FOR THIS CAUSE

Ephesians 3:1-7

Paul had just finished telling the believers in the church of Ephesus this glorious “mystery” that, because of the gospel of Jesus Christ, God had created a brand new kind of people.

Christians were no longer Jews and Gentiles.

They were made to fit together in the church of the living God.

This is a very powerful message, but it is a very difficult one for people to accept – especially in the lifetime of the Apostle Paul.

You and I have grown up with certain presumptions that make it difficult for us to see the impact of this mysterious doctrine God revealed through Paul so allow me to use an illustration I heard recently[1] to help with us get a sense of how shocking a doctrine this revelation of Paul was.

Just 150 years ago the United States of America grappled with the moral issue of slavery.

American’s had wrestled with the morality of it for a hundred years before that and those who owned slaves and used them to gain their incomes, had come up with a number of ideas to justify what they were doing.

Among Christian slaveholders there was a small number of Christians who taught that God viewed the slaves like we view our farm animals and that:

·   They had no soul

·   They could not be saved and that

God had decreed it to be this way.

Imagine that you had grown up believing that.

Imagine that everyone one you knew believed it to be true.

·   Your parents

·   Your friends

·   Your instructors in school

·   Your pastor

Imagine that all believe that the slaves are merely farm animals. They don’t have a soul, they cannot be saved.

And then imagine that you come to realize that those slaves really are people whom God loves.

What’s more, you believe you are called by the Lord to tell everyone that.

·   Your job from God is to win slaves to the Lord and to teach the Christian slave owners that those slaves who get saved are their brothers and sisters in Christ

·   You are called to tell them that there is no difference between the white slave owner and the back slave

·   You even begin to tell them that they are to unite as members of the same family and the same church.

Can you imagine how mad everyone around you would be?

Of course some would be glad that someone was finally bold enough to preach what the human heart has known all along.

But a lot of people, maybe most people, would be very angry.

·   You would lose friends

·   You might be disowned by your family

·   You could lose your job if it is somehow related to your faith

That’s what Paul is going through.

Preaching this message that God loves and wants to save both Jews and Gentiles and that God creates of the saved a new people who forget their past and become unified in a local church has rocked the world in Paul’s day.

And it has caused him no small trouble.

The Apostle Paul begins this chapter with the words, “For this cause…”

It’s because of that message Paul was a prisoner in a Roman jail, and would eventually be executed.

I want to go through verses 1-7 and address the cause of Paul’s imprisonment.

First

I. HE WAS A PRISONER BECAUSE OF HIS CALLING

Ephesians 3:1-2 (KJV)

For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,

If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:

Ephesians 3:7 (KJV)

Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.

Look at the word “grace” in verse 2.

Paul said this grace was given to him.

You know what grace is.

You know that we are,

A. Saved by grace

Ephesians 2:8 (KJV)

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Do you remember how Paul got this gift of grace?

Acts 9:1-6 (KJV)

And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest,

And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.

And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:

And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?

And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.

Getting saved changed Paul’s life the instant it happened.

·   He was blinded

·   He was jobless and

·   He was friendless

at the first moment of salvation.

My salvation wasn’t as dramatic as Paul’s was but, for me, it changed my world.

While I was so convinced that the Bible message was true that I could not go back from it, still, it hurt me.

·   It hurt my relationship with my lost family

·   It hurt my relationship with all of my friends at the time

My salvation caused my life to take an absolutely 180 degree turn.

I am nothing like the person I would have become if I had not gotten saved.

And I am glad for that.

But it was still painful for a very long time.

He was saved by grace but then he was also

B. Serving by grace

Ephesians 3:1-2 (KJV)

For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,

If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:

Notice that Paul said the grace of God was given him, “to you-ward.”

From the very moment of his salvation Paul was directed to reach the Gentiles.

He was a Jew by birth and he always loved and tried to win Jews to Christ but his calling was to the Gentiles.

And it was his calling that was always at the crux of his problems.

·   Going to the Gentiles was an expensive and dangerous proposition and

·   Working with the Gentiles was a misunderstood and aggravating thing among the Jews

Let me tell you, I would not trade my calling as a preacher of the Word of God for anything in this world.

·   I am so glad to be a pastor.

·   I am so glad to pastor this church.

But I don’t want you for a minute to think being a preacher has been an easy thing.

I wouldn’t wish the ministry on anyone who didn’t have the calling of God to do it because to do it without God’s grace would be a miserable way to live.

Paul was a prisoner because of his calling.

Secondly

II. HE WAS A PRISONER BECAUSE OF HIS UNDERSTANDING

Ephesians 3:3-5 (KJV)

How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,

Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)

Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;

I see two things to show you here;

A. God had revealed it

Notice the words

By revelation

Vs 3

He made known to me

Vs 3

My knowledge in the mystery

Vs 4

It is now revealed

Vs 5

Paul knew this message to be true.

·   He had not made it up.

·   He wasn’t guessing.

This was the revelation of God and

It was not just he that it had been revealed to the other apostles and prophets had gotten it to.

Here is what I would like to say about this:

·   When you know the Bible, and

·   You know that it’s message is true.

·   When you know that you know it,

it captures you.

This is the reason why the world is so threatened by Christians.

·   Why they were persecuted in centuries past

·   Why they were marginalized for the last 100 years and

·   Why we are so targeted and hated right now

The world knows from experience that a Christian who knows the Word of God is unbending and unyielding.

·   He is already a prisoner of Jesus Christ.

·   He can’t be captured by anything in this world

The question I have for you is, Are you that sort of Christian?

Not only had Paul received this knowledge

B. He kept preaching it

He had written about it in some previous writing and now he was writing about it again.

He wanted these believers to understand what God had revealed to him.

Please, don’t get upset at your preacher if he keeps saying the same things over and over.

If I get excited about something God has taught me, I am going to have to try to get you excited about it too.

Paul was a prisoner because of his calling and

Paul was a prisoner because of his understanding

Finally

III. HE WAS A PRISONER BECAUSE OF HIS MESSAGE

Ephesians 3:6 (KJV)

That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

I began the message with the illustration going back to slavery.

The issue in Paul’s day has been somewhat settled

Although I am distressed to see Christians entertaining the idea of fellowshipping in Messianic Jewish Synagogues and congregations instead of being faithful to a local Baptist church.

And the issue of slavery has been settled

Although there is still so much division among those who are the children of slave owners and the children of slaves.[2]

My question is,

“Who is it that isn’t welcome in your spiritual family?”

You see that is where the rubber meets the road for you and me.

Maybe we don’t mind acknowledging that this person or that person is a “fellowheir” that they are saved and that, when they get cleaned up in heaven, they will share in fellowship with Christ with you.

But what about “of the same body”?

Is there someone:

·   You cannot choose to love?

·   You will not choose to accept?

·   You have not chosen to forgive?

Conclusion

The whole point of the book of Ephesians is the doctrine of the church.

·   Its head is Jesus

·   Its members are saved by grace and

·   Its unity is mysterious and marvelous

Be a part of the unity.

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[1] https://player.fm/series/soteriology-101-former-calvinistic-professor-discusses-doctrines-of-salvation/is-unconditional-election-uniquely-calvinistic

[2] It has only been in my years as a preacher I have heard of a pastor who was nearly fired from his church because he baptized a black child and a white child in the same baptistery on the same day. 

A contemporary of mine worked as an assistant pastor in a Mississippi church just after college. When he gave a tract to the lady behind the counter and the grocery store and invited her to come to church she “educated” him that she was black and would not be welcome in that church. When he confirmed it to be the truth, he resigned from the church to find a new place to serve the Lord. It happened to be in the Pacific Northwest, where I came to know him.