1/2/2022 Ephesians 3:1-12 “The Difference Between Right and Wrong!”

31 Dec 1/2/2022 Ephesians 3:1-12 “The Difference Between Right and Wrong!”

1/2/2022    Ephesians 3:1-12      “The Difference Between Right and Wrong!”

I hope that everyone had a nice New Year’s holiday.  I don’t know if you know this or not but yesterday was a special day for me as it was my birthday.  I am officially 71 years old and I don’t feel a day over 95.  But now that is over and we have the long month of January in front of us.  This will probably have our coldest month of the year coming up.  I count the days until February and things warm up just a little.  Then it won’t be long before the mysteries of spring start to bloom and blossom.  The weather will begin to be warm.  So, if we get through this month, then it is practically summer.  And speaking of the mysteries of spring, this week we have epiphany.  This is the day where we celebrate the mysteries of God that are revealed to us through Jesus Christ.  Today’s reading in Ephesians reveals one of these mysteries and tells us of our responsibility.  Far too often we feel that we don’t have much responsibility in God’s process but that is wrong.  We have much responsibility.

Have you ever noticed how hard it is for a young child to keep a secret?  Our family is like most families in that we used to have one person who we cannot tell a secret to if we want it to remain a secret.  Alex Perednia tells of coming home one day at noon on his birthday and he knew something was up.  He saw the curtains move as he walked up and then his son Chris popped out and said, “Dad, we have a secret that we can’t tell you about.”  Alex thought he would have a little fun so he asked, “What is the secret?”  And of course, Chris couldn’t hold it in and said, “There is a birthday cake in the dining room for you, so don’t go in there.  Remember it’s a secret.”

Another time he had taken his two kids, Chris and Cassie shopping for a Mother’s Day present.  They went to the jewelry section of Wal-Mart and found a beautiful watch for the mom.  Alex told the children that they couldn’t tell their mother because it was a secret for Mother’s Day.  Cassie was so excited by the time she got home that the first thing that she said was, “We got a present, and it’s a secret.  It’s a watch.  Do you want to see it?”  Sometimes we just can’t hold it in.

And that is what we have in today’s Scripture reading.  God has a secret and He is dying to reveal it to us.  And He is going to do it through the Apostle Paul.  Notice in verse 1 that Paul is in prison for the sake of the Gentiles.  It was Paul’s main mission to go and spread the Good News to the non-Jewish people along with Jews.  So that is what he did and he infuriated the Jews.  At this point, the Romans really didn’t care what he did because they thought that the movement was too small and insignificant.  But they did put Paul in prison at the request of the Jews.  Often, they would pretty much let the Jews handle their legal battles themselves unless it was a capital offense.

Now, the Jewish hatred of Paul was two pronged.  They hated him because he was a follower of Jesus and that he was preaching to both the Jews and Gentiles.  It was bad enough that this former Pharisee was misleading the Jews but how dare he go amongst the Gentiles.  The Jews really didn’t like the Gentiles at this time.  As a matter of fact, the Jews didn’t like the Gentiles at any time unless they could be used to help the Jewish cause.

Let’s fast forward a bit.  A few years ago, I sent a letter to the editor of the Fargo Forum when they still had a newspaper.  It was pretty straight forward and spoke of a couple of basic Christian beliefs.  I found it interesting that the response we got to that letter was really one of hate.  Their agenda had nothing to do with anything I wrote.  Their feelings are very similar to the Jewish feelings toward Paul.  It’s also a very similar hatred of the vaccinated people of the unvaccinated.  It’s getting to the point where we just hate everyone.  But we have to get used to the idea that we will be hated because of our love for Jesus Christ.  This broken world cannot begin to understand the message of love and hope unless we bring it to them.  And that is exactly what they do not want us to do.  The world today doesn’t want to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ or any news that conflicts with this crazy woke agenda.  And that is exactly what we have to do because Jesus has commanded us to go and spread the Good News.

In today’s passage we have the secret of Jesus Christ being revealed to everyone.  Paul is talking about a mystery being revealed.  The term mystery has a little different meaning here than what we or I normally think.  I love a good mystery book.  I read several every year.  But in Paul’s day they didn’t have books like we have today where he could read a mystery.  What Paul is referring to here is something that has been there all the time but we just haven’t noticed it.  This could be something like a geometry problem where the answer is right in front of you if you could only see it.  Then when you see it, you have an epiphany moment and say, “Aha! Now I get it!”

This is kind of what Paul means.  God reveals things to us.  Usually, the answer is right in front of us all the time.  But then God reveals it so we can see it and we don’t have to guess.  This happens to me quite a bit during my prayer time.  I will be struggling with how to finish a sermon or how do I help this person with their problem.  When I am trying to do things on my own, I usually cannot figure it out or I do it wrong.  But during my prayer time, God will reveal something to me.  I don’t know how many times I have come out of my prayer time just shaking my head at how easy a solution can be.  This is one of the reasons that I stress prayer time so much because God will help you if you only go to Him and listen.

To further illustrate this revealing of God, listen to this quick story about Helen Keller.  She was born deaf, blind and mute.  Anne Sullivan worked with her until she could communicate.  Anne tapped out the symbols to tell Helen the name for God.  Helen tapped out a reply, “Thank you so much for telling me God’s name, Teacher, for He has touched me many times.”  God revealed himself to Helen Keller long before she could speak.

The mystery here in our terms is how in the world do we get a God who is for the Jews to be a God for the Gentiles also.  Remember, these two groups did not like each other very much.  The Jews thought that the Gentiles were dirty, unclean, savage beasts.  The Gentiles, on the other hand, thought the Jews were exclusive, uppity and just plain too good for their own britches.  It really ran much deeper than this as the feud had been going on for centuries.  It is really the same war that is still going on between the Jews and the Muslims and the Christians today.  The roots of hatred ran and do run very deep.

But God reveals to Paul that because of Jesus Christ, Jews and Gentiles are equal heirs to the throne of God.  This is not something new.  This is something that has been told about over and over in the Old Testament.  Now God is revealing this through the words of Paul and the actions of Jesus Christ.  This is the ‘Aha!’ moment for these early people.  This is their and our epiphany.

So, what we have here is God making a revelation and it is made to everyone.  God isn’t revealing something here for only the priests.  He isn’t revealing something for only the rulers.  It isn’t even for only the believers.  It is for everyone.  And He has already been doing this for centuries in the Old Testament.  Now He continues to offer this to everyone in the New Testament right up until now.

This is one of the beautiful things about being a Christian.  God is open with us and wants to share with us everything that we may need to have a better life.  Paul is saying that Jesus Christ is for the Jews and the Gentiles.  He is telling us today that Jesus Christ is for the Muslims, Mormons and Hindus too.  He is also for the homosexuals, people who don’t know what sex they are and also for the prisoners.  He is for everyone.  This Bible is an open book for all who want to read it.

We are so fortunate that we don’t have a Bible that we have to hide so nonbelievers cannot read it.  There are religions out there like this.  We aren’t supposed to read the Muslim Koran.  We also don’t have secret ceremonies that only the elite can perform, like the Mormons.  We don’t have to work our way to heaven and not know just how much work we have to do.  This Christian religion is open to all who want to believe and we don’t make restrictions.  This is why we get so many people misquoting of Bible Scripture.  It is open to those that want to read just the part they like.  So many people don’t like Christianity because they have never read the Bible or done anything other than some skimming of the surfaces of our religion.  So many times, when skeptics begin to actually read the Bible, they come to believe.

So far, we have this mystery of all people coming together through Jesus Christ that is given by God and for all people.  The last point I would like to make here is that Paul is telling us that it is our job to reveal this mystery to all we know.  It is or should be an honor for each of us to be here today.  Probably some Gentile passed the Good News of Jesus Christ for all on to you at some point.  Many of us probably don’t even remember who it was.  And that is not important.  The important part is that someone, a father, mother, pastor, friend or stranger did.  Whoever it was, took this Good News that Paul is talking about and told you and you believed.

There are so many people and believers who feel that once they know this mystery and know God, they can relax.  But you know what?  I don’t see anywhere in the Bible that tells us that we don’t have to do anything once we become believers.  As a matter of fact, it tells us just the opposite.  We are to go out and make disciples of the world.  Everywhere we go we are to be modeling Jesus in whatever we do, whether it is at a local basketball game or on a vacation far away.  No matter where we are, we are to be bowing our heads for a prayer before we eat.  And when someone asks us what makes us so happy or says I want what you have, we are to tell them about Jesus Christ.  This mystery is not to be put in a closet.  The secret is out and Jesus wants everyone to know about it.

Unfortunately, we seem to run into a lot of resistance.  And that is ok.  Many times, these are cases where we have to model our behavior.  But don’t be turned back by resistance.  How many times have you heard that my religion is private, between God and me, and is none of your business?  Right away you can see that this person may be telling you that he/she doesn’t really know Jesus.  And that is because if they did know Jesus, they would be more open about it and not as secretive.  This is not a secret religion.

So many times, we have been in places where we don’t know people and someone comes up and befriends us.  Usually not much time passes and may we find out this person is a Christian.  Then it is like it is old home week as we find out how much we have in common.  In this case Jesus is pouring himself out and through this new friend in Christ.  Well, just think about how much more He will pour Himself out when you are talking with a non-believer.  He will do this through our loving conversation or our loving behavior.  Sometimes when this happens to me, I can’t believe what is coming out of my mouth or what I am doing.

It is a wonderful feeling when this happens.  I ask that you try this sometime for yourselves so you too can experience this.  Just a word about the person who says their religion is none of your business, you might want to start by modeling Jesus to them.  After they see the love of Christ, then maybe someone can tell them about it.  I don’t believe that there is ever a time when we don’t model Jesus.

Finally, you won’t hear me quote a political analyst very often because they are usually very biased and wrong but I heard one once that was really to the point.  I don’t remember who he was but this is kind of what he said, “The differences between the Republicans and the Democrats aren’t important.  Neither are the differences between the conservatives and the liberals.  The differences between the left and the right are also not important.  But what is important and what we have forgotten, as a nation and as individuals, is the difference between right and wrong.”

Brothers and sisters in Christ, Paul is telling us today that this Good News is from God and is for everyone.  And we are to continue to spread it where ever we go.  When we walk out into the world this week, think about life in terms of what is right and what is wrong.  Then let Jesus Christ guide you to doing what is right.  Jesus loves you so much and He only wants what is the very best for you.  And you will get the best if you do what is right according to Jesus.  Let’s praise God that He sent us Jesus, the Bible, and Paul.  And thank you, Jesus, for first loving us.  Let’s pray.