I don’t know about you, but the stories I love the most, whether it’s a movie, a book, or a short story, are the ones that keep me on my toes. I like a story that has twists and turns, where you never really know what’s going to happen next. Mysteries are probably my favorite, because you’re constantly trying to figure out who the criminal is, and just when you think you’ve started to work things out, there’s a plot twist that takes you off in a completely different direction. I love getting to the end of a movie and still wondering about exactly what’s going on.
Those are the stories that go down in history as the greatest stories, because we appreciate the skill it takes for a storyteller to develop a story in such a way that they know exactly what’s going on, but they have a way of keeping us in the dark until just the right time. They know how to bring the story into its full light in a way that captures you emotionally and pulls you in.
And if you think about it, we pay a lot of money to be told a good story. Several movies that have come out recently are breaking records, bringing in billions of dollars in revenue on the first weekend of their release. We pay lots and lots of money as Americans to buy books, buy movies, go to the movies, rent movies, all these things, because we enjoy a good story. We enjoy a story that makes us feel something, that takes us somewhere, that transplants us into a different world.
But storytelling is not really a human creation. Storytelling is actually part of being made in the image of God. Everything about us, the good characteristics we have as a race, comes from the ultimate writer, the ultimate storyteller, who created us in his perfect image. The reason we love a good story with all kinds of twists and turns, the reason we appreciate this form of art, is because we have a God who loves to tell good stories.
It’s interesting to note that the largest percentage of the Bible is actually made up of narrative, or stories. The Bible is largely made up of stories being told about people’s lives and about things that happened. And ultimately we realize that the Bible, though it is made up of sixty-six different books, is really coming together to tell one big story.
God is the great storyteller, and he has written a story before the foundations of the world that is so complex and has so many plot twists and unexpected turns that even the angels are still wrapping their minds around exactly what it is that God is doing. And the amazing thing is that you and I find ourselves right in the middle of this big story that God is writing.
The gospel, which Paul calls “the mystery” here in this passage, is the great story of creation. Gospel, as we know, means good news, and the good news is a story that God began before he ever said, “Let there be light.” He had the whole story written out from beginning to end, with all of its twists and turns and all its unexpected plot twists. The gospel is God’s story that he has been working out all throughout human history.
As I told you when we began this study of Ephesians, this book is primarily about your identity in Jesus Christ. It’s about who you are and what you have become through the gospel. This great story that God is writing really determines and defines your identity. It is the determining factor of who you are and why you even matter in the grand scheme of things.
Paul was a very important part of developing this great story that God has written, and he talks about that here in this passage. Paul was a unique individual with a very unique background, and none of that was an accident, as we’re going to see today. God chose Paul specifically to fulfill the purpose of developing this bigger story that he has been writing throughout all ages. In this passage, Paul shares some very important aspects of this gospel story that he wants us to understand.
In this passage you’re going to find four specific aspects of the gospel that Paul delivers to us. As you consider these things, my hope this morning is that you’re going to see the bigger picture of what God is doing in the world and what God has done, and that we’ll all just step back and say, “Wow, what a wise and amazing God we serve.”
Paul, in writing this whole passage, is amazed by the God who wrote the story. He’s amazed by the detail of the story and the unexpected elements that God has written into it. At the end of this chapter, in verse twenty-one, he says, “Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.” Paul is so amazed by the things God has told him, the things he is sharing with us, that he cannot help but praise the Lord. And that’s what I want this morning. I want each of us to see with such clarity the beauty of God’s great story that it causes us to step back and, like Paul, say, “What a great God we serve.”
So here are four aspects of the gospel, four aspects of this great story, to consider this morning.
The Content of the Mystery
The first thing we find is the content wrapped up in this mystery. In verses one through six, Paul gives us exactly what this story is all about.
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: 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)
Now, if you go back to chapter one, Paul talked about the mystery of the gospel that had been revealed to him. In verse nine of chapter one he says, “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself.” So Paul had previously made mention of this mystery. And as I showed you in Romans chapter sixteen, he again makes mention of this mystery, this story that God has been writing. So when he says, “As I wrote afore in few words,” he’s talking about chapter one: I mentioned this mystery, and now I want to tell you what the mystery is.
He goes on in verse five: “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.”
What Paul is telling us is that God has been working out a story according to his good pleasure and for his ultimate glory. He has been working out this story since the foundations of the world. He had written the story, he had planned the story, and the story has been playing out exactly the way God wanted it to. No details came in unexpected to God. It has all worked out exactly the way he wanted.
But God, being the great storyteller he is, did not give all the details from the very beginning. When he created the world, he didn’t give the details of what was to come. He just created it, and he started interacting with it. He walked in the garden with Adam and Eve. He enjoyed their presence and they enjoyed his. There was this blessedness. And then came the fall. Even then, he promised that something would happen that would change things, but he didn’t give all the details.
Then came Abraham, and God said, “I’m calling you to do something special, to bring about a great nation, and this nation is going to bless the world.” He said, “Something’s coming.” But he didn’t give all the details.
As the children of Israel grew, they went into captivity. They didn’t understand why God allowed them to spend those four hundred years in bondage. But then he came and did the miracles, and he set them free and brought them into the promised land. And even then, he didn’t give them all the details.
The nation grew, and God blessed, and they experienced God’s presence. They experienced God’s punishment. There were ups and there were downs. Even the prophets came and promised, “Something’s coming down the road that’s going to change everything.” But even then he did not give them all the details, because God is the great story writer, and he knew how to bring the details out at just the right time and in just the right way to get himself the ultimate glory.
And one day, at just the right time, a baby was born in Bethlehem, and amazing things happened surrounding his birth. That baby grew up to be the greatest teacher in all of Israel. He did miracles nobody could explain. And people began to understand: this man is the one the prophets have been talking about. He is the special one. He is the Messiah.
And then a plot twist happens. Their Messiah ends up on a tree. He’s crucified. He’s killed. Nobody understands what’s going on, and everything they thought they were beginning to comprehend falls apart in front of them.
But then another plot twist happens. Three days later they go to anoint his body with spices and ointments, and what do they find? An empty tomb. Plot twist. The biggest plot twist that has ever been written in human history. The Messiah they watched die was now risen from the grave. He was alive. He was well. And he revealed himself to them, and then he ascended. But he said, “Look, I’m coming back again, and I’m sending you out into the world to take the gospel.”
At this point they begin to think they understand the full story. So they go and begin to preach, and lots of Jews start to get saved, and they think they understand what’s going on. And then here comes this convert named Paul, and God gives him a special revelation that completes the mystery that had not yet been fully understood.
In verse six, Paul tells us what that mystery ultimately is: “That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.”
What the world had not understood up to this point was that God’s plan from the very beginning was to bring all things together in Jesus Christ. His plan from the beginning was to restore the brokenness of this world. He was going to take all things, physical creation, Jew and Gentile, the animal kingdom, the stars and the heavens, and bring everything that has been created back into order through the grace of Jesus Christ. And the primary means by which he is going to accomplish this is a unified church made up of individuals from every nation, tribe, and tongue.
This was a concept unthinkable to the world in that day. They were a divided society. They hated each other. They kept their distance from each other. They did not get along at all. Sounds a lot like America today, doesn’t it? But God’s plan from the beginning was to take all these different people from all these different places and cultures and walks of life and bring them together into one family that would one day eternally worship and glorify Jesus Christ forever.
He’s been working this plan out, as Paul says, from forever. This plan was worked out before the foundations of the world, but gradually, little by little, he began to bring in details, bring in plot twists, bring in aspects of this story that no one could have imagined. Throughout a very turbulent human history, God developed this story where he brings everything together in one man, Jesus Christ, his perfect Son.
Paul wants us to understand how wonderful this mystery is. Realize that we have the gift of understanding this story in a way that no other generation has. You get to be a part of this unified body through Jesus Christ. You are invited to experience the glory of God in a way that other generations had never known. You have his Holy Spirit dwelling inside of you. You have been invited, adopted, by the holy God of heaven.
Folks, this is such an amazing thing that we oftentimes take for granted. If God had not done what he did through Jesus Christ, you and I would still be outsiders today. But by his grace and by his mercy, we have been brought near through the same blood that has saved the Jews, that has saved every other nation, tribe, and tongue. What a wonderful reality. What a wonderful mystery that God has made known to us.
The Messenger of the Mystery
But I want you to consider who it is that brought this mystery to light. Look at verses seven through nine, as Paul begins to talk about himself and his place in this story.
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. 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; 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
In these verses Paul stops to acknowledge that he has been given a special blessing and a special opportunity in this greater story. Think about who Paul was before God called him to this ministry.
Paul was born into a very well-to-do Jewish family. He was trained with a training many people never got the opportunity to have. The Jewish world knew about Paul. At that time he was called Saul, and they were watching him. They were training him and preparing him. Paul was climbing the political ladder, and he was going to be somebody in the Jewish community. He had wealth to look forward to. He had prestige. He had power that he was going to be able to claim.
He was born into a time when the Christian faith was beginning to blossom and grow. And Paul, trying to show himself faithful to the Jewish faith and trying to climb his political ladder, became a zealot for persecuting this uprising called Christianity. He went all over the kingdom, arresting Christians, throwing them in prison, torturing them, trying to stomp out this Christian faith. Paul knew what he was doing. He was preparing himself for that high position. He wanted everybody to know, “I am fighting for you. I am a servant of the people, and I am going to protect you from this wickedness that has risen up within our community.” Paul was building a name for himself with every person he threw into prison, and he became the greatest enemy of the early Christian church.
Do you think it’s an accident that God picked him to be the one to take the message of reconciliation? God picked the man who was the greatest enemy of the church, and he stopped him in his tracks on the road to Damascus. He blinded his eyes and he said, “Paul, why are you fighting against this thing that I have created? Why are you persecuting my children, my people? Why are you trying to stop what I am building? You say you’re a servant of God, but at the end of the day you’re working against the very thing that I’m creating. But I’m not here to destroy you. I’m here to use you, to build this thing that you have been trying to stop.”
And by God’s grace, he called Paul into the most influential gospel ministry that has ever been known. If you want to question me on that, realize that you are still benefiting from the ministry of the Apostle Paul today. He influenced the Christian world like no other figure. And God chose him specifically, because who else could take this message of unity and reconciliation to the world the same way that Paul could?
So when Paul says here, “I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power,” he’s testifying to what God did in his life. He’s saying, “I was an enemy of the gospel, but by his mighty working he transformed me and set me on a different path. He made me useful. He allowed me to build the very thing I was trying to destroy.”
In verse eight he says, “Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints.” Folks, that’s not false modesty. Paul knows exactly who he was before the grace of Christ reached him. He knows what he was doing to the church. He knows how he had worked against God and how he was a great enemy of God. He knows that if it weren’t for God’s grace, he would deserve the greatest punishment. “I’m the least of all. But God, by his grace, gave me this gift, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, 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 Christ Jesus.”
He’s saying, “What a great God. What a gracious God, that he would take someone like me and give me the great task of bringing the Gentiles into this body, this new family that God is creating.”
God didn’t just write the greatest story. In that story he is bringing together people who are totally different and totally divided into one family, one body, that will live with him eternally. And not only did God write the most beautiful and wonderful story through his Son, Jesus Christ. He also called the most unlikely messenger to take that message to the world. Folks, it’s in the details that we find the perfect mind and the perfect wisdom of God making itself known.
What to Take Home
Now, I’m going to have to make this sermon a two-parter, and we’re going to stop right here today. But what I want you to take home this morning is this reality: God has an amazing mind, and he has written a perfect story that he has been working out since the beginning of the world.
And here’s the beautiful part. In his wisdom and in his knowledge and in his mercy and grace, he decided to make you a part of that story. If you are in Christ this morning, you are a part of the greatest story God has ever written, and he has a purpose for you in that story.
You may look at your life with all of its unexpected plot twists and its complications, its ugly difficulties, the pain and the loneliness and the hurt and the confusion. You may look at your life and think that it’s all for nothing. But you serve an amazing God who writes amazing stories, and he has chosen to include you in the greatest story that’s ever been written. Do you really think he’s going to waste your life with unnecessary details? Everything you face in your life is part of the bigger story that God is writing to bring about his ultimate glory.
And secondly, I want you to appreciate the reality that God uses unworthy people to work out this great story. If God can take a persecutor and an enemy of the gospel and use him to bring in every other race of people, every nation, tribe, and tongue, and welcome them into this body of believers, what do you think he can do with you? Is there any purpose he cannot accomplish in your life? Is there any person you cannot reach through the power of Jesus Christ?
You have people in your life that you want to reach with the gospel. God can use you to reach them. You have things you want to do for the kingdom of God. Don’t be shy about that, because God loves to take unworthy vessels and use them to accomplish big tasks.
As I consider this, even as a preacher who gets to share the gospel with you every single week, I look at all of this and I say: what a wonderful God we serve. What a great mind. What a big heart. What a mighty, mighty God we serve. And may you, may I, may we trust our lives, trust our nation, trust our church into the hands of this wonderful, powerful, loving God who has called us to be his special people.
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