Main Point: We are members of Christ’s body.
Some of the worst things church members can say go like this, “You don’t belong. You’re not one of us. We’re better than you. You are underneath us, not worthy of us. You’ll never fit in or be welcomed in. You have no place here, no future.” The way we act, keeping people at arm’s length instead of loving, embracing, and welcoming them can send messages like this, “They are just putting up with you because they are nice, they don’t really like you. They say you are family but eventually they will grow tired of you and leave you.” Sadly, we say we love each other but we show we do not.
This was the struggle between the Jews and Gentiles when Jesus started the church. More than an institution, a society, or an organization, the church is a family, a household, and a body. The unity, love, and help enjoyed by a husband and wife should give shape to the church while the unity, love, and help enjoyed by the church should give shape to marriage. We should look at marriages, at the one flesh relationship, and say, “That’s how we’re supposed to do church.” And we should look at the church, at the one body relationship, and say, “That’s how we’re supposed to do marriage.” The unity of the Mambrino family should shape the Duncan family and the unity of the Duncan family should shape the Mambrino family. For better or worse, who we are is shaping you and who you are is shaping us.
Ephesians 3:1-6 defines who belongs to the church and what it means to belong. The big question for the people of God was do Gentiles have to become Jews to join the church? And if Gentiles do not have to become Jews, does that mean they are full members or is there a junior membership for Gentiles that is good but less than what the Jews receive?
It’s important here that we define our terms. Gentiles is the junk drawer level category for everyone who is not a Jew. Before Jesus rose from the dead and instituted the church, a person was either a law-keeping Jew, and a part of God’s people, or a law-breaking Gentile, and outside of God’s people. A person was either inside the people of God (a Jew) or outside the people of God (a Gentile). And remember, a person is inside the people of God by keeping the law of Moses and a person is outside the people of God because he/she is not keeping the law of Moses. This changed when Jesus came. With the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, we have the fulfilment of the law and the advancing of the covenants such that being true Israel, being a part of the people of God, depends on being united to Christ. Christ Jesus is everything and being united to him is what matters. The apostle Paul, like the other apostles and prophets, was called, equipped, and sent by God to make this message known: salvation is in Christ alone and this salvation creates one new people in him. It doesn’t matter where you came from, who you are, or what you have done. In Jesus, through the gospel, you are a crucial part of the family of God.
Read Ephesians 2:10-3:6.
I. Why we can have hope. Why do we outsiders actually belong?
Look at Ephesians 3:1. Who is Paul a prisoner of Christ for?
- Paul was a prisoner of Christ for the Gentiles (1)
Keep chapter 2 in mind. Gentiles are outside of Christ, outside of God’s people, and strangers to the covenants. When Paul writes that he is a prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of the Gentiles that gives us hope. God has a plan to redeem the Gentiles, unworthy outsiders like you and me, and that plan included the preaching of the apostle Paul.
Think about why Paul is in prison. The actual charge against Paul was that he brought a Gentile into the temple where only Jewish men were allowed to go (Acts 21:27-36). Theologically, Paul was in prison for preaching Christ as the end of the law for righteousness (Rom 10:4). The claim that Christ was the only thing necessary to belong to the people of God was more than the Jews could bear, so they tried to shut Paul down. Paul was a prisoner of Christ because he was preaching salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone to the Gentiles. Paul was a prisoner because he was a preacher, and he was preaching the good news that people like you and me can be saved in Jesus Christ. We belong to the people of God! Here’s another reason for hope
- Paul’s apostleship was a stewardship of grace for the Gentiles (2)
Paul is assuming his Gentile listeners have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace given to Paul for the Gentiles. A steward is a person who manages the property of another; there are owners and there are stewards. Paul was a steward of God’s grace for the Gentiles. Now don’t think gate-keeper, or bouncer, instead think of delivery service. Flytrex and Doordash are merely the stewards of your dinner; you paid for it, so you are the owner of that hungerbuster with fries. In the same way, the apostle Paul was the delivery mechanism or steward of God’s grace to the Gentiles. God entrusted Paul with the message that brings salvation to the Gentiles. Namely, Paul preached that outsiders like me and you become sons and daughters of God through faith in Jesus Christ, not through the law.
We have hope because Paul understood the mission of God is to bring salvation to people like us. And how did Paul get this stewardship? Maybe he made it up. No.
- Paul received the gospel by revelation (3)
The Jews and Gentiles in Ephesus have heard how God made Paul a steward of grace for the salvation of the Gentiles through Jesus Christ and this mystery was made known to Paul by revelation. At Paul’s conversion, Jesus made him the apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 9:1-9, 15-16; 26:12-18). Before his conversion, Paul hated the idea that Jesus was the Messiah, and he was disgusted by the idea that Gentiles could become a part of the people of God through faith in Jesus. Paul was even a part of the murder of Stephen because Stephen was preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ (Acts 7). So what changed in Paul? God revealed the gospel of Jesus Christ to Paul and made Paul a steward of that gospel for the salvation of the Gentiles. It was at his conversion that Paul understood God’s eternal plan to unite all things in Jesus and make Jesus the head of all things. We have seen these truths briefly in Ephesians 1:9-10 and Ephesians 1:22.
Paul did not brainstorm a plan to build a platform and become an influencer by preaching salvation through Christ crucified. God, for the salvation of the Gentiles, revealed the gospel to Paul, and Paul is making that gospel known. So we have hope, the gospel is God’s redemption plan for the Gentiles. God wants outsiders like you and me in his family. Do you see the glory and goodness in the gospel Paul preached?
- The Gentiles can grasp Paul’s insight into the mystery of Christ (4)
Look again at verse 4, “When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ.” When the Gentiles heard Paul’s preaching and read his writings, they came to see that Paul understood the mystery of Christ. What was unknown to Paul and the Gentiles, namely that we can be saved in Jesus along with the Jews, was revealed by God to Paul and then revealed by Paul to us. Paul’s preaching and writing resonate with the truth of salvation through the resurrected Jesus. We outsiders read Paul’s writings and it gives us hope; we can be saved! We are welcomed in.
The Holy Spirit worked in Paul revealing and teaching Christ so that Paul went out preaching and writing about Christ. The Holy Spirit then worked in those hearers and readers so that they understood the message preached by Paul. They heard Paul and said, “This guy understands Jesus.”
And notice it wasn’t just Paul that received this revelation. Paul is not like Muhammad or Joseph Smith. Muhammad founded Islam as a correction to Christianity based on his individual solitary revelation. Joseph Smith founded the Mormons or Latter Day Saints as a correction to Christianity based on his individual solitary revelation. The gospel of Jesus Christ, the fulfillment of the covenants of promise was not a solitary matter. Paul was among the prophets and apostles to whom the Holy Spirit also revealed the gospel.
- The Spirit revealed the mystery to the apostles and prophets (5)
Now we are in verse 5, “When you read this, you can perceive my insight into the mystery of Christ, which was not made known to the sons of men in other generations as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.”
Remember Ephesians 2:20 and how the one body made up of Jews and Gentiles was built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. Even before Paul, which apostle learned early on about the inclusion of the Gentiles in the people of God through faith in Jesus Christ? That was Peter in Acts 10 when he had the vision of unclean animals and God said, “What God has made clean, do not call common” (Acts 10:15). Immediately after the vision, Peter went to Joppa and preached the gospel to a Gentile named Cornelius and his household. As Peter was preaching the gospel, the Spirit fell on them, they spoke in tongues like the Jews did at Pentecost, and everyone who believed was baptized (10:46-48). There were prophets and teachers in the church at Antioch (13:1). From them came Barnabas who went with Paul to preach Christ to the Gentiles. It was James who heard Peter’s story of the salvation of Cornelius and connected the dots to Amos 9:11-12 and the promise of the salvation of the Gentiles (Acts 15:17). The resurrected Jesus was revealed to the apostles and prophets by the Holy Spirit, and they all came to embrace the glorious truth that Gentiles did not have to become Jews to join the people of God.
That is the essence of the mystery. We know from as early as Abraham that God promised to bless the Gentiles, to bless all the families of the earth, in Abraham (Gen 12:3). What no one saw coming was that Jesus would fulfill and supersede the promises made to Adam, Abraham, Moses, and David such that belonging to the people of God no longer depended on keeping the law but on your union with Jesus Christ. 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. Salvation, redemption, forgiveness, reconciliation with God, and eternal life are by faith in Jesus and not by works of the law. Jews and Gentiles are equally in need of Christ and equals in Christ.
Paul is writing to those people who convinced themselves they were unwanted outsiders to tell them they have good reason to have hope. God planned to save the Gentiles through faith in Jesus Christ and God is working that plan. Today, it is my joy to tell those of us who know we are outsiders that God wants us; we belong. There is redemption and family and hope for us. The dividing wall has come down. Here is how the wall comes down, In Christ
II. We are one body (6)
Through the gospel, Jesus comes to the broken, the guilty, the outsiders, and the hopeless and says, “I got you. You belong to me” In the gospel, Jesus comes to the unworthy and says, “I got you. You belong to me.” To all those who feel like they don’t belong, Jesus comes and says, “I got you. You belong to me.” Jesus redeems us and makes us family. Jews and Gentiles are both saved the same way with the same result. In Christ Jesus we are one body. Gentiles need Jesus as badly as Jews need Jesus because being a part of the family of God depends on being united to Jesus. There is no other way to be saved.
When our eyes are opened to the riches of the glory of Christ Jesus and to the mystery of God’s plan to unite all things in Christ Jesus it changes the way we look at others. Ephesians 3:6, the mystery is that the Gentiles are fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Jews and Gentiles have the same future because we are in the same body which is the fulfillment of the covenants God made with his people. Paul was entrusted with preaching this mystery: Jews and Gentiles belong to one another because they are each united to Christ as his one body.
I cannot overstate this gospel truth: the defining characteristic of every Christian’s life is personal union with Christ by grace through faith. It doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, your fundamental identity that rules everything else you are and do is your union with Christ. The apostle Paul suffered and died to make this truth known, Ephesians 3:6, all of us share the same hope, a future, and power because of our union with Christ. Let’s take each in turn. First,
- We are fellow heirs in Christ through the gospel
Every good thing promised by God to his people is yours in Christ through the gospel. The Gentiles, that’s you and me, are heirs with the Jews in Christ Jesus through the gospel. Why is this? Why are we heirs with the Jews in Christ Jesus through the gospel? For Jews and Gentiles alike, all the promises of God find their yes and amen in Jesus Christ (2 Cor 1:20). Everything future promised by God will be yours because everything future will be brought about by Jesus, and we are united to him. The glory, beauty, peace, joy, and harmony of the new earth is our inheritance because it is Jesus’ inheritance, and we are together in him.
Has the Spirit opened the eyes of your heart so you see the riches of God’s glorious inheritance in the saints (1:18)? Are you praying for us to stay together and keep following Jesus? We would do very well to think more about the new earth, our glorious inheritance, and how to help one another enter that glory. We say it this way, “Church membership is the commitment to see one another safely through to glory.” We are heirs with the Jews in Christ through the gospel. Are you living in such a way that helps us get our inheritance? We are heirs together and
- We are members of the same body in Christ through the gospel
Members of the same body is just one word in the Greek and it means “body with”. We are heirs with the Jews, and we are body with the Jews in Christ through the gospel. Ephesians 2:19 spells it out like this, “you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.” Personal union with Christ creates one new man in the place of two. In Christ, the old categories of Jew and Gentile no longer hold because Christ is all there is. What matters is if you are united to Christ. This is why we require every member to share their testimony, describe their baptism, and define the gospel. These realities create the church and the way we think about salvation, baptism, and the gospel give shape to the church. All those united to Christ make up his body and are in an eternal family relationship with one another.
Let’s start small. Do you understand that you are united to us because we are all united to Christ? Is Christ in you and Christ in us working like a magnet that draws you to us? Does the way you talk about Jesus at school or work draw Christians to you and unbelievers to Christ? Are you drawn toward other Christians, those who love, celebrate, and depend on Jesus? Are you doing life with us the way your hand is doing life with the rest of your body? Are you living in such a way that causes us to be built up in love (Eph 4:16)? Commit yourself to loving the Jesus you see in each of us. Are you around enough to see Jesus in us? In Christ Jesus we are members of the same body through the gospel and
- We are partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel
Before you and I were joined to Christ we were, Ephesians 2:12, strangers to the covenants of promise. Now, in Christ, we are partners with the Jews in the promises. Since the covenant promises given to the Jews are fulfilled in Christ and we are in Christ then we share in the covenant promises made to Israel. Are your eyes opening to the hope that is yours, the inheritance that is yours, and the power that is yours because you are with us and we are in Christ?
It doesn’t matter who you are or what you have done. None of your past matters. Your family history doesn’t matter. In Christ you are brought near to God and made a member of God’s household such that you receive all that God promises to his people. Namely, God promises to give you himself because you are in His Son. We are his people and he is our Father. He cares for us, and he will care for us, because we are his sons and daughters; we are his family. You are no longer an outsider because you are joined to Christ. You are not second class, unwanted, less important than others, or worthless. Every promise God has made to his people belongs to you because you are a member of his people in Christ Jesus by the gospel. So
- Be united to Christ
If you are not a Christian, I pray today is the day you repent and believe the gospel. God wants to share his promises, his life, and his love with you through Jesus. You can be saved. Do you see the holiness, love, and power of God in the face of Jesus Christ? Do you want to join in the people of God and become a member of his family? You can today. Repent of your sins, believe the gospel, and be baptized. God will join you to Christ; he wants to join you to Christ. God will join you to us; we want you to join us. If that’s you today, if you want to join Christ and join the church, would you come and tell us as we sing? Rest in the trustworthiness of God. He is faithful; he will surely fulfill his promises.
By and For the gospel 