MPC, 16th February 2003.Ephesians 3 - "Incredible Church"
Phil Campbell MPC, 16th February 2003.
Here we all are this morning... church. And I wonder why.
I wonder why we're not still in bed. Sleeping in.
I wonder why we're not home watching Jana on the Sunday program on Channel 9.
I wonder why we're not down the road at Bellepeppers Restaurant, where I hear they do a wonderful Sunday Brunch.
I wonder why we're not mowing our lawns. Or walking our dogs. Or visiting family. Or playing golf. I wonder why we're not off with the kids at Sunday Sport.
Or I wonder if maybe we're just here churching today because there's nothing much better to do?
I was talking to one young man the other day, he's part of a church that meets on Sunday nights. But only every second week. He said, alternate weeks, we go somewhere else. Look around. Try out other churches.
I said, but what if everyone does that and they decide not to come back?
And he said, that happens all the time. But he said, it doesn't matter. It's cnly church.
I wonder if for you, you're comfortable with the way those words run together. Only. Church. I wonder if for you, meeting as a church is only an afterthought. That fits in around anything else that's on.
Because if you're comfortable with the words "it's only church," I want to invite you to take a look with me at Ephesians 3. Where you'll notice church is mentioned not once but twice. First in verse 10 - and then again at the end of the chapter in verse 21.
And I want you to notice the wording. First in verse 10. That through the church, says Paul, the manifold wisdom of God... might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Manifold meaning not the spare part for your car. But multi-faceted. Or literally in the Greek, many coloured. The church is God's brightly coloured neon sign to the universe. The church... is the public advertisement of the wisdom of God.
Only church?
And verse 20 and 21. Paul prays that God would be glorified in the church. Through all generations. That the church in ways we can't even imagine, in ways far richer than you could ever ask or think... would bring the world to its knees in admiration... of the God whose church it is. Follow the wording. "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think according to the power at work within us... to him be glory in the church... and in Christ Jesus... throughout all generations, for ever and ever Amen."
If, that is, you aren't doing anything more pressing.
We've been called the STABO generation. S.T.A.B.O. Which stands for Subject To A Better Offer. In the older more polite days, you'd send out invitations, and you'd ask people to RSVP. Which was French for let us know if you're coming. Now, apparently hardly anyone ever does. Because instead of committing to being somewhere, we're always STABO people. Yep, I'll probably be there. And in your head you're saying, unless a better offer comes along. I'll be there. Subject To A Better Offer in the meantime.
And so often we take a STABO approach to the gathering of God's people. As we miss the point that gathering together his church is God's beacon of his glory in the universe.
And while your experience of church might have been disappointment, while your experience of church might be of something slightly boring, while your experience of church might be of relationships that have been less than what they could be... can I ask you this morning to catch a glimpse of God's intentions? And recommit?
Because the plan is devastatingly simple. And disarmingly beautiful.
Do you notice here in chapter 3, Paul's language is littered with superlatives. The sort of vocab flying around that has you reaching for your dictionary.
Paul's language bubble with adjectives of greatness. And so he'll talk about in verse 8, the unsearchable riches of Christ. Or the "manifold wisdom" we've seen already in verse 10. That many coloured rainbow of God's wisdom. The glorious riches of the Father. Verse 16. The love of God that surpasses knowledge in verse 19.
Superlatives... all talking about the same thing. The plan of God... to bring his church together under Christ from all kinds of people... in love.
At this point it might be a good thing to think back to what we saw last week in Ephesians 1 and 2. That the great inheritance, the great promises of God that the people of Israel had, the great hope of the coming king that the Jews had held on to for generations... Paul says it's arrived at last. In the coming of Jesus Christ. Whose blood brings forgiveness of sins. Whose resurrection brings the pouring out of the Holy Spirit.
And the surprise is, he says you Gentiles are sharing in it. And we saw how Paul talked about us Jewish Christians, who he calls the saints; and you Gentile Christians, sharing the hope. sharing the inheritance. Being built together as one.
Which is exactly the idea he continues in chapter 3. As he says in a nutshell, this is why I'm praying that you'll love each other. This is why I'm praying that the church will be a beacon of unity and love.
This is one of those chapters that's sort of messy, because Paul starts a thought and then breaks it off and goes somewhere else. He starts his main thought in verse 1... and then diverts to reinforce his point. "For this reason," he says, "I Paul, a prisoner for Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles..." and then a detour. Which doesn't get back on the main road until verse 14. Where he picks up the thought again. "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father..." and on he goes with his main point. So we've got to kind of hold his train of thought while you travel round the detour.
He's going to pick up on the words at the end of chapter 2 and say, because you are being built together to be a dwelling God lives in by his Spirit, I'm going to pray that you work that out in practice.
But before I say that, let me remind you of the theory again. Let me remind you of God's plan. That's at the heart of my message. Let me remind you of why I'm here in prison. And why Gentiles like you... find yourselves part of God's family.
And it's all because of the mystery that's no longer a mystery. It's all because of the plan that's finally come together.
And as you run your eye down verses 2 to 13, you'll see he makes the same point over and over again. That the plan that wasn't known before is now clear. That the mystery that wasn't understood before, is now made known.
Follow it down. Verse 2, I'm assuming you've heard of the stewardship of God's grace that was given to me, the way God made me a steward of his message. How the mystery, verse 3, was made known to me by revelation as I've written briefly. When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which wasn't made known before. But has been now. In the Apostles.
What was a mystery... is now crystal clear.
And my job is to talk about it, says Paul. Verse 7, Of this gospel, of this good news I was made a minister, a servant. To preach to the Gentiles, he says, the unsearchable riches of Christ. And to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things.
And what's the mystery? Spelt out very simply in verse 6. The mystery is this. He says "This mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel." Which again sums up very neatly what we saw back in chapters 1 and 2.
Which to you and me doesn't seem particularly mysterious at all. Until we remember that he's talking about the crossing of the biggest ethnic dividing walls you can imagine. In a way that created instant hostility in the culture Paul was part of. Because it was important if you were Jewish to know that everybody had their place.
I'm not sure we see the impact of that. What if you lived in America in the 60s? Where there were riots in the South over the fact that a black woman refused to stand up and give her bus seat to a white man? And if you were white and you fraternised with blacks you'd be isolated in the community. Or lose your job. How do you cross dividing walls like that?
So Paul says this. The mystery is this. That no matter where you come from, no matter what colour you are, no matter what your ethnic background, if you've put your faith in Jesus you're all part of the same body.
And the church, he says in verse 10 is meant to be the display of that. In full technicolour.
And there's nothing Paul wants to see more than the Ephesians living out that reality. As he comes back in verse 14 to the thing that he's most moved to pray.
And again, it's a long and pretty complex thought. They say if you're a writer, the ideal length for a sentence people can easily understand is 17 words. Take a look at verse 14 to 19. Because the bad news is, it's a single sentence. And it breaks all the rules - with a grand total of 103 words. There's no way Paul's going to make it as a writer for Readers Digest.
But in the end it breaks down to a simple prayer. A prayer to the Father. Who specialises in families. That the Ephesian church might really be a family.
A prayer that God, out of the riches of his glory, might do something amazing in them by his Spirit. A prayer that boils down in verse 17, to this. And remember, he's talking to a church made up of saints who are Jewish Christians, and you Gentile Christians he's addressing at the moment. And he prays that Jesus may so fill their hearts, that they'll know what real love looks like.
You know, I really enjoyed Valentine's Day. Haven't paid much attention to it before. One of those American things they're pushing just to sell roses. But I thought, what's the harm of it? To have a day when you're actually encouraging people to love each other.
And that's the essence of the prayer. I'm praying, says Paul, that you - middle of verse 17 - I'm praying that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend, you Gentiles together with the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge.
That you'll somehow comprehend, he says, how inclusive the love of Christ is. How wide. Deep. High. Broad. That the love of Christ encompasses all kinds of people. Do you really get that?
Because our love so often doesn't. He says I'm praying, that you having been planted in love, will together in the church catch on to how big the love of Jesus is. And so be filled with the fullness of God.
Which is how... the church becomes the great advertisement of God.
And yet so often we forget that. I was reading the other day about one of the first black students to be admitted to Los Angeles Baptist Bible College back in the sixties. I mean, does what Paul's saying about Gentiles and Jews being part of the same body include a black student at a white bible college?
He says, they were polite enough. Until the day Martin Luther King was shot. The black Christian leader pushing for civil rights. And he said, when news came through on the radio that Martin Luther King had died in hospital, I was devastated. But I was more devastated that my white Christian classmates stood up and cheered.
And even today, they reckon 11am on a Sunday is the most segregated hour in america. As white Americans go to white churches. And black Americans go to black churches. Not because of any rule. But because they prefer it that way.
We're still so tribal in our thinking, aren't we? Drawing lines. I mean, you could almost do it literally, couldn't you? Who sits with who, and won't sit with who else. Which family, which tribe. Which generation. People who've been part of the church for 50 years. People who are new. Lines that you won't cross over. Because, perhaps, you haven't absorbed how big the love of Jesus is.
Kosovo. It's not so long ago we were watching the shooting on the news. Serbs. And ethnic Albanians. A hate that runs back 1000 years. And yet there are churches on either side of the divide. And the pastor of a Albanian Baptist Church in Pristina is making plans to cross over the racial divide and preach in Belgrade. And against the background of all the hate, the pastor of the church in Belgrade is going to take him into his home. And welcome him into his church.
He says, "We don't have much in common. Apart from Christ." But that's the point. That if you really catch on to the breadth and depth and height and width of the love of Christ, the you've started down the path of loving one another. Against the odds. Across the generations. Across the cultural dividing lines. In a way that not only astounds the world around us when they see the way we love one another, but the spiritual powers as well.
What about John Dak Pook. Remember the name? We put out a flyer with the details around Christmas time. John's an African refugee. A Christian. He'd been given an Australian refugee visa. What he didn't have was the money to use it. He had the visa for his family. Just couldn't afford the tickets. And so the Presbyterian Church of Queensland launched an appeal to try to raise $7000. For a Christian on the other side of the world. By the time the appeal closed three weeks ago, John Dak Pook's Christian brothers and sisters in Brisbane had donated $14,000. Twice what he needed. Which according to Paul here, is enough to make the angels rejoice. And the devils demons hang their heads.
Paul says, God's intent, God's design, God's plan, verse 10, is that through the church... the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. Imagine that. That heaven looks down on our church and marvels at it. Marvels at the love. That's shown in small ways. As the boundaries the world puts up come down between us.
So why are you here this morning? And not home mowing the lawn? Why are you here this morning... and not enjoying coffee and toast while you read the Sunday paper?
You're here to be part of God's church. You're here to actively love one another. You're here to demonstrate to the universe that alienation and self-centredness and hatred and division don't have the final word. You're here to work together to display that love in real ways to the world.
There's work to do to make the reality measure up to that. But there's the challenge. Be here week by week and be part of it. Be part of it. Because church on a Sunday is just scratching the surface of what church is about. Look for ways to love people. To build bridges. Every way you can. Keep looking at the love of Jesus as you see it at the cross, and look for ways to imitate it.
And with opportunities like our 3x3 challenge, or our breakfast and combined service in a couple of weeks, make the most of it. And instead of looking for things to complain about, look for ways to love.
There's a great reminder at the end of Paul's prayer that the potential for the church to be what it should be goes way beyond what we even dream of.
I mean, so often it is disappointing, isn't it? Because we're so lukewarm about being what we're called to be. Because we're self interested, even as we come together. And yet Paul prays in verse 20 that the God who can do more than we can imagine... more than we dare to ask, more than we can even think of... he prays that God would be glorified as people see his church being what his church should be. That God would be glorified in the church. As well as in Christ Jesus. For generation after generation.
Will you join me in making that our prayer? That God's reputation in the world will be increased by us. That the way we love, that the way we care for one another, that the way we're united will bear the sort of fruit we can't even start to imagine.