Experiencing the Depth of God’s Love
Asdov/o3 Siro3n Qorov;ivnu
(God’s Magnificent Work Through Christ)
Ephesians 3:1-12
A dear friend of mine, Varouj
Mazmanian, has a heart that is shaped by God’s love. He is a math professor in
Stevens Institute of Technology. If you
ask me, teaching is not his main task. His
main purpose is to demonstrate God’s love to unloved people.
When I was serving in Ainjar
as pastor and school director, Varouj often came to visit us. He had a special love towards the boarding department
children who were deprived from their parents’ love for different reason. One Sunday, after preaching in the church, a
young boy who lost his father when he was a child, came in tears to shake Varouj’s hand and asked him whether he would become his
father. God gave Varouj a special love. I witnessed how he cared for this boy and for
many others like him. I believe the
secret was God’s love.
We move today to the third
chapter of Ephesians. Let me give you a small
summary of Ephesians so far. Humanity was
caught up in sinfulness and was alienated from God and each other. Walls between Gentiles and Jews were broken down
through Christ. Paul explains how God
rescued us, all of us, through His son on the cross.
Let us mention some important
points Paul highlights in the chapter.
-He Is a Prisoner of Christ.
“For this reason
I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ
Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles“ (vs 1). As I said before, he wrote this letter while in
prison. He was waiting for his trial by Nero. How in the world, when he is chained to a Roman
soldier, so he will not escape, he sees himself not in prison, but a prisoner
of Christ?
Do you see how Paul is liberated
from the earthly rulers?
I have read about people who
were in prison camps, people like Rev. Benjamin Weir, Nelson Mandela, Corrie Ten Boom or Dietrich Bonheoffer. I have read how God helped prisoners put their
faith in Christ and see that their suffering has another dimension: earthly rulers cannot “chain” or “prison” our
souls.
Paul, who was rejected by his
people, instead of losing his patience, knew he was there for Christ, that he was
imprisoned because of the Gentiles. “I ask you, therefore, not to be
discouraged because of my sufferings for you, which are your glory” (vs 13). The question that one can raise is how
come Paul sees that his suffering is GLORY? What made him say this?
-The Mystery Revealed to Paul
Three times in
this short passage, Paul speaks about mystery.
“...mystery made known to me by revelation” (vs. 3) “…you
will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ” (vs. 4). “This mystery is that through the gospel
the Gentiles are heirs together with
When we use the word mystery,
it means something that is unexplained, secret, hidden. In the biblical understanding,
mysteries of God are secrets that can be discovered only through divine
revelation. That has nothing to do with
human wisdom. It is God who reveals His
mystery to us. In this case, He did to Paul. I love the phrase in the Armenian “Khorhourt medz yev eskancheli”
It talks about the incarnation of Jesus, which is a “great and wonderful
mystery.”
Paul says God made known to
him in a direct revelation a mystery which had never been revealed before. The revelation was the Gentiles regarded as “heirs together with
Please review
last week’s sermon for details. How did
Jews and Gentiles divide? God through Christ made a NEW MAN, NEW ORDER. The Church became the NEW TEMPLE. We became “members together of one body.”(vs.
13)
-This mystery now revealed to the Gentiles.
Paul took it from God and gave it to the
Gentiles. So the gospel is revealed to
all NATIONS, all colors and all people. Paul sees himself as a “servant of the Gospel” declaring the Good News to all nations.
Let us stress mission and
evangelism; let’s try to continue what we inherited from Paul. I hear Paul is saying he learned to become a
“servant”. We need the heart of humility
and submission to the lordship of Christ. The mystery is revealed, and we as church have
the obligation to reveal it everywhere, starting from our neighborhood all the
way to the ends of the earth.
We will continue
in English