Mystery - Ephesians 3:4-9

Our lesson today is in Ephesians 3. In the first part of this chapter, the Apostle Paul has been telling us about his ministry, verses 1 through 12. How that God saved him, a Jewish rabbi, a hater of the Christians, God saved him and made him into an apostle and gave to Paul a very special ministry. Now, unless you understand the distinctive unique ministry of Paul, much in the New Testament will be meaningless to you.

Paul was never meant to be one of the 12 apostles. In Acts 1, we read that the early church, while they were waiting for the coming of the Spirit, they had an election and they voted an apostle to take the place of Judas. Now, there's one side that says they should never have done this. Many good men who study the word of God say they made a big mistake. They should not have elected a successor to Judas because this was supposed to be the Apostle Paul. On the other side, there are those of us who believe that they did the right thing. They were supposed to have a successor to Judas. The word of God told them to do so. Jesus had said, you apostles are going to sit judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And had the Jews accepted Christ when the Holy Spirit of God presented him there at Pentecost, the kingdom would have been established and there would have been a need for 12 apostles to rule the kingdom. No, they did the right thing when they chose the successor to Judas because Paul was never meant to be one of the 12 apostles. His ministry was altogether different.

Now, please understand that the apostles and Paul preached the same Christ. They preached salvation by faith in Jesus Christ. They preached the cross. But Paul was given a very distinctive ministry and as you study the word of God and compare the epistles with the four gospels, we discover some contrasts between the 12 disciples and the Apostle Paul.

Paul was called from heaven. On the road to Damascus in Acts 9, Paul saw a light, he heard a voice. He looked up and saw the glorified Christ up in heaven. And Christ commissioned Paul, saved him and changed his life. The 12 disciples were chosen not by the glorified Christ from heaven, but by the Christ of Earth. The Lord Jesus on Earth called the 12 apostles.

The Apostle Paul's ministry was primarily to the Gentiles. The apostles, the 12, Peter, Andrew, James, John, ministered primarily to the Jews. The Apostle Paul is the great teacher about the one body, the church. Now, John in his gospel and in his letters talks about the unity of the church, the vine and the branches and so forth. Peter talks about it in his two letters, but primarily the Apostle Paul had his ministry to the church. The Apostle Paul was sent to the Gentiles. The 12 apostles primarily had their ministry to the Jews.

Now, the Apostle Paul's ministry was concerning this mystery. And once again, I want to explain this. There are two programs that God has in the Bible. There is a prophecy program for Israel, and this concerns the kingdom. And there's a mystery program for the church. And this concerns heaven and glory.

Now, in the Old Testament, God promised to the Jews a kingdom. He sent his king, the Lord Jesus Christ. They crucified him. Now, it was necessary for Jesus to be crucified before his kingdom could be established. You had to pay for sin before you could judge it. And so the Lord Jesus Christ went to the cross and died for the sins of the world. On the cross, he prayed, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. He was praying for the Jewish nation.

Back in the Old Testament, a man reached out and touched the ark of the covenant and God killed him. Here the nation of Israel crucified the Son of God and God could have sent judgment, but Jesus prayed, Father, forgive them. Wait. Hold back the judgment, they know not what they do. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ was presented to the nation of Israel. The kingdom was offered to the nation of Israel in Acts 2 through 7. I've mentioned this before in these little studies. Let me review it.

There are three murders in the history of Israel that summarize their spiritual condition. John the Baptist came and said, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And the Jews allowed Herod to murder John. Jesus came and said, repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And the Jews asked Pilate to kill him. Stephen stood before the Jewish council in Acts 7, and he told them how they had resisted the Holy Ghost, how the Spirit of God had revealed to them the miracles of Jesus Christ, and they took him out and they killed him. And so they permitted Herod to kill John the Baptist. They asked for Pilate to kill Jesus and the Jews themselves went out and killed Stephen.

Now, this was the sin that climaxed the spiritual history of the Jewish nation. Remember, Jesus had said, you'll sin against the Son of Man, this can be forgiven you. Now, they did that. They sinned against the Son of Man in ignorance and it was forgiven them. But he said, if you sin against the Holy Ghost, there's no forgiveness.

The Holy Spirit of God came down at Pentecost in Acts 2, there were signs and miracles and wonders that the Jewish people could see and God was saying, now your kingdom is ready. You read Acts 3. You read Acts 4. And you'll see that the apostles were presenting to the Jewish people that Jesus was their Messiah and they had rejected him. And yet they said, if you will receive him, he will return and his kingdom will be established on this earth.

Now, when the word of God goes forth to people, they don't like to receive it. In Acts 2:36, Peter preaches to the Jews and says, therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Look at Acts 3:19. Peter says to these Jews, repent ye therefore, be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord, and he shall send Jesus Christ.

Now, the word of God makes it very clear that Jesus would have established his kingdom, and then this prophecy program would have been fulfilled. Jerusalem would have been the center of the earth. The blessings would have flowed out from Jerusalem to all the Gentile nations, but the Jews rejected him. Now, what did God do? Did God go out of business? No, God set up a new program. He had a program that he had never revealed to anyone else.

Ephesians 3:5. The mystery of Christ, 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 was this program? That God was going to make a kingdom for the Jews? No. What was the program? That God was going to take believing Jews and believing Gentiles and do something new. The church. The church. I will build my church.

The church is a body. Israel was a nation. Israel had a king. Nowhere in the Bible is Jesus Christ called the king of the church. He's the king of the nations. He's the king of the Jews. He's never called the king of the church. What is his relationship to the church? Well, the church is his body. He's the head. The church is his bride. He's the bridegroom. The church is his temple. He's the chief cornerstone. Ephesians 2:20 and 21. You see the point? God gave to Paul a very special ministry. It was the ministry of the mystery to the Gentiles.

Now, it's too bad that people today do not listen to Paul. They're all wrapped up in doing something for the kingdom. Now, I don't believe in criticizing people whose hearts are right. Many times I make a lot of mistakes, but I make them sincerely. My heart is right. But old people talk, for example, about bringing in the kingdom. The kingdom's work. Help us, Lord, they pray, as we give, that this money might be used for your kingdom.

Now, there is a sense in which God's kingdom is here, the kingdom of God. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. There is a sense in which God's kingdom, a spiritual kingdom, is at work in the world today. But you know, people are talking about making things better, making this world a better place in which to live. They they mix up law and grace. They they mix up the church and Israel. They think that the church ought to be dabbling in politics the way the Jews were. And local churches get all confused as to what God wants them to do.

Now, what does God want us to do? He wants us to do the same thing that Paul did. He wants us to preach Jesus Christ to Jews and Gentiles. He wants us to get them into local churches to train them and teach them that they can go out and win other people. Our responsibility is not to plug up the holes in a sinking ship. Our responsibility is to throw out the lifeline from the rescue station, from the lighthouse, and to win people to Jesus Christ.

Now, if people would just remember this, if Christians would just keep in mind that our job is to do what God saved Paul to do, to teach people that today there's no difference between Jews and Gentiles. We're all sinners. That today God is not working in the way he was with Israel. He's not trying to set up a kingdom here on Earth, a visible kingdom. He's trying to change the hearts of people. He does this by his grace.

I trust that you're a part of a church where this kind of a message is being preached because if you aren't, you're involved in the wrong ministry. Now, once again, let me make it very clear. I believe that we as Christians ought to help in every way we can to have better neighborhoods and better communities. But I'm not fooling myself into believing that because we have better neighborhoods and better cities, we have better people.

The New Testament teaches our job is to win people to Christ. This makes people better. This changes their hearts. What a joy it is as a pastor to see homes put back together again when people get saved. Husbands and wives who were estranged from each other, at enmity with each other, loving each other and back in a happy home because of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the peacemaker.

And Paul said, my ministry is to let people see, Ephesians 3:9, what is the fellowship or the dispensation of the mystery? This today is the dispensation of the mystery. Now, we've pointed out in previous studies that the word of God must be studied dispensationally. I know this word sometimes is like waving a red cloth in front of an angry bull. Some people don't like the word dispensation.

A dispensation is simply an administration, a stewardship. When the Republicans are in office, there's a certain kind of stewardship. The Constitution doesn't change, but the stewardship changes. The administration changes. If the Democrats are elected, there's a new administration. The Constitution is still the same. The Bible is this way. The Bible doesn't change. God's principles don't change. They're just like the Constitution. They don't change, but his administration changes.

There was a dispensation of innocence in the Garden of Eden when men were perfect. There was a dispensation of conscience outside the Garden of Eden. And there was a dispensation of government after the flood. And then from Mount Sinai to Mount Calvary, there was a dispensation of law. But this was set aside at the cross. Now we're in the dispensation of the mystery.

And yet you stop the average church member and ask him what is the dispensation of the mystery, he'll blink his eyes and say, what are you talking about? People today are blind to this wonderful, basic, fundamental spiritual truth in the Bible of the mystery. Now look at Ephesians 3:9. To make all men see, says Paul, what is the dispensation of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Christ Jesus.

What is this mystery? Ephesians 3:6 tells us that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel. The dispensation of the mystery means that the gospel of the grace of God goes out and it saves people. Whether they're Jews or Gentiles, God makes no difference today. The dispensation of the mystery means there's no difference between Jews and Gentiles. And the gospel goes out and people are saved.

And after they're saved, they should be a part of a local Bible believing, Christ exalting, gospel preaching church and then try to get other people saved. The mystery means that we're a part of the body of Christ and he's the head. Oh, I wish people could see there's a difference between joining a church and being joined to the body. Many, many people have joined churches just like you join the country club or you join the Red Cross or the PTA. You sign your name on the dotted line, pay your dues. This is not the dispensation of the mystery. This is not what's supposed to be going on today.

You see, before I unite with a local body of believers, I must first of all have been united to the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit. There is the church, which is the body of Christ. Ephesians 4:4, there is one body. And this one body, according to Ephesians 4:5, has one baptism. That's the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

In the church, which is the body of Christ, this temple that was talked about in Ephesians 2:21, in the church, which is the body of Christ, there is one baptism, which is the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God baptizes us into the body of Christ. 1 Corinthians 12. In the local church, I present myself and say, I have been saved. I know Christ is my savior. I have been baptized by the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ. Now, therefore, I want to be a member of this local body.

Nobody ought to join a local church who's not a Christian. You don't find anywhere in the New Testament people being taken into a local body apart from a confession of faith in Jesus Christ. And then there's baptism in water. The one baptism applies to the church. Baptism in water applies to the churches. Now, you don't get into the church by baptism in water. But you do get into a local church this way.

And the baptism in water is a picture of the baptism in spirit where the candidate is immersed in the water. And this shows how he has been immersed into Jesus Christ. He's a part of Christ. He is in Christ and Christ is in him. There is a merging. This is a lot different from signing a card and making a pledge and paying your dues, isn't it?

Membership in the body of Christ, to be a member of his body, a living part of his body, because I've been baptized by the Holy Spirit into him through faith in Christ. Then I become a part of a local church. And I try to win other people to Christ. Oh, people have confused this. If they only knew the difference between spirit baptism and water baptism, between churches and the church, between the church as an organization and the church as an organism.

No man on Earth is the head of the church. It is Jesus Christ who's the head. And Paul said, this was my ministry. Not to tell people to keep the Ten Commandments. They can't do this. Not to tell people to try to be religious and do the best they can. No, he said, my ministry was to preach the unsearchable riches of Christ. To try to get blind people to see this fellowship of the mystery, this wonderful truth that God has now revealed to us that we can be saved by faith in Christ. And once we're saved, we belong to the body of Christ. Then we unite ourselves to a local body and try to win others to him. I wonder, are you today a part of this kind of a ministry? Is your life involved in getting people to see what Christ has done for them? You say, well, I've been baptized. Wonderful. But are you a part of the body of Christ? Has the Spirit of God made you one with Jesus Christ? This is the important thing.

You say, oh, but I do the best I can. I'm glad you do. I wish more people would do the best they could. But have you trusted Jesus Christ? Are you simply a joiner of a local religious organization or are you truly a member, a living part of the body of Christ? You say, brother, Whisby, I don't know what you're talking about. Ah, then the Spirit of God needs to deal with your heart.

If you don't understand this wonderful fellowship of the mystery, you study Ephesians 1, 2 and 3. And you find out what it means truly to be a born again Christian, a member of the body of Christ. Paul gave his life to take the word of God out to Jew and Gentile, especially to the Gentiles, to let them see what Jesus Christ had done. This wonderful truth about the mystery has been buried. Oh, the devil's tried to get people to be blinded to what God has really done. Don't let him blind you.

We're going to see the Lord willing in our next lesson what God wants to reveal to us and how God wants to work in and through us as a part of this wonderful fellowship of the mystery that God has given to us in Jesus Christ, the only savior who died for you. Shall we pray together? Father, bless the word that we've studied. Help people to see what is the fellowship of the mystery. What it really means to belong to Jesus Christ. For we pray in his name and for his sake. Amen.