This is one of the many places where the Bible teaches us that one’s point of view makes all the difference in the world. As I have said many times, attitude determines altitude.
There is a famous story about the time when Christopher Wren was observing the construction of St. Paul’s Cathedral, which he had designed. On one occasion he was touring the construction site, and he came upon one of the laborers at work. He asked him, “What are you doing?” And the man said, “I am cutting this stone to a certain size and shape.” Then Wren approached a second man and asked him what he was doing, and the man replied, “I am earning money to support my family.” Wren then approached a third man and asked the same question. And the man replied, “I am helping Sir Christopher Wren build St. Paul’s Cathedral.”
How do you look at your life and your work? Are you just doing a job? Are you earning a living? Or are you joining in the work of building the kingdom of God? Paul viewed himself as doing the latter, and he viewed all his life, and all the events of his life as sifted through the hands of his loving heavenly Father. Paul was not a prisoner of Rome. He was the prisoner of Christ.
But one might easily wonder: For what purpose was Paul a prisoner of Christ? And Paul himself tells us the answer. He was a prisoner of Christ because of his commitment to declaring the good news of Christ to all people.
Steward of Grace
This leads to a second aspect of Paul’s self-image. He regarded himself as an administrator of God’s grace. The word that Paul uses which is translated by the NIV as “administration” literally means a “steward”. Paul viewed himself as a steward of grace. He saw himself as being like a servant in a large household. And his job was to serve out God’s grace.
When Paul met the leaders of the Church in Jerusalem, and talked about his mission to the Gentiles, he spoke of “the grace that was given to him”. (Galatians 2:7,9) He said the same thing in Romans 15:15.
In this passage Paul uses a wonderful word to describe the grace of God. Paul talks about the “manifold wisdom” of God in making his grace available to all. The word in Greek translated as “manifold” is πολυποίκιλος. It literally means “many colored”. The idea in this word is that the grace of God and the wisdom of God will match any situation we are thrown into in life. There is no darkness or shadow or difficulty that we will have to face in life for which the wisdom and grace of God are not triumphantly adequate.
Paul saw himself as a channel of this triumphantly adequate grace, just as St. Francis, many years later, saw himself as an instrument of the triumphantly adequate peace of God. We too are channels for the blessings of God. Everything we have received from Jesus Christ we have been given in order that we might give it all away to others. We have been blessed to be blessings.
I am reminded of the poem entitled The Road of Life where the poet pictures life like a ride on a tandem bike with Christ on the bicycle with us, steering the way. At one point the poet says that Christ…
… took me to people with gifts that I needed,
gifts of healing,
acceptance
and joy.
They gave me gifts to take on my journey,
my Lord’s and mine.
And we were off again.
He said, “Give the gifts away;
they’re extra baggage, too much weight.”
So I did,
to the people we met,
and I found that in giving I received,
and still our burden was light.
I wonder: what do we give away to others? Is it grace, or something less? I believe that we, like Paul, are called to be stewards of God’s grace. How would it change your existence to look at your daily life that way, as an opportunity to give out grace in every encounter?
Receiver of Revelation
A third way that Paul regarded himself was as a receiver of revelation. Paul talks about the mystery made known to him by revelation.
What was the mystery Paul was talking about? Thankfully, he tells us. It is the mystery of the inclusion of the Gentiles…
This 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.
For hundreds if not thousands of years, God’s revelation had been confined to the Jews. But now, through Christ, salvation is extended to all people, to Jews and Gentiles. That is the mystery that Paul says was revealed to him.
William Barclay points out that “Paul never thought of himself as having discovered the universal love of God; he thought of God having revealed it to him.” There is something very humble about that attitude.
As I have shared before, one of my favorite movies of all time is Amazing Grace. It is the story of William Wilberforce and his fight for the abolition of the slave trade in the British Empire. At one point in the movie, Wilberforce is very discouraged and so he goes to his old pastor seeking advice. His pastor as a boy was none other than John Newton, author of the great hymn, Amazing Grace. Newton is in rough shape by this time. He is blind and he is wearing rags as he scrubs the floor of his parish church. At one point Newton quotes from his own hymn, “I once was blind but now I see.” And Newton asks, “Didn’t I write that?”
There is a humility that comes into the Christian life the more we mature in Christ. We remember our accomplishments less, and we make more of the accomplishment of Christ. In real life Newton once said, “Although my memory’s fading, I remember two things very clearly: I am a great sinner, and Christ is a great Savior.”
Paul did not have great regard for himself as the receiver of revelation. He said, “Although I am less than the least of all the Lord’s people, this grace was given me…”
Toscanini was one of the greatest conductors in the world. On one occasion he was preparing an orchestra to play one of Beethoven’s symphonies. Toscanini said to the orchestra, “Gentlemen, I am nothing; you are nothing; Beethoven is everything.” Toscanini knew that his job was not to draw attention to himself or to his orchestra, but to get out of the way, and have his orchestra, in a sense, get out of the way, and let Beethoven flow through.
That is like our task as Christians. The name Christian means “a little copy of Christ”. And our task as Christians is to get out of the way and let Christ flow through.
Paul’s mind and heart were totally captivated by the revealer himself, Jesus Christ. Are our minds and hearts and wills captive to Jesus Christ? Do we glory in ourselves or in him?
There was a schoolboy in England many years ago who decided to enter the ministry. He was asked what moved him to make that decision and he indicated that the motivation came through a particular worship service in school chapel. Asked who the preacher was, the boy said he could not remember. He only knew that Jesus had spoken to him that morning.
Paul knew that Jesus had spoken to him. He had received a revelation. And he could not keep that good news to himself. We too are the receivers of revelation. How can we keep that good news to ourselves?
Servant of the Gospel
This leads to a fourth way that Paul regarded himself—as a servant of the gospel. He says, “I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God’s grace given me through the working of his power.”
Barclay says that Paul “did not think of his service as a wearisome duty but as a radiant privilege.”
I have been a follower of Jesus Christ for forty-nine years. For forty-five of those years, I have been serving in the Church of Jesus Christ in one way or another. I have often been struck by how we twist arms, how we sometimes wheedle to try to get people to serve in the church. I am not saying this is true of any of you. But sometimes it seems so difficult to try to talk people into serving, whether it be through teaching, singing, administrating, visiting. Should it really be so hard? Should we really have to coerce people to get them to serve in the church? Should it not be considered a privilege to serve in the company of the One who gave his life for us?
Paul considered himself a servant of the gospel. And the gospel means “good news”. And Paul was more than glad to tell that good news to others because it had changed his life for the better. We are all called to be servants of that same gospel, the good news of Jesus’ death for our sins and his resurrection from the dead. What a privilege to be a servant of that good news!
Sufferer for Christ
Finally, Paul regarded himself as a sufferer for Christ. Paul says, “I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.”
Paul did not expect his service for Christ to be easy. He always knew that suffering would be involved. After all, he served a Master who had been crucified. So, Paul knew it was part of his job to share in the suffering of Christ.
Have you ever heard about the devil’s garage sale? The story is told of Satan selling some of the tools he had used over the millennia. One of the looky-loos at Satan’s sale spotted a very well-worn tool on one of the display tables. The shopper turned over the tool in his hand and on the underside was engraved one word: Discouragement.
Discouragement is one of Satan’s most oft-used tools that he employs to get us off-track in life. But Paul did not allow himself to become discouraged by his sufferings. And he urges his readers not to become discouraged by suffering either. He says, “I ask you, therefore, not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory.” Every time we see the word “therefore” in the Bible, we ought to ask ourselves, “What is the ‘therefore’ there for?”
In this case, the answer is given in the immediately preceding sentence where Paul says, “In him [that is in Christ] and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence.” That is why we need not be discouraged even in suffering, because we always can approach the throne room of God with freedom and confidence.”
One of my ministry mentors in life was Leighton Ford, the brother-in-law of Billy Graham. Many years ago, Leighton had the opportunity to meet Corrie ten Boom, the lovely Dutch lady who, with her family, had harbored Jews in their home in Holland during World War II. Corrie had gone through tremendous suffering in her young life, relegated to a prison camp where she lost her sister and her father. Well, the day that Leighton went to meet Corrie he took along with him his young daughter Debbie. And during their meeting, Corrie prayed for them. On their way home in the car, Debbie was quiet. Finally, Leighton asked her, “What are you thinking about?” And she said, “Dad, as Corrie was praying, I think I had a vision. We were in a castle, and we were walking down a long, dark corridor with Corrie leading us. Then she stopped at an immense door, and she knocked. When the door opened, we entered a room full of light. And at the end of this long, light-filled room, there was a throne, and God was seated on the throne, and he called Corrie by name and said to her, “It’s wonderful to see you today. What can I do for you?”
That is the privilege every one of us has through Jesus Christ. We can enter the very throne room of God with freedom and confidence, and we can present our needs before our loving heavenly Father, and he will hear us, because of Jesus. Because of this, we need not be discouraged, even in suffering.
I come back to the point I made at the beginning. How we look at life transforms our living of it. If you expect life to be easy, if you think the whole point is that you should be served, that you should experience unending pleasure, then you will be severely disappointed. But if, like John Keats, you look at this world as a “vale of soul making” and if you realize that such “soul making” may entail some suffering, then this life doesn’t look half bad. Furthermore, if your goal in life is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever, and if you realize that nothing ever must keep you from realizing that goal, then life becomes sheer joy, even in the midst of pain.
My friend, Tim Hansel, who suffered from chronic pain throughout half his life, used to say that Jesus promises us four things: peace, power, purpose, and trouble. So, when we experience those four things in the Christian life, we know we are on the right track.
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