Ephesians 3

CHAPTER 3THEME: The church is a mystery; the explanation of the mystery; the definition of the mystery; prayer for power and knowledgeThis is the final chapter in the doctrinal section of this epistle. We have learned that the church is a body and the church is a temple. Now we learn that the church is a mystery. Let me give a preliminary word about what it means when we say the church is a mystery. There has been gross misunderstanding concerning the church as a mystery. The word for mystery bears no resemblance to the modern connotation of “whodunit?” In this sense, a mystery is something that had not previously been revealed but is currently made manifest. In this case it is the church which was not revealed in the Old Testament but is solely revealed in the New Testament. Moffatt translates the word mystery as “divine secret,” and Weymouth uses the word “truth.” I like the expression “divine secret.” A divine secret was something that God had not revealed up to a certain point. Now He is ready to reveal it. It has nothing to do with mystery such as those written by Agatha Christie or Conan Doyle, as I mentioned earlier when we discussed mystery in the first chapter. There are two extreme viewpoints taken in our day concerning the mystery of the church, and I must say that these viewpoints are a mystery to me. One extreme group ignores the clear-cut statement of Paul that the church is not a revelation of the Old Testament. They treat the church as a continuation of Israel. This is known as covenant theology. They appropriate all the promises that God made to Israel and apply them to the church. Years ago Dr. Harry Ironside showed me a Bible used by the group holding the covenant theology viewpoint. In the books of the Old Testament prophets, they had headed some of the chapters: “Blessings for the Church.” Other chapters were headed: “Curses for Israel.” It’s quite interesting that the church took the blessings but left the curses for Israel! The truth is that both the blessings and the curses apply to Israel. The other group places undue emphasis on Paul’s statements: “he made known unto me the mystery,” and “my knowledge in the mystery of Christ,” and they treat the mystery as the peculiar revelation to Paul. This is known as hyperdispensationalism. As a result there has been the pernicious practice of shifting the beginning of the church to some date after Pentecost. On this sliding scale several dates have been suggested, and when one becomes untenable, another is adopted. This claim to superior knowledge has ministered to spiritual pride. May I say that the church was not revealed in the Old Testament.

When it was revealed, the revelation was not confined to the apostle Paul. One professor I had in a denominational seminary tried to trace the church back to the Garden of Eden! But the church is not in the Old Testament. On the other hand, one must admit something happened on the Day of Pentecost. On that day the Holy Spirit began forming the body of believers. That will continue until He takes the church out of the world.

We are sealed by the Holy Spirit of God until the day of redemption, the day we are taken out of the world and presented to Christ. I don’t believe you can wash back and forth over the Day of Pentecost like the tide washing over the beach. Something did happen on that daythat was the birthday of the church.

Ephesians 3:1

THE EXPLANATION OF THE MYSTERYLet me give you my literal translation: “For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of (the) Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles, if so be (upon the supposition) that ye heard of the economy (dispensation) of the grace of God which is given me to you.” Paul speaks of his present condition as a prisoner. He became a prisoner because he took the gospel to the Gentiles. Now the Gentiles are accorded new privileges, which he has enumerated in the preceding chapter. Those who were afar off, strangers, without hope, and without God, are now brought in through Christ. Because of all that, Paul is going to pray for them. But before he gets to his prayer, he digresses to speak of the mystery.

Then he picks up his thread of thought again in verse Eph_3:14. Notice the connection: “For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles…. bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Everything between verses Eph_3:1 and Eph_3:14 is a parenthesis, a digression. Before he comes to his prayer, he is going to talk about the mystery. “If so be” marks the beginning of the parenthesis. It is on the supposition that “ye have heard of the economy (or dispensation) of the grace of God which is given me to you.” Paul is speaking of the divine plan and arrangement by which God had called and sent him to the Gentiles. As compared to the other apostles, Paul’s ministry was different and special. “But contrariwise, when they saw that the gospel of the uncircumcision was committed unto me, as the gospel of the circumcision was unto Peter” (Gal_2:7). The message was not different, but the ones to whom the message was to be given were different folk in a different category. Paul went to the Gentiles and told them, “You have been afar off, and now you can be brought in through Christ.” Peter went to his own people (Israel) and said, “…there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved” (Act_4:12). Paul said to the gentile, Philippian jailor, “…Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Act_16:31). Both Peter and Paul had the same message, although it was to two different groups of people. There is now a brand new thing taking place. It is a different economy or a different dispensation from what they had back in the Old Testament. When Paul had been a Pharisee and lived by the Law, he never went out to preach to the Gentileshe was under a different economy. Now Paul is under a new economy, and he is a missionary to the Gentiles. This doesn’t mean that God’s method of salvation had changed. No man was saved by keeping the Law, but by bringing a bloody sacrifice when he saw that he had come short of the glory of God. That sacrifice pointed to Christ. Now Paul is going to talk about this new economy.

Ephesians 3:3

“By revelation.” The hyperdispensationalists hold that because Paul said the mystery had been made known to him, he was the only one who knew it. However, in verse Eph_3:5 Paul makes it clear that all the apostles knew it. That “revelation” began with Paul’s conversion when Christ informed him that when he persecuted the church he was actually persecuting Christ. The church is the body of Christ. Paul learned that God was doing something new. A church had come into existence on the Day of Pentecost. I repeat that “the mystery,” the divine secret, was something not revealed in the Old Testament and therefore unknown to man. Now it is revealed in the New Testament. The word is used twenty-seven times in the New Testament, and it refers to about eleven different mysteries. Paul seems to be making a contrast with the mystery religions of the Graeco-Roman world. In my book Exploring Through Ephesians I include a thesis on those mystery religions that I wrote when I was in seminary. There were many in that day.

These were secret lodges in which sadistic rites were performed. The initiate was warned not to reveal the secrets of the mystery religion. To the Greek, a mystery was a secret imparted to the initiate. To them it meant something disclosed or revealed to a candidate for admission, not something hidden or impossible to understand. To the man on the street who was not a member, these secrets would be a mystery in our sense of the word. In contrast to this, Paul says, “Woe is me if I preach not the gospel.” And we today are “stewards of the mysteries of God.” We are to give out the message.

The gospel is not something to be kept in a secret lodge; it is the good news that is to be shouted from the housetops. Paul uses the word mystery earlier in this epistle. In Eph_1:9 he says, “Having made known unto us the mystery of his will.” In Eph_2:14-15 he explains what the mystery is. The mystery is that Christ is risen and is the Head of a new body made up of Jews and Gentiles and of all tribes and peoples of the earth. This was not revealed in the Old Testament. Paul put it like this: “Now to him that is of power to stablish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began” (Rom_16:25). Paul says it again in Col_1:26, “Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints.” I would say that those who insist that the church is back in the Old Testament are more or less usurping the place of the Lord. They are telling something the Lord Himself didn’t tell. They act as if they know something God didn’t know. Mystery means that it was not revealed in the Old Testament. And since He didn’t reveal it, it isn’t there.

Ephesians 3:5

THE DEFINITION OF THE MYSTERYPaul certainly makes it clear here that this was not revealed to him alone. Now he clarifies what he means by the mystery. There is a sharp contrast between the sons of men in past generations and the apostles and prophets of the church. No one in the Old Testament had a glimmer of light relative to the church. It is now revealed to His Holy apostles. They are “holy” because they have been set aside for this office by God. The “prophets” are definitely New Testament prophets. The “Spirit,” the Holy Spirit, is the teacher of this mystery. This is what the Lord Jesus promised when He told His disciples of the coming of the Holy Spirit. “All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you” (Joh_16:15). What precisely is the mystery? It is not the fact that Gentiles would be saved. The Old Testament clearly taught that Gentiles would be saved. Let me cite several passages: “And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious” (Isa_11:10). Another: “And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising” (Isa_60:3). Isaiah also wrote: “I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles” (Isa_42:6).

Zechariah also mentions it: “And many nations shall be joined to the LORD in that day, and shall be my people: and I will dwell in the midst of thee, and thou shalt know that the LORD of hosts hath sent me unto thee” (Zec_2:11). And Malachi: “For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same my name shall be great among the Gentiles; and in every place incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering: for my name shall be great among the heathen, saith the LORD of hosts” (Mal_1:11). If the mystery is not that the Gentiles would be saved, what is the mystery? Mark it carefully. The mystery was that the Gentiles and Israel were placed on the same basis. By faith in Christ they were both brought into a new body which is the church. Christ is the Head of that new body. Therefore, now there is a threefold division in the human race: All people were Gentiles from Adam to Abraham2000 years (plus) All people were either Jews or Gentiles from Abraham to Christ2000 years The threefold division is Jews, Gentiles, and the church from the Day of Pentecost to the Rapture2000 years (plus) Paul referred to this threefold division when he said, “Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God” (1Co_10:32). Paul included the whole human family when he said that. The church is not in the Old Testament de facto, although there are types of it in the Old Testament. Christ said, “…upon this rock I will build my church …” (Mat_16:18, italics mine), and when He spoke that, it was still future. The church began on the Day of Pentecost, after Christ had returned to heaven. To say that the church began beyond the Day of Pentecost makes the church a pair of Siamese twinsa Jewish church and a Gentile church coexisting. It is true that the church was all Jewish when it began, but there was a period of transition when Gentiles were brought into it. The church is one body, made up of both Jew and Gentile, and Christ is the Head of that body.

Ephesians 3:7

Paul assumed no place of superiority in the knowledge of the mystery by virtue of the fact that he was the Apostle to the Gentiles. He takes only the title of diakonos which is translated “minister” and means a worker or helper or deacon. It was the gift of God’s grace which had transformed him from Saul, the proud Pharisee who persecuted the church, to Paul, the apostle who was now a prisoner for Jesus Christ. He had been taken out of one group and put into another. He is now a member of the body of Christ. All that had been accomplished was through the working of the power of the Holy Spirit. Paul had both the gift and the power of an apostle.

Ephesians 3:8

We are living today in the economy, or the dispensation, or the mystery of the church (the gospel of grace), which from the ages past has been hid in God who created all things. My friend, there are a lot of things God has not told us yet, which is one of the reasons I am anticipating heaven. If you think I don’t know very much now, you are right. When I get to heaven, I am really going to start learning things. Really, God hasn’t told us very much. It’s amazing to think how little He has told us.

For example, He never told anybody about that little atom. Nor did He tell anybody that there were diamonds deep in the earth. He has kept a lot of things to Himself. He allows man to make discoveries, but there are some things man can never find out except by revelation. The church was a mystery in that sense. In verse Eph_3:8 Paul calls himself “less than the least of all saints"it is a comparative superlative. Paul always took the place of humility as an apostle. “For I am the least of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” (1Co_15:9). “And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry; who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief” (1Ti_1:12-13). A mighty revolution took place in the life of Paul. He was chosen to preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. How wonderful! “And to make all men see"the mystery is not to be argued or debated but is to be preached. And Paul was to make all men see the economy (the dispensation) of the mystery.

Ephesians 3:10

Another purpose of the mystery is revealed here. God’s created intelligences are learning something of the wisdom of God through the church. They not only see the love of God displayed and lavished upon us, but the wisdom of God is revealed to His angels.

Ephesians 3:12

We, the Gentiles, and Paul, the persecutor, have freedom of speech before God and an access or introduction to Him. This is all made possible in Christ.

Ephesians 3:13

He says, “I entreat you that you not lose heart in my troubles for you, which is your glory.” Because of the great goals of the mystery which Paul has enumerated, he is willing to suffer imprisonment as the Apostle to the Gentiles. He didn’t want the Ephesians to be discouraged, because the imprisonment of Paul was working for his good and their glory. “Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church” (Col_1:24).

Ephesians 3:14

PRAYER FOR POWER AND KNOWLEDGEWhat was the cause? It was because of his deep interest in these Ephesians. He wanted them to enter into the great truth of this dispensation, this new economy in which we live, and to experience all the riches of His grace in Christ Jesus. That was the background. That is why he inserted the parenthesis between verses Eph_3:1 and Eph_3:14. We have already called attention to the fact that Paul was a man of prayer. This is the second great prayer of Paul in this epistle. As he viewed the church as the poem of God, the temple of the Holy Spirit, the mystery of the ages, he went to God in prayer that these great truths might become realities in the lives of believers. In this verse we have another characteristic of the prayers of Paul. It reveals his posture in prayer. I do not want to be splitting hairs, but here it is: “I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” I don’t insist that we all get down on our knees in our public prayer meetings today. However, I rather wish that we did. During my first pastorate in Nashville, Tennessee, I conducted a meeting in Stone’s River Church near Murfreesboro, Tennessee. It was one of the best meetings I have ever had. It was a little country church, and when I began, I said, “Let’s bow our heads in prayer.” I shut my eyes and heard a rumbling. It sounded as if everyone was walking out; so I ventured a look. I didn’t see a soul and thought they had really walked out on me. Since I was praying to the Lord, I just continued to pray.

When I said, “Amen,” I opened my eyes and these people came up out of the ground! They had all been down on their knees. We had a wonderful meeting. Now don’t misunderstand meI’m not saying we had a great meeting just because they were down on their knees, but I do want to say that I think it helped a great deal. In the formality and ritual of our new churches with plush seats and carpeted floors we are missing something in our relationship to the Lord. My feeling is that there ought to be more easy familiarity with each other in our churches but more worship and reverence for God, especially at the time of prayer. As creatures we ought to assume our proper place before our Creator and go down on all fours before Him. Paul prayed that way and I have always felt that was the proper posture. I must confess that since I have arthritis I don’t do it like I used to when I would get down right on my face in my study and pray there. It is amazing how such a posture helps a person to pray. I think it is something that is good for man. I don’t insist on this; I merely call your attention to it. This is the way Paul did it, and I think he is a very good example for us today. Aren’t we told that our Lord went into the Garden of Gethsemane and fell on His face? I think it would be proper for us if we would get down on our faces before God. There is another point which I think is rather important to note. We have here that Paul prayed to God the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You will also notice that back in chapter 1, verse Eph_1:17, he prayed to the “God of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We find that this was his formula, and I think it is a rather tight formula to address all prayers to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Someone may say, “Aren’t you splitting hairs?” Listen to the Lord Jesus: “And in that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, he will give it you” (Joh_16:23, italics mine). The disciples had been with our Lord for three years. I think they were like a group of children in many ways. I think it was, “Gimme, gimme” a great deal of the time. Then our Lord told them that He would be leaving them. After that they would not ask Jesus for anything. They were to direct their requests to the Father in the name of Jesus. What does Jesus mean by that? He means simply that if you and I were to pray to the Lord Jesus directly, we would rob ourselves of an intercessor. Jesus Christ is our great Intercessor. To pray in Jesus’ name means we go to God the Father with a prayer that the Lord Jesus Himself can lift to the Father for you and me. We need to be very careful in our prayer life. Now that I am retired, I notice things I never noticed before. I was in a service not long ago in which they called on a visiting brother to pray for the meetings at this conference. The conference had gotten off to a marvelous start. The music had been excellent, the pastor had presided well, then they called on this brother to pray. He prayed for a great many things, and I counted three times that he prayed for me.

When he prayed for me the second time, my reaction was, Well, you don’t need to tell the Lord that again! Then when he said it the third time, I thought, He will turn the Lord offHe’ll get tired of hearing that repetitious prayer. Perhaps after this brother had looked me over he decided I really needed praying for three times! Nevertheless, it was vain repetition as the heathen use. The Lord heard him the first time. We need to be very careful in our prayer life. Have you noticed that Paul’s prayers are brief? Both prayers here in Ephesians and his prayer in Philippians are brief. In fact, all the prayers of Scripture are quite brief. The Lord Jesus said that we are not to use vain repetition as the heathen dothey think they will be heard for their much speaking. Moses’ great prayer for Israel is recorded in only three verses. Elijah, on top of Mount Carmel as he stood alone for God against the prophets of Baal, prayed a great prayer which is only one verse long.

Nehemiah’s great prayer is recorded in only seven verses. The prayer of our Lord in John 17 takes only three minutes to read. But the briefest prayer is that of Simon Peter, “…Lord, save me” (Mat_14:30). He cried out this prayer when he was beginning to sink beneath the waves of the Sea of Galilee. Some people think that was not a prayer because it was so short. My friend, that was a prayer, and it was answered immediately.

If Simon Peter had prayed like some of us preachers pray on Sunday morning, “Lord, Thou who art the omnipotent, the omniscient, the omnipresent One….” he would have been twenty feet under water before he got to his request. I tell you, he got down to business. Prayer should be brief and to the point.

Ephesians 3:15

God has a wonderful family. A great many folk think that it is only me and minewe four and no more. But it’s a little wider than that. Some folk feel that their little clique in the church is the only group the Lord is listening to. Some people think their local church constitutes the saints. Then there are others who think their denomination is the whole family of God.

Then there are some who think it is just the churchthat is, those saved from the Day of Pentecost to the Rapture. My friend, God saved people long before the church came into existence, and He is going to be saving people after the church leaves. Also God has other members of His family. The angels belong to His family. He has created intelligences which the apostle John saw and said cannot be numbered. All of those are the family of God.

Ephesians 3:16

Notice again that he prays according to the riches of His glory, not out of the riches of His glory. If He would take it out of His riches, He would be like Mr. Rockefeller who used to give his caddy a dime. There are four definite petitions here which Paul makes on behalf of the Ephesian believers.

1. The petition is that the believers might “be strengthened with might [power] by his Spirit in the inner man.” The spiritual nature of the believer needs prayer as well as does the physical. How often the spiritual is neglected while all the attention is given to the physical side. Paul prays for the inner man because he realizes that the outward man is passing away. Power is needed to live the Christian life, to grow in grace, and to develop into full maturitywhich is the work of the Holy Spirit. We tend to pray a great deal for the outward man. It is a marvelous way to pray, praying for the physical needs of folk. Paul did, and he prayed for himself. Three times he asked God to remove the thorn in his flesh. It is wonderful to know that God does hear and does answer prayer, but we need to remember that the spiritual nature of the believer needs prayer as well as the physical. Only the Holy Spirit can supply power, living, and growth for the full maturity of the believer.
2. In the second petition Paul prays that “Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” This is to think the Lord’s thoughts after Him. “Ye in me and I in you.” Paul could exclaim, “…Christ liveth in me …” (Gal_2:20). In Christ is the high word of this epistle. The wonderful counterpart of it is that Christ is in us. In Christthat is our position. Christ in usthat is our possession. That is the practical side of it. “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” (2Co_13:5). Christ has not come as a temporary visitor. He has come as a permanent tenant by means of the Spirit to live in our lives. “I am the vine, ye are the branches: he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing” (Joh_15:5).
3. The third petition is a request that the believers may know the dimensions of the knowledge-surpassing love of Christ. He prays that they may be “rooted and grounded in love.” “Rooted” refers to botany, to life. “Grounded” refers to architecture, to stability. This is for all the saints. Paul wants them to “know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.” The vast expanse of the love of Christ is the love of God Himself. From this launching pad we can begin to measure that which is immeasurable and to know that which passes knowledge. This is one of the many paradoxes of the believer’s life. The breadth. The arms of Christ reach around the world. “I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved …” (Joh_10:9). “…him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out” (Joh_6:37). The length. The length of it begins with the Lamb slain before the foundation of the world and proceeds unto the endless ages of eternity. The depth. The depth goes all the way to Christ’s death on the cross. “And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (Php_2:8). The height. The height reaches to the throne of God. “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God” (Php_2:6). Only the Holy Spirit can lead a believer into this vast experience of the love of Christ. Since it is infinite, it is beyond human comprehension.
4. The fourth petition is a final outburst of an all-consuming fervor that believers “might be filled up to all the fulness of God.” Christ was thus filled. In proportion to our comprehension of the love of Christ, we shall be filled with all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:20

This is both a doxology and a benediction which concludes the prayer of Paul. It also concludes the first main division of this epistle. This is a mighty outburst of spiritual praise, which any comment would only tarnish. We are not able to so much as touch the hem of the garment of the spiritual gifts that God is prepared to give to His own. How wonderful this is! He wants to give to us super-abundantly. How good He is, and how small we are. We cannot even contain all of His blessings.