Ephesians 3:1-7
Grace Changes Everything
Listen
Watch
Read
For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles—2 if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, 3 how that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, 4 by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), 5 which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: 6 that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ through the gospel, 7 of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His power.
The New King James Version (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1982), Eph 3:1–7.
Transcript
Welcome to God’s Word for You, a ministry of Sharon RP Church in Morning Sun, Iowa. Check us out online at www.Sharonrpc.org. We pray that this message will be a blessing to you and that the Lord will use it to transform your faith and your life.
Well, please meet me in the book of Ephesians. Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, First and Second Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 3, if you'll meet me there, either in your Bible app or in your physical Bible. Ephesians chapter 3, and we will be reading this morning verses 1 through 7. Ephesians 3:1-7 and I'll be reading in the New King James version. Follow along in whatever version you have before you.
Listen now to God's Word: “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles – if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you, how by that revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ), which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets: that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs, of the same body, and partakers of His promises in Christ through the gospel, of which I became a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given to me by the effective working of His Spirit.” I've read to you from the most powerful book ever given to man. All of its words are true. The grass withers and the flower fades, but the Word of our God endures forever.
Just this last October, something absolutely incredible happened. Something amazing, that threw the world for a loop. Something that news commentators and others just couldn’t explain. In October of this past year, a man named Brandt Jean, he was a young black man whose brother had been killed. And as this young man took the stand to give his victim impact statement, he looked at the woman who had killed his brother. He said, “I forgive you. I love you. And I want what's best for you.” That threw the news for a loop. They didn't know what to do. There was debates about this and arguments about this and the media was filled with this. All the while, people were asking, “What could make someone do something like that to look in the face of someone who has deeply hurt them and their family, and yet be able to say, “I forgive you.”?”
I'd like for you to tag this text today as Grace Changes Everything. See, what the media didn't understand, and what this young man knew, was that the grace of God changes everything. The grace of God is what is talked about here in Ephesians 3:1-7. When we look at this text, we're going to see that it is God's grace that has changed everything.
And so, the first thing we need to see is who's talking. And it's the apostle Paul, who has been changed by grace. Your first point would be that the apostle Paul has been changed by grace. Do you remember who the apostle Paul was? The apostle Paul describes himself in the book of Philippians as a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee of Pharisees. He is one who had kept the law perfectly. It was Paul who was then called Saul during his old life. And Saul in his old life had persecuted the Jews, but see, grace changes everything. God changed who Paul was. God changed Paul from being one who was throwing Christians in prison, to being the prisoner of Christ. If God changed Paul from being the one who was demanding obedience to the Pharisees’ understanding of the law, to the preacher of grace. See, Paul was a persecutor of the church, and now, by grace, Paul was the persecuted for the church. Grace had changed everything in Paul's life and it even changed his very name from Saul to Paul.
Paul was now not just someone who was saved by grace, but Paul's, even his very office, as an apostle, was one sent out to preach about grace. See, that's what Paul says in verses one, two, and seven. “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for you Gentiles,” verse two, “if indeed you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which was given to me for you.” Paul was an apostle of grace; one sent out by grace.
Now, there's a weird word here in verse 2. I don't want you to get thrown off by it. Verse 2 says, “If indeed you have heard of the dispensation,” that's a weird word, right? We don't think about dispensation. If you're reading from your English Standard Version, you would actually pick up and said, “the stewardship of God.” See, God had given Paul something to give, and he was in charge of giving that out to people, of going throughout all the Gentile nations and giving it. And that's what Paul did. As Paul went to Cyprus, as Paul went to Thessalonica, as Paul went to Philippi, as Paul went to Berea, as Paul went to Athens, as Paul went to Corinth, and even as he was there for his almost 3 years in Ephesus, Paul was a dispenser of grace. A teacher of the grace of God.
Paul's life had been changed by grace, and he was now an apostle of Christ's grace. But what is grace? That's our second thing we really need to realize is what is grace? Well, just yesterday I was at the table with my wife and our daughter Deborah, and Deborah is about 7 years old, curly hair, really cute, and anyways, Deborah looked up at Olivia, my wife, and she said, “What does Gracie mean?” And Olivia said, “Well, Gracie means grace.” Well, you know the question that comes after that, right? I mean, what do all kids ask after that, “Well, what does that mean?” And so Olivia said, “Well, grace…” and she thought about it for a second. And I leaned in because I thought, “Oh boy! This is my sermon for tomorrow!” Olivia looks at her with kindness in her eyes and she says, “Grace is God's unearned, or unmerited, favor.” She’d been raised in a good Bible believing home, but that was spot on. I literally gave my wife a high five in the middle of the kitchen for defining grace as God's unmerited favor.
The word grace, charis, in the New testament, is two different words, mainly in the old testament. The first word being chen, the second word being chesed. God's favor and God's loving kindness in the Greek Old Testament are translated as grace. God looks favorably upon you. This is the idea of Numbers chapter 6 when the priests say to the people, “The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make His face to shine upon you.” It is God for absolutely no reason other than wanting to love you, that he shows favor to you.
You might say, “Well how do you know it's unearned?” How do we know that grace isn't something that we have to earn? Well, if you look over at Romans chapter 11, Paul in his letter to the Romans chapter 11 verse 6, he says this. Romans 11:6, Paul says, “And if by grace, then it is no longer by works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is works, it is no longer grace.” See, if it is by grace, it is not by works. Grace is not something that we earn. Grace is not by works, but grace is just the God of heaven looking down and deciding to love you just because He loved you. That's what all of Ephesians chapter one was telling us about. That's how Ephesians chapter 1, the very beginning of it, starts! Grace and peace to you from God our Gather and the Lord Jesus Christ. The apostle is telling them, this letter is going to be about grace and peace. Because grace changes everything.
And this is something that was hidden in previous times. Paul talks about it in verses three through five. Ephesians 3:3-5 as a type of mystery, “How that by revelation He made known to me the mystery (as I have briefly written already, by which, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ).” Something was hidden from long ago. We all can say something right now that we know something is wrong. Nobody can wake up and watch the news of what's going on in our world right now and think that everything is okay. No. Obviously something is wrong.
Something wrong happened in Genesis chapter 3 that brought all of this upon us. It was in Genesis chapter 3 that Adam and Eve fell and with that came the corruption of society. But yet even there, at Genesis chapter 3 verse 15, what do we see? We find the first hope of the gospel, the mystery that was a glimmer, just a glimpse of light into this dark situation. In Genesis chapter 3, God promises the woman that her seed will crush Satan's head, even though the serpent will bruise his heel. But that mystery wasn't played out how that would happen. And it goes even more in the Old Testament when we get to Genesis chapter 22. God is making promises to Abraham and when He makes a promise to Abraham in Genesis chapter 22 verse 18, He tells Abraham that through his seed, all the nations will be blessed. And it was like in this age of darkness there was just a glimpse of light, but yet it was still mysterious. We didn't understand that.
That's exactly more mystery what happens even in David's own life. David in Psalm 110 says, “The Lord has said to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies a footstool under your feet.’” And people wrestled with that. How can David, who's the king, say that there is someone greater than him? “My Lord said to my Lord,” who is this one that is greater than David? And this was a mystery that was hidden from men in ages past and they didn't know it.
And even in Isaiah chapter 53, what we read today, the people knew that someday a suffering servant would come. Someday someone would come who would bear their iniquities. Someday someone would come who would hear and take away their pain. I remember hearing about a man in our own denomination, Dr. Ganz up in Canada, and when someone brought him these words in Isaiah chapter 53, see, Dr. Ganz was raised a good Jewish man. And when somebody came to share the gospel with him, they opened up Isaiah chapter 53 and they read to him the words of Isaiah chapter 53. And he said, “I don't want to hear any of that New Testament stuff.” And he said, “Well hold on. This is from the Old Testament. This is the book of Isaiah.”
See, there was a mystery that was hidden but in the light of Jesus Christ, when you read Isaiah chapter 53, you can't help but know who it's talking about when it says, “He was pierced through for our transgressions. By His wounds we are healed.” We know that this is talking about Jesus because the mystery has been revealed and it is God who revealed this mystery to Paul. It was Paul, then called Saul, on his way to Damascus, to throw prisoners into jail, when God seized him with that blinding light and He revealed Himself as Jesus his Lord. And in the book of Galatians 1:12, Paul says that nobody else taught him this revelation, but God Himself gave it to him. See, God taught Paul and he had insight into the revelation of God. That's what verses three, four, and five tells us, “He made known to me the mystery,” verse five, “which in other ages was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to His holy apostles and prophets.” It was God by His Spirit who taught them.
What did He teach them? What was Paul's insight? What was Paul's understanding? What was Paul's revelation? Is this something secret that we don't know about? No, actually, it's exactly what we've been going through as a church, through the book of Ephesians. Look at what he says in verse 3, “He made known to me the mystery (as I have written briefly already).” Paul has already told us what the mystery is. It is that God has saved sinners by the grace. What did Paul say in Ephesians 2:1-4? Let’s do a little bit of review here. What did he say? What did he briefly write about? “For you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you once walked, living according to the ways of this world, following after the prince of the power of the air. You were gratifying your lustful desires of your flesh and you were a child of wrath just like the rest.” Right? That weight is heavy. And I don't want you to turn off right now. Don’t think, “Oh boy, this is just one of those fire breathing pastors.” That's not what this is about. That is the reality of who we are, and we need to understand the bad news, we need to understand the bad news, so we can get to the good news, the gospel.
And that's what verses four through five in Ephesians chapter 2 say. Turn there with me, Ephesians 2:4-5. How does a switch from this bad news? “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).” By grace you have been saved, this is the heart of Paul's gospel, that in Jesus Christ, there is grace. In Jesus Christ, grace changes everything. In Jesus Christ, there is salvation. In Jesus Christ, we are raised with Him and seated with Him in the heavenly places. It is in Jesus Christ that our entire lives are changed.
In chapter 2:11-12, Paul briefly told us about who we once were. Apart from Christ, we were those who were strangers in the commonwealth of Israel. But now, in Jesus Christ, we are co-heirs. In verse 12 of chapter 2, God said to us that we were those who were the uncircumcised in the flesh, but now in chapter 3, in Jesus Christ, we are one body. In chapter 2 verse 12 God said that we were aliens to the promises of grace, to the covenant of promise. And yet now, what does chapter 3 say? Chapter 3 verse 6, “that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs of the same body and partakers of promise in Christ through the gospel.” See, the wall of hostility between Jew and Greek has been torn down. The wall of hostility between God and man has been torn down in the person of Jesus Christ.
But you might say, “But pastor, you don't know how much I've sinned.” You might say, “If you knew the things that I had done, there's no way that God could show favor towards me. There's no way, if you knew the darkness that I’ve washed myself with that you would ever say that God would love me.” God knows all of your iniquities. You're right. If God was one to number transgressions, who could stand? But He knows every single one of them, “and while we were yet sinners, Christ died for you.” “It was by grace that you had been saved through faith and not of yourselves, this is the gift of God, not a result of works, lest anyone should boast.” It is by grace you have been saved. This is the mystery that in Jesus Christ there is grace, abundant. In Jesus Christ there is grace that changes everything.
Will you rest in that grace? Will you take that grace as a beggar with an empty hand? Or will you cling to your self-righteousness? Brothers and sisters, it is by grace that we are saved. But this is not just a spiritual thing. We are saved, but many people think when a pastor gets up and he preaches the gospel, that this is just something about getting out of hell free. It is not just that. Brothers and sisters, it is bigger than that! Grace doesn't just change your eternal well-being grace changes who you are now. Grace changes everything in life.
I’d like to tell you a few examples of how this plays out. If you've ever watched the show Duck Dynasty, you know that the mom is Miss Kay. And one time in one of the episodes Miss Kay was talking to Phil, the father, the husband of the household. And she was telling the TV crew that yeah, Phil wasn't a nice guy. Phil was actually a really mean guy. But because of grace, God changed him from being a mean and a violent man, to being a loving father. See, I've seen grace change families. I remember a wife who was bitter with life, a wife who was bitter with her husband, a wife who was upset with her children, but when she realized that she needed God's grace, when she humbled herself, and realized that she was not perfect, all of the sudden she could start showing grace to her children. All of a sudden, she realized that she wasn't perfect and her husband wasn't perfect, but God still loved her and was gracious to her, so she could be gracious with her children.
I remember a story, we’ll call this woman Crystal. And Crystal was in a bad spot. And Crystal was in a place where she shouldn't have been. Crystal was in a relationship and in a line of work that she shouldn't have been. Crystal was in the work of prostitution. Crystal was a person of Proverbs chapter 7. Crystal was a woman who put her daughter in danger time and time and time again. And as her daughter Asia learned about the gospel, she gave that gospel to her mother. She told the good news to her mother and it was her mother who came to know the grace of Jesus Christ, who could be washed over from her sins and as she was washed from her sins, God began to change her life. And the grace, which God showed her, she realized that she could show to others. And as she showed this grace to others, she was able to get free from that line of work. And as she became free from that line of work, she showed grace to her daughter, and she loved her daughter and she cared for her daughter. Brothers and sisters, grace changes everything.
I remember a man who was raised in the church. There's a child, we’ll call his name Michael, and he was raised in the church. And as he was raised in the church, he was again and again convicted of his sin, but yet he could never find any type of deliverance from that sin, it was like he was shackled, he was a slave to his sin. He couldn't do anything. He had heard all the sermons he wanted to, but it wasn't until that he heard that it was by grace that he was saved, that grace was buried down deep within his heart, that he realized there was hope. And it was that grace that God showed him and worked in his life that allowed him, by the power of the Holy Spirit, to turn away from his sins, his own self-righteousness, and to truly embrace Jesus Christ.
There's another girl I remember who struggled in the church. And as this girl, we’ll call her name Michelle, struggled in the church, she realized that she became an adult that she had been raised in the church her whole life. And as Michelle was grown and raised in the church, she began to look down her nose at other people. She began to think about other people as “them out there”, sinners. And as Michelle started thinking that way about other people, what she didn't realize was that her heart itself, because of her own pride and legalism, became as hard as a rock. And it wasn't until she finally heard that she herself, who had been raised in the church, was in the pews, was still a daughter of Eve and was still in need of the grace of God. And when God showered that grace upon her soul, she realized that she was a recipient of God's unmerited, divine favor, and grace changed her entire life. She began to associate with people that she never thought she could as grace took hold of her heart and she saw how much that God loved her, she couldn't help but going out and telling other people about the grace of Jesus Christ. It was grace that took away her legalism and pointed her eyes to Jesus Christ, the one who can take away her sins. Grace changed Michelle's life.
I remember another man who was in the Navy. And this man was an angry sailor. This man was a violent man. He vented all his feelings. He was always right and you were always wrong and he was always ready to pick a fight. I was surprised later on that in his life something started to change and I noticed it just on social media, and then I found out later that what had happened is he had come into contact with the living God and that grace had started to rain over his heart and he started to realize that he was the one with a problem. And that God was the one with the solution and that solution was Jesus Christ. And God took out his heart of stone and he gave him a heart of flesh and that man would say to himself, “A fool vents all his feelings, but a wise man holds them back.” And God's words are burying in his heart and his life began to be reformed because he realized that he was in need of grace. And it is God's grace, when we humble ourselves and we say that we are sinners, that He will build us up in our faith because it is by grace we are saved and it is in Christ that we are united and we are being built up in Him.
I could go on about the woman who is always struggling with anxiety, always weighed down by fear. Maybe you're that. Maybe this week, fear and anxiety has gripped your soul and you just can't seem to get loose. Brother, sister, I am telling you, God's grace, if you believe in Jesus Christ, is upon you. His face shines upon you and you need not live your life as a slave to fear, for your heavenly Father loves you. He knows every one of your needs. God's grace takes away your fear. This is why, again, Paul, in the book of Philippians 4:8-9 is the one who is tells us, “if there is anything pure, if there's anything lovely, if there's anything noble, if there's anything just, if there's anything of good report, if there's anything pure…” I got all those mixed up, don't go and quote me on that, think upon these things. Meditate on these things. And the peace of God will be with you. If you think upon what God is and what He has done, you can find peace for your soul.
Thanks for listening to this week's message from God's Word for You, a ministry of Sharon RP Church in rural southeast Iowa. We pray that the message would be used by God to transform your faith and your life this week. If you'd like to get more information about us, feel free to go to the website: Sharonrpc.org. We’d love to invite you to worship with us. Our worship time is 10 a.m. every Sunday at 25204 160th Avenue, Morning Sun, Iowa 52640. May God richly bless you this week.