Title: Assurance in Persecution
Text: Ephesians 3: 1-13
Date: December 15, 2013
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Ephesians 3: 1: For this cause I Paul, the
prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,…13: Wherefore I desire that ye faint
not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.
Natural
man wants a preacher well-regarded by the masses, a gospel well-received by the
masses and a jesus accepted by the masses.
Natural men need to see things to assure them their gospel is true.
Yet,
the apostle Paul, sent of Christ himself, was so despised by the masses that
they beat him and put him in prison. His gospel was so despised by the masses
that they called it anti-law, licentious and blasphemous. And our Lord Jesus
was so despised by the masses that they crucified him. Sinners are still as
depraved, today. The truth is still in the minority in our day.
Knowing
such rejection could cause discouragement to believers, Paul gives 5 words of
assurance in Ephesians 3. These are 5
things that Christ had done for Paul.
Remember,
the things Paul writes here, he writes under the inspiration of the Spirit of
God. This is Christ himself comforting
his people through Paul.
Title:
Assurance in Persecution
Proposition:
When we are rejected for Christ’s sake, we should assure our brethren that it
is reason to rejoice.
Now, as
an apostle, Paul experienced things, and was given gifts, in a greater measure
than preachers in our day are given—there are no apostles in our day. Yet, these
5 things are things which every God sent preacher, to a lesser degree, must experience
in order to be Christ’s preacher. In fact, this is how every believer is made a
servant and steward of Christ. These things shall and must be experienced by
every elect, redeemed sinner in order to be saved.
I. FIRST, PAUL ASSURES HIS BRETHREN THAT
CHRIST GAVE HIM A STEWARDSHIP FOR THEM—Ephesians 3: 2:…ye have heard of the
dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:
Dispensation
Christ
gives his preacher a stewardship to dispense the gospel of God’s grace to the
Lord’s household. An illustration of
“dispensation”: Paul said
1 Corinthians 11: 23: I have received of the Lord, that which also I
delivered unto you.
Here he says “the dispensation [the stewardship] of the grace of God [of
the gospel] is given to me, to give to you.
That is how a dispensation works.
Christ’s Dispensation
The
chief dispensation is given from God the Father to his Son, the GodMan, to give
to God’s elect. After Christ accomplished the redemption of every elect child
of God, God the Father exalted Christ to be Head over all things to the church.
Read Ephesians 1: 20-23
Application: What comfort to you and I who are called to suffer for
Christ’s sake! Our Head is the governor
with all power over all.
Paul assured
his troubled brethren that the church is the fullness of Christ. He has made himself so one with his elect
that he is as incomplete without us as we are without him. Christ is filling
all, in all his elect, in all his body. All grace that God the Father has for
each of his elect children, Christ our Head, shall dispense to each of his
redeemed children, in time, through the gospel through the Holy Spirit.
Given to Suffer
Besides
this, when the Lord Jesus called Paul, he showed Paul the “great things he must
suffer for Christ’s name’s sake.” (Acts 9: 16)
So he has us.
Matthew 10: 24: The disciple is not above his
master, nor the servant above his lord. 25: It is enough for the disciple that
he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the
master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his
household? 26: Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that
shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known. 27: What I tell you in
darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that
preach ye upon the housetops. 28: And fear not them which kill the body, but
are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy
both soul and body in hell.
Therefore,
Paul declares to his brethren, that he was not ashamed for the things he
suffered. Doing so, Paul pointed them from things below to Christ above.
Application: In this, Paul gives us an example to follow. We should always
assure the saints that all is well. Christ gave me this privilege to suffer for
his name’s sake.
The
only way we will not faint, but continue ministering to Christ’s people, even
when rejected, even when imprisoned, the only way we will continue trusting
Christ to work in his people, is by having been made a steward by Christ
himself.
II. SECONDLY, EVERY BELIEVER, EVERY PREACHER,
MUST BE GIVEN A REVELATION OF THE GOSPEL--v3: How that by revelation he made
known unto me the mystery;
Certified Gospel
Paul gives
assurance that his gospel is the certified gospel given by divine revelation from
Christ himself. He declares what Christ taught him. (the parenthesis refers
back to the first 2 chapters—Paul had a great understanding in the mystery of Christ.)
·
Here in verse 6, Paul declares again that God
chose an elect people, in Christ, before the foundation of the world—v6: That the Gentiles should be
fellowheirs,
·
That Christ redeemed each one by fulfilling
the law for us, making us—v6: of the
same body.
·
That Christ sends his preachers, sends the
Holy Spirit, gives life, faith and repentance, making us—v6: partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.
·
He assures them “Whereof I was made a minister.”
Application: The gospel is such a mystery to a dead sinner, God is so
hated by unregenerate sinners—that no preacher, nor any other sinner, can believe
and bear witness of Christ until Christ himself sends us the gospel and by
divine revelation makes known unto us the mystery of the gospel. So Christ moves
Paul to assure his brethren that he got his gospel from Christ himself. Doing
so, Paul assures them that his suffering had not made him ashamed of the
gospel. And that they should not be.
Romans 1: 16: For I am not ashamed of the gospel of
Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;
to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17: For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by
faith.
Illustration:
A preacher in 1700’s was imprisoned for
preaching the gospel. He said, “I glory and take delight [in my chains],
esteeming them at a higher [value] than chains and rings of gold….The rattling
of my chains is…music in my ears…because I am bound…for maintaining the truth
of the gospel.”
III. THIRDLY, HE ASSURES HIS
BRETHREN HE WAS CALLED BY GOD’S EFFECTUAL GRACE—Ephesians 3: 7: 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.
Effectual Grace
The
only man who preaches and bears witness of God’s effectual grace, faithfully, is
the man who has been saved by effectual grace. The very reason the gospel is
the power of God unto salvation is because Christ is the Power of God. He dispenses his grace effectually to his
people.
Application: What comfort!
Paul knew that Christ was overruling everything in his life by that same
power. Men did not put him in prison.
He gladly says, V1: “I Paul, the
prisoner of Jesus.”
He
said, “seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not.” (2
Cor 4: 1) How did we receive mercy?—By
the gift of the grace of God, BY HIS EFFECTUAL POWER. So by that same power we
faint not.
Application: This is one reason men, turn from preaching Christ. It
is why believers deny Christ, when the pressure becomes too great. We must be preserved by the same irresistible
power of God that called us to faith in Christ. After all his suffering, Paul
still declared, “we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency
of the power may be of God, and not of us.” (2 Cor 4: 7) By this, Paul assures his brethren that this
same irresistible grace shall keep us till we meet Christ face-to-face! What
assurance!
IV. FOURTHLY, PAUL ASSURES HIS
BRETHREN THAT HE IS NOTHING AND CHRIST IS ALL—Ephesians 3: 8: Unto me, who am
less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach
among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;
Nothingness
Christ made
Paul behold his nothingness—Unto me, who
am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, Grace is for
sinners; grace is for those who are “less
than the least”; grace is given—freely, not works or grace ceases to be grace!
Application: When we declare that it pleased God to save by
preaching, men will accuse us of preaching Roman Catholic doctrine. I have had that happen to me. But we are in
good company. They said of Moses, “You
take too much on yourself. We are all holy.” So we assure our brethren, WE ARE NOTHING. Christ is All!
When
Christ made Paul know his nothingness. Then
Christ became All to him. Before, Paul
had his letters, he was riding high in the saddle, he was doing what he would
do. After Christ put him in the dust…
Acts 9:6: And he trembling and astonished said, Lord,
what wilt thou have me to do
Preach the Gospel
What
did Christ command him to do?—v8:…that I
should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; 9: And to make all
men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the
world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
When
stripped of our counterfeit riches then men will preach the unsearchable riches of Christ.
Illustration: There is no good
news in message of salvation by works.
Take a man paralyzed from his neck down.
The message of salvation by works would not give that man any hope. Every sinner is just that unable to save
himself by his works. The message of grace is the message by which God shall
save and keep his elect.
Isa 40:6 The voice
said, Cry. And he said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass…but the word of
our God shall stand for ever….52: 7: Thy God reigneth!
V. FIFTHLY,
PAUL ASSURED THEM THAT WHATEVER CHRIST
GIVES US TO SUFFER, CHRIST IS USING IT TO MINISTER TO HIS SAINTS.
For Your Good
Notice
Paul says at the end of v13, my tribulations are “for your glory”—your good. (Turn to 2 Cor 1)
2 Corinthians 1: 3:…the God of all comfort; 4: Who comforteth
us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any
trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. 5: For as
the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by
Christ. 6: And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and
salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we
also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and
salvation. 7: And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are
partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.
In his
suffering, Paul was comforted by Christ. So Paul was able to assure them, by
experience, that Christ would do the same for them. It was for their good. By
Paul’s imprisonment Christ taught Paul that his grace is sufficient. So, Paul
was able to teach his brethren, by experience, Christ’s grace would be sufficient
for them. It was for their good.
Illustration:
Donnie and Mary Bell
I would
have never preached many of the messages God has given me, were it not for
suffering rejection for Christ. The
Savior we preach is a man of sorrows acquainted with grief. He shall make his ministers “men of sorrows,
acquainted with grief.” The servant is not above his Lord.
Yet this
is for our good and for your good. It is the only way we can minister by
experience, to Christ’s needy people, assuring them his grace is sufficient.
Application: Let me point out one more thing. Paul assured his brethren in v12: In [Christ]
we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith OF HIM. Then in verse
14 Paul says, “For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ,…”
Application: Brethren, in [Christ] we have boldness and access with confidence
by the faith OF HIM. May Christ make us
to bow our knees for grace to help. When we truly are driven to pray, those are
the hardest times. But those are the times when we really learn that this work
is his work. Brethren, stay at Christ’s
feet!
Oh, we
will see men come and go. When scandalous things are spoken against our Savior,
against our gospel, or against God’s preacher, men who are already offended
will use it to justify leaving. But may we always reassure our brethren, to never
be discouraged, rejoice, continue steadfast believing Christ—this is for his
glory and for your good—always! Christ shall keep those who are his. He shall
not lose one!
Amen!