The Mystery, the Ministry, and Me, Part 3

Today on Insight for Living with Chuck Swindoll. Life is not a bed of roses. Our Lord never promised us that. He said you would be absurdly happy, completely fearless, and in constant trouble.

And you know what? The world notices it. We have been saved in order that God may present a people which will astonish the whole world. Even though the Apostle Paul was under house arrest, he managed to exhibit a spirit of grace and dignity that defies human explanation. In his own words, he was a prisoner in chains to whom grace had been granted. Today on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll helps us understand how Paul rose above his unsavory circumstances and how we can do the same. We're looking at Ephesians chapter 3 and the eloquent manner in which he describes the privilege of his spiritual calling.

Do you find yourself fighting against the uncomfortable opposition of our day? Chuck titled today's message, The Mystery, The Ministry, and Me. In one digration, Paul refers to the mystery, the mystery, the mystery.

What is the mystery? Let me point out before I identify it that it was revealed to Paul in a special revelation. Verse 3, by revelation the mystery was made known to me. When was that?

I'm guessing here, so your guess would be probably as good as mine. I'm thinking when he was stoned at Lystra and left for dead, when he went into an unconscious state, I believe he was taken up to the third heaven. And in his third heaven experience, explained in 2 Corinthians chapter 12, the first nine verses, the apostle received special revelation from God. God gave Paul an understanding of the body of Christ, the mystery. And he said, I wrote before about it in brief, the end of verse 3, let me show you where that was. Verse 9 of chapter 1, he made known to us the mystery of his will. That's why he refers to writing about it in brief in chapter 3 and verse 3. The Bible ties together. If you think of gears matching, you will understand how Paul writes. His words, like no other writer of the New Testament dovetail, they work like gears that fit smoothly together.

And he's moving in a direction he never forgets where he was in the previous chapter or where he's going in the next chapter. This is all a part of it. That's why the words for this reason tie in so beautifully. When he gets to verse 3, he talks about this mystery. And he said, you can, by reading this, understand my insight into the mystery of Christ. Verse 4, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets in the spirit. And to be specific, he says the Gentiles are, you got your pencil ready again, fellow heirs, fellow members, fellow partakers.

Three times the same word is used. Fellow, fellow, fellow. Gentiles and Jews are together in one hope, in one body, and one act and experience of sharing. This is the mystery. Now, I loved it when I came to verse 7 in my study because now he talks about being the messenger. Here we have the declaration of the mystery, of which, this is referring to the mystery, that mystery I was made a minister of.

According to the gift of God's grace, which was given to me according to the working of his power. Let me say some things about preachers. First of all, those who are truly ministers are ministers because they were made that by God. I was made a minister.

God in grace reaches into the ranks of humanity and picks out a few who are to be his spokesmen and women. We didn't look for it. We hadn't prayed for it. We hadn't longed for it. We probably didn't even want it. And the Lord says, fight it all you wish. You're mine.

You're going to do what I'm telling you to do. So we stepped into it. It was by his grace.

We didn't deserve it. Certainly not. In fact, look at verse 8, one of my favorite lines from Paul. To me, the very least of all saints. He coins a word that we could render leastest.

Don't you love that? I am least worthy to be a spokesman for Christ. When it came to sinners, he was the mostest. When it came to preachers, he was the leastest.

Both sides. That's grace personified. He says, I was made a minister according to grace. According to his working, the working of his power, he gifted me to do this.

To me, the leastest. This grace was given. And what was he given to do? Look closely.

Two things. Look, verse 8, to preach to the Gentiles. So he was the Gentiles' minister. He was, if you will, the chaplain to the Gentile race, the unfathomable riches of Christ. And second, if you're noting, verse 9, to bring to light the mystery which for ages has been hidden.

It is the job of the minister to bring light to the truth of scripture. And for Paul, it was in the area of the mystery. Whenever you heard Paul teach, you understood the body of Christ better. If you were Gentile, you felt a part of it.

If you were Jew, your prejudices were lost in the midst of your gratitude to God for his grace in saving you. Paul did that, but he doesn't stop with a human audience. Look at verse 10. So that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to whom? To the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.

Did you know that? The ultimate result of the preacher's message, the teacher's message, the evangelist's message, the ultimate result is that angelic hosts learn about the church. Nobody's getting excited. Think about it. Think about it. You've got these angels that don't know squat about the whole message of salvation. They don't have souls. They've been created.

Why am I yelling? They have been created. These angels have been created by God to run his messages and his errands. They're carrying on this magnificent supernatural work. It's invisible, and they don't understand the gospel. Salvation, because they're not saved. They're not lost.

They don't have souls. And there they are learning about all of the excitement of salvation from the church. Look at 1 Peter 1. Don't say, honey, why don't you turn?

He's going too long today. Turn to 1 Peter 1, verse 10, 11, and 12. I want you to see this.

I want you to get excited about this. 1 Peter 1, 10. As to this salvation, look, the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries. See, they didn't get it either. They prophesied it, but they didn't get it clearly. They were seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. It wasn't clear.

It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look. Can't you see them? Wow. Look at that. Look. Look, Gabriel, take a look at that. They observe the church. Can you believe I just did that?

That is unbelievable. They literally, Peter says, they peer into. They bend down and they peer so as to look intently into something. That's the word Peter uses for the angels looking.

John R.W. Stott said it this way, the history of the Christian church is the graduate school for angels. I'll give you one better. When I was a young kid, I sang in a boy's quartet in a church that I attended, and one of the songs that I would sometimes solo in singing was the song that said, Holy, holy is what the angels sing, and I expect to help the courts of heaven ring. But when I sing redemption's story, they will fold their wings, for angels never felt the joy that my salvation brings. That's good theology. When I tell redemption's story, they will fold their wings, for angels never felt the joy my salvation brings. You know what? You got it one up on the angels. They stare in amazement because they never knew the joy of the kind of salvation that's made us into a church.

They go to school on us. We hold a clinic every Lord's Day, and they discover what salvation and spiritual enlightenment is all about. It's like it must have been, just occurs to me, for those dear slaves in the 19th century as they heard the songs coming from the master's house, they must have wondered what it must be like to be in there where it's warm and comfortable. The angels missing out on salvation learn of it from the proclamation of the mystery. You know, you get to a truth like that, you just think, Lord, I can go home now. That's it.

I'm satisfied. That's one of the great things you can discover. But there's more. With preachers, there's always more. There's more.

It's one of our lines, you know. Verse 11, verse 12, verse 13. Let me give you three comments of encouragement.

The first is this. The message of the church has eternal roots. Verse 11. The message of the church has eternal roots.

This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He, God, carried out in Christ our Lord. Go way back. Go way back before the earth was created. Go way back before there was matter. Go back before there was darkness and light. Go back before there was earth and water. Go back before there were days, vegetation, creatures, animals, man, woman. Go back before all of time and you come to the place where the Godhead put together the plan for this whole world.

Think with me here. In putting together the plan for the whole world, God the Father arranged for there to be the message of the church, the mystery of Christ. And He said to the Son, you will be the one who will carry it out. The Father planned it.

The Son implemented it. The Spirit empowered it. That's what verse 11 is saying. This message was in accordance with the eternal purpose which God carried out in Christ our Lord. So the message of the church has eternal roots. Don't tell me you don't need a church. Don't tell me you don't need what the church can provide. Don't tell me you don't need to be a part of a family. This family has eternal roots.

Here's the second. Those roots give us a secure relationship with the Father. Look at verse 12. In whom, that's Christ, in Christ who's carried out the plan, we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. Because of Christ who has brought us into the same family, we have a secure relationship with the Father. Maybe you never had that with your father. I won't get into all of that.

That just leads to a dead-end street. Let's just go to our Heavenly Father. You've got it with Him. You've got it with Him. You've got, what does He say?

Boldness and confident access. You can wake up at 1.05 tomorrow morning, troubled with something, instantly you can say, Father, I have this on my heart. I can't keep going on. I'm struggling with it. I can't sleep. Take it. And He's there and He takes it.

And what's amazing is eight million other people are awake at 1.05 in the same morning and they're making the same request. He's got every one of them tagged. You say, how can He do it? Well, He's God. He can handle it. He can handle it. He won't say, whoa, take a number. Take a number.

That's not right. I've already heard that one. He doesn't do that. He's a loving Heavenly Father who loves when you take advantage of your bold and confident access. How wonderful we have this relationship with Him.

Now, here's the third. That relationship guards us from discouragement before God. That's verse 13. Therefore, I ask you not to lose heart.

The word means to faint. Don't get discouraged at my tribulations on your behalf. Why, they are your glory. The old veteran preacher may be under arrest. The champion of the Gentiles may be set aside. The outlook may seem bleak, but the outlook is clear. And God isn't biting His nails.

What Paul was going through had to happen in God's mysterious plan, and they would reap the benefits of Paul's time in the prison. Life is not a bed of roses. Our Lord never promised us that. He said you would be absurdly happy, completely fearless, and in constant trouble.

And you know what? The world notices it. Martin Lloyd-Jones says we have not merely been saved that we might escape hell. We have been saved in order that God may present a people which will astonish the whole world. How you coming along with your astonishment message? Anybody can grouse while under the pile, but if you go through it like the apostle as a prisoner of Christ, it's amazing. How many will want to know how? And you can tell them why.

Because you're going through what? I got a letter sent to me by a man I've never met in another city. He sent it to our church. Wrong address, so I was just handed this as I came in today by someone who had found it in another mailbox.

It says, Dear Dr. Swindoll, in May of last year, my life was turned upside down. I was wrongly accused of one of the most heinous crimes imaginable to a father and imprisoned for two weeks before being released on bond. Since that time, I have been unable to have any contact with my wife and children, and my life is in legal limbo.

My attorney tells me he has worked cases like this that drag on for two or three years. Needless to say, this has been a trying time. I tell you this because the evening before I was to turn myself in on the arrest warrant, I went to the neighborhood grocery store looking for a good book to take to prison with me.

Isn't that a line? I selected your book, Come Before Winter, because it seemed that winter had descended on my life with full fury. I was immensely encouraged by your insights, and it says a lot of exaggerated things. In the next paragraph, though the winter still rages, listen to this, though the winter still, this is perspective, this is attitude, this is under the mighty hand of God, though the winter still rages, I am closer to God than ever before in my life.

I've built new friendships and relationships that sustain me. I have a bigger perspective on God's word and His plan for my life. I see how God is going to use this for His glory. I understand what Paul meant when he said, to glory in our afflictions. God will save our family, and because of what has happened, we will be stronger in our love for each other and devotion to Him. Just as the Canaanite nations looked at the Israelites' deliverance from Egypt as proof of God's power, others will see our life as a testament to God's love and deliverance, even today.

Your book came at a time of despair when I could have easily given up, but you encouraged me to keep the faith, and for that I say, thank you. And he signs his name. I want you to bow your heads for a few moments.

Just close your eyes. Let's just sit before the Lord here. We've been talking about another person in another place at another time. We don't even know Paul. We couldn't pick him out of a lineup. We've never seen him.

Don't know what the house looked like where he was under arrest those two years. Don't know where it was located in Rome. Even if we visited, we couldn't find it. Place isn't important. Perspective is. That's where we need to go right now. You don't have any perspective if you don't have the Savior. You have nothing to praise because your life is empty and hollow and futile and full of disappointment and angry moments and unfair treatment and resentment and rage. This is a great moment for you. You may have just come out of a desperate situation. You may be just on the verge of stepping into one. Some legal threat may be on you.

I don't know what your situation is. But nothing touches you that doesn't first flow through the fingers of God. You can be absurdly happy, completely fearless, though in constant trouble. And only the Christian can say that. Only the Christian. That means you've come to know Christ. That means that Jesus is alive and well in your inner being because you've invited him to take residence there.

You've never done that. No wonder you can't sleep. No wonder you're on those pills. No wonder you're drinking like you are drinking.

No wonder life is turned upside down. The hounds of heaven are after you. So just in a simple prayer, Lord God, I'm a sinner. My sin separates me from you. You're holy and I'm not. You're fair and gracious and good and I'm none of the above. And so I come as a little child. I come to the cross where Jesus paid for my sins.

I take him now, right now. You may know the Lord, but you know what's happened over these past few months or maybe years. You've drifted.

You're hardly on speaking terms. He hasn't forgotten you. You belong to the Father. Today would be a great day to renew acquaintance, wouldn't it? Just bring before him the things that have separated your relationship. Ask him for great grace to see you through where you are. I pause because I sense that some of you need to come to terms with this.

And I want you to do it before you leave. Lord, thank you for communicating in your word through this great letter to the Ephesians. It's like it was written yesterday from a friend who knows us well. It says, one thing to one person, something altogether different to another. And so today, on this given moment in life, I pray for this dad who's going through this hellish experience there in another city.

Being accused for something he didn't do. And I pray for dozens of people in those unfair situations right now. But mainly for these here who hear this message today. We are in the middle of a world that's lost its way.

It's easy to get swept along with it. So help us to know what it is in the midst of the trial to praise you. In Jesus' name.

And we all said, amen. Summarizing this passage in Paul's letter to the Ephesians, Chuck Swindoll titled today's message, The Mystery, the Ministry, and Me. You're listening to Insight for Living. To learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org. It's our hope that today's study has piqued your curiosity to learn more about Paul's letter, written while under house arrest. In addition to the rich theological truths that Paul describes, he's also shown us what it's like to rise above unfavorable circumstances. While written in the first century, Paul's letter is relevant to our times. In preparing to present this teaching series, Chuck handpicked a devotional book that ties in naturally with Paul's letter. It's called Take Cover, Finding Peace in God's Protection. It's about surviving unexpected conflict and unwanted surprises. Philip de Courcy is a Bible teacher and pastor. But before God's call on his life to serve the local church, Philip was a police officer in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

As a result, he's able to address tough issues realistically while drawing courage from God's promises. To purchase a copy of Take Cover today, call us. If you're listening in the United States, dial 1-800-772-8888 or go online to insight.org slash store.

Grace is a major theme in Ephesians, and it's a motivating force at Insight for Living as well. Those who give month by month to Insight for Living Ministries have a ministry all their own, bringing God's message of grace to their community through this radio station. And these monthly companions are helping us deliver Chuck's Bible teaching all around the world through Vision 195. To become a monthly companion right now, go online to insight.org slash monthly companion and give a one-time donation call us. If you're listening in the U.S., dial 1-800-772-8888.

That's 1-800-772-8888. I'm Dave Spiker. Tomorrow we'll find Paul on his knees again. Hear a practical lesson on prayer Tuesday on Insight for Living with Chuck Swindoll. .