Colorful Wisdom

Do you want to see how colorful, how beautiful, God’s wisdom is? Check it out: Ephesians 3:2: “assuming that you have heard of the stewardship of God’s grace that was given to me for you, how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I have written briefly. 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. 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.”

MINISTRY GIVEN
Paul’s in prison because of the ministry he was given. By ministry I mean the way that God had called Paul to serve Him. The thing that God had called Paul to do led Paul to prison. In Verse 2 we see that the stewardship of God’s grace was given to Paul for them. That word “stewardship” means that God gave Paul a responsibility, a calling, a mission, a job-description. Isn’t that cool? Our God doesn’t just invite us to follow him blindly, but God calls us to something. He gives us divine purpose in life. If you are a follower of Jesus, you’ve been given a ministry. You’ve been given a way that God wants you to serve Him that has purpose and meaning and impact in this world right now. God’s given you gifts to steward, to be responsible with. There are people in the church that God’s given special gifts to be apostles, prophets, evangelists, shepherds, teachers. And what are they supposed to do with those gifts? Equip others in the church to be doing the same things and more (Ephesians 4:11).

You know what this tells us about the church? There’s no place in the church for consumers. A consumer is someone who comes just to receive something. That’s what happens when you go to a restaurant or a grocery store or the movie theater. When you go to those places you aren’t thinking about what we can contribute to that place. We’re thinking about what we get. We’re considering whether what we get in there worth our time. But in the church, Jesus’ followers are blessed, to be a blessing. They are served, to go out and be servants. Taught, to teach others. Discipled, to be disciplers. You’ve been given a ministry, a way that God has called you to serve him based on the gifts he’s given you and the ways you’ve grown. How are you serving him? What’s your ministry?

For Paul, his ministry was all about the Gentiles. He was called specifically to serve them. How was he serving them? He says in verse 3-5 that it has to do with a mystery that wasn’t always known but now the mystery has been revealed. Then in verse 6 he says, “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.” The mystery is the good news that the Gentiles are invited in, welcomed in to the family of God. Paul’s ministry was to spread this message; to make sure that the Gentiles and the Jews knew that Jesus died for all of them. He did it in unique ways at a unique time in the world, but here’s the amazing thing. This is our ministry too. 2 Corinthians 5 says, “In Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” God, through Jesus, brought the good news of forgiveness and acceptance into the world. And now, if you’ve been forgiven and accepted by God through Jesus, God has entrusted YOU with that very same message. You’re an ambassador, a representative of God, with that message on your lips. Just like Paul, we are a people sent out with a message to tell. It’s the message that turned the world upside down. It’s the good news that you can have a relationship with God through Jesus.

Now, maybe that seems daunting. Maybe you’re thinking that you didn’t sign up for that when you became a Christian. Or maybe you’re thinking, “So this is non-negotiable as a Christian? Part of following Jesus is actually talking to people about it?” Yes. That’s exactly what we see in in the Bible. But verse 7 helps us here: “Of this gospel I was made a minister according to the gift of God’s grace, which was given me by the working of his power.”

MINISTRY EMPOWERED
He says again in verse 7 that he was made a minister, but it wasn’t just that the ministry was given. Look at the end of verse 7: “which was given me by the working of his power.” The ministry wasn’t just given, the ministry was empowered. God actually empowered Paul to do everything that God called him to do. Maybe it seems terrifying talking to someone else about Jesus. Maybe that sounds exhausting, exasperating. Maybe you’re thinking, “How am I possibly going to be able to live that way or talk about Jesus with all these people? Am I going to have to read tons of books and take theology courses so that I know the answer to every question that people will ask me? Am I going to have to move to some country where people don’t know about Jesus and learn their language and tell them about Jesus?” I hope the answer to those questions for you and for me is yes. But we can have confidence that however it is that God’s calling us to share the good news about Jesus with others, the promise is that God will empower us to do it.

You know how we know this? Because Jesus was empowered by God to do the ministry God gave him to do. Specifically, it was the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, who empowered Jesus to do everything that he did. Jesus didn’t just tap into the fact that He was God to get through trials and temptations, he was empowered by the Holy Spirit. We see that Jesus was born by the power of the Holy Spirit, he was led by the Spirit into the wildness to be tempted by Satan himself, and Jesus came out sinless, we see over and over that the Spirit empowered Jesus to perform miracles, we read that Jesus was filled with knowledge and wisdom by the Spirit, he spoke the words that the Holy Spirit gave to him, and he was raised from the dead by the power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit gives power, man. If only we could tap into some of that. Look at what Romans 8 says, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” You and I have the EXACT. SAME. SPIRIT. The Spirit of God that empowered Jesus. We have that exact same power.

So whatever God is calling you to do: share the gospel with your neighbors, lead a community group, disciple someone and teach them how to pray, meet a friend who has tons of questions about how the Bible could be trustworthy, share with your yoga class that you’re a follower of Jesus, or to work hard and do your job well with joy so that all the grumps you work with can see something different in you. Whatever it is, you have the Holy Spirit empowering you.

The problem is that we try to do a lot of this stuff on our own, in our own strength, in our own wisdom, with our own strategy. We don’t depend on the Spirit like Jesus did. You know why? Because we don’t realize what Paul realized in verse 8: “To me, though I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.” What did Paul realized? He realized his brokenness. He’s the least of all the saints. The most unworthy guy to be doing any of this stuff God had called him to do. He wasn’t the smartest. He wasn’t the most moral. He wasn’t the most joyful or the biggest servant. He was broken. In fact, he used to hate the church and try to destroy it. He didn’t deserve to be used by God at all. And he realized it. And so when God saved him, and then called him, Paul knew that God would also have to empower him.

How does the Spirit need to empower you? If you’re feeling burnt out, it’s probably because you’re doing things in your own strength and not depending on the Spirit. OR, maybe you haven’t put yourself into a position where you need to depend on the Spirit. Maybe you’ve protected your life so much, saved your money, haven’t overextended your time or commitments, so that you’re living really comfortably and you don’t want to mess that up, so you don’t really need to depend on the Spirit for anything.

Well, what’s it going to look like when we’re given a ministry and empowered to do it? Look at verse 10: “so that through the church the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places. This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.”

MINISTRY ACCOMPLISHED
What does it look like when the ministry of telling others the good news about Jesus is accomplished? What does it look like when Jews and Gentiles are worshipping together as one people in this gathering called the church? The manifold wisdom of God is displayed for all to see. Manifold here means multicolored. This is multicolored wisdom; colorful wisdom. Apparently God didn’t share with the angels all that he has planned for history and mankind, so even they are watching to see how everything turns out here. What’s God’s plan? After the rebellion, after the fall, how will it all end? The angels are witnessing God’s wisdom through the Church. As they watch the church, they see the amazing plan of God unfolding.

That’s the church! The church was created by God through Jesus, and now the church is being used by God, empowered by the Spirit to bring a worldwide revival of people being saved by Jesus. The church is central to all of history, it’s central to God’s plan, and it’s central to all Christian life. This means that the church isn’t an option. Nor is supporting it optional. Jesus died for the church. He specifically created the church. And has sent his church out on mission.

Is church an option for you? Is it a good addition to your life? Or is it the essential plan of God in the world today? Is the church essential to accomplishing God’s plan in your life, in your family?

Here’s the thing guys. The church is a mess. It’s really, really hard to love the church. In fact, most of the New Testament exists because the church was a mess. Letters had to be written to churches to clean up the terrible things they were doing. There’s still sin in the church, impure motives, pride and arrogance, straying from the Bible. A lot of times the church looks like something we’d rather run away from than join.

You know, it’s interesting that Jesus’ first followers didn’t chose each other. Jesus chose those guys. In fact all of the OGs who followed Jesus were just thrown together, a weird collection of different people. And then Jesus gave them a command: love each other. Love each other, in the church. The church. A collection of diverse, sin-polluted, defective people from messy backgrounds who now have to live together. THEN, Jesus gave the church the mission of preaching the Gospel to the whole world. As one author says, “This was impossible love, impossible community, and an impossible mission.” And yet here we are, 2000 years later. It’s because God is at work in the impossible. God is at work in his church. In the impossible, we see the amazing grace, mercy, and love of God that allows his people to be the church amid all the mess.

A lot of people never really commit to a church because of all those flaws that you can find. Maybe they’ll find a church they’ll attend most often, but they don’t pursue that church like a man pursues a woman in marriage. They just want to casually date the church. Thankfully Jesus didn’t do that. Jesus died for the church and now calls the church his bride. He loves the church with his whole being. To truly pursue Jesus, to truly pursue God and have a relationship with Him, you’ll love the things He loves. And he passionately loves His church.

Praise God that Jesus loves this messy, flawed, sinful bride. God help us to love it also.

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