Jesus is the name we honour - Jesus is the name we praise.
Majestic Name above all other names,
the highest heaven and earth proclaim that Jesus is our God.
We will glorify, we will lift Him high,
we will give Him honour and praise
Philip Lawson Johnston © 1991 Kingsway's Thank You Music
I’m sure many of us like watching TV detectives, whether it is ’Death in Paradise’, an Agatha Christie mystery or the newer Scandinavian sleuths, many of us enjoy seeing a mystery being solved. If we prefer to watch dramas or ‘soaps’ we find that their story-lines often involve ‘hidden secrets’ and once they are revealed they being big changes into people’s lives. In Ephesians chapter 3 Paul talks about a mystery – or secret plan – and then reveals what it is to his readers.
Read Ephesians 3: 1-12
So, Paul tells us about something that has been a mystery, a hidden secret – but now it has been revealed. Paul reveals that God wants to fulfil the covenant promise he made to Abraham (Genesis 12: 2-3) and bless all the people on earth, and God does this through Jesus, through enabling us to be ‘in Christ.’ Paul tells us that everyone who worships God, who recognises Jesus as Saviour is part of one body – inheritors of all that was originally promised to Abraham and his descendants the Jews. This is fantastic good news - that we are ‘in Christ’ and ‘in Christ’ we receive every spiritual blessing from God the Father, but Paul hasn’t finished giving us the good news - there is more!
Paul goes on to say (v.10a) that God intends to show his magnificence – his glory - His superior wisdom - not just to everyone on earth but also everything in the spiritual realm (10b) and he is going to reveal His magnificence through the church – through us!
Some mysteries come about because we have misunderstood something and once the misunderstanding is rectified, then the mystery disappears. For us to understand the mystery which Paul has revealed in verse 10, we need to have Paul’s understanding of this word ‘church’. When Paul writes ‘church’ we can’t help thinking of a building, but at the time when Paul is writing his letters there were no buildings specifically set aside for Christian worship and when Paul writes church - he isn’t even writing a word which has any religious connections at all.
The word simply meant any group of people who have similar intentions – in other 1st century Greek writings we can find that the word is used to describe a mob rioting over tax increases! So, whenever we read the word church in the bible we need to remember this definition: a group of people who all have the same aim – following Jesus!
Paul tells us that we who identify ourselves as Longbridge Baptist Church are making known the amazing wisdom of God - and we are making this glory of God known not only to other people, but also to the spiritual world!
Paul is not writing this to flatter the believers in Ephesus, or even to inspire them; Paul writes it as a statement of fact. Now he knows only too well how imperfect the church can be – he writes about how to overcome some of the problems of being church in other letters – but here Paul is making a statement - this is what the church already is: a like-minded group of people revealing who God is.
This is why Paul calls it a mystery – that God should decide to show his glory through his church - a like-minded group of people. We may feel we go unnoticed by those who live around us – but we don’t go unnoticed in the heavenly realms, there we are viewed as displaying God’s wisdom and power. How so? Because we are the living witnesses to God’s magnificent, amazing plan to save sinners. The triumph of God's plan is the gathering a diverse spectrum of people into his kingdom, which he does through uniting them into one body – through us being ‘In Christ.’
As we gather together – as we are church, there is nothing more important or more amazing going on anywhere in the world (apart from in other churches!). It is a mystery, but despite all of its problems and needs for improvement, the church exists to reveal the wisdom of God – the wisdom which gives us a way to be reconciled with him, through being ‘in Christ’
Paul reveals to us this mystery, that God puts his church – you and me - at the centre of his plan for enabling others to know him and his blessings. It is in our imperfection that we reveal God’s mercy and grace. We reveal the wisdom of this plan for our salvation which doesn’t involve us having to earn it – but only receive
Paul Finishes the first half of his letter with a statement which summaries all he has written so far. Ephesians 3: 20-21.
With God’s power working in us, he can do
much, much more than anything we can ask or think of.
To him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
for all time, forever and ever. Amen.
Ask god how you can more effectively show his glory through how you live your life.
On Wednesday I will write some bible study questions focusing on the verses from chapter 3 which we haven’t looked at today, and on Friday I will publish an article by a guest writer - Stephen