Ephesians 3:2-6 * January 5, 2002 * Epiphany (observed) * Pastor Pagels

In the name of Christ Jesus, dear friends:

For a festival whose name means “to reveal or make known,” much of Epiphany remains shrouded in mystery. Take the historic gospel lesson for Epiphany as an example. Who were the Magi? Were they astronomers, or were they kings, or maybe a combination of the two?

And where did they come from? Arabia and Babylon have been suggested, but we can’t be sure. How many were there? Again, we have to admit that we just don’t know. How long was their trip? How did they travel?

Questions about the Wise Men abound, but there are even more things we don’t know about this account. How old was Jesus when the Magi came from the East? And what about that star? What was it? Some people are convinced that it was a well-placed meteor. Others are just as sure that it was a convergence of planets. Still, many believe that it was nothing less than a miracle.

When we review this Epiphany story, it is easy to get caught up in the speculation about these mysteries. If the Wise Men were here with us this morning, they could answer all of our questions. But I wonder if they would.

Instead, I would like to think that they would encourage us to focus, not on the minutiae, not on the trivial, but on the things that are truly important. The shining light of Epiphany is not the star the Wise Men followed, but the person the Wise Men came to worship.

Jesus Christ lies at this festival’s heart and core. And that is precisely where Paul directs our attention this morning. On a day that is sometimes called the Christmas of the Gentiles, the apostle to the Gentiles declares that…

The Epiphany Mystery Has Been Solved

I. It has been revealed through God’s holy messengers

II. It has been revealed to God’s holy people

If you are a fan of mystery novels, chances are that you are familiar with the English detective Sherlock Holmes. To the casual observer, Sherlock Holmes looks like an average person. He doesn’t have any supernatural powers. He doesn’t possess superhuman strength. Instead, Sherlock Holmes relies on his superior intelligence and keen powers of observation to get at the truth. And when he utters the famous words, “Elementary, my dear Watson,” the reader knows that another mystery is about to be solved.

In our text Paul presents a mystery to the Christians at Ephesus, but not with the expectation that it would be or could be solved: “Surely you have heard about the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you, that is the mystery made known to me by revelation” (2,3).

Paul wasn’t hot on the trail of any suspects. Paul hadn’t uncovered any clues. Paul wasn’t even aware that there was any mystery…until it had been made known to him from above.

Paul equates this mystery with “the administration of God’s grace that was given to me for you.” Paul didn’t earn God’s love. He didn’t go out and get it either. God’s grace had been given to Paul personally, and in a miraculous way.

Before he was a missionary, before he had changed his name to Paul, Saul was on his way to the city of Damascus to round up Christians when God changed his life forever. In a bright and blinding light, Jesus appeared to Paul on that road. Not to strike him down for persecuting his followers. Not to punish him for the sins of his past. But to give him a heaping helping of undeserved love.

In an instant the Lord made his enemy into his ally. The Holy Spirit planted faith in Paul’s heart, but it wasn’t for Paul’s benefit alone. God had a plan for Paul. God reached out to him so that he would reach out to others. That’s why Paul told the Ephesians that God’s grace had been given “to me for you.”

On the road Jesus called Paul to carry the gospel to the Gentiles. And for the rest of his life, Paul did just that. He went to them. He worked with them. He prayed for them. As Paul went about his work among the Christians at Ephesus, as he related to them the events of his own miraculous conversion, they were able to understand and appreciate his unique insight into “the mystery of Christ.”

This mystery, Paul says, “was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God’s holy apostles and prophets” (5). Can that be right? Our memories of Advent may be fading already, but hasn’t the promise of a Savior been around as long as the world itself? Didn’t the Old Testament prophets like Isaiah and Micah predict that Jesus would be born of a virgin in Bethlehem? And if they did, then how can Paul say that the mystery of Christ was not made known to people in the past?

These are all good questions, and they deserve answers. Yes, God did promise Adam and Eve a Savior in the Garden of Eden. And yes, the Holy Spirit did allow the prophets to predict how and where the Savior would be born.

The promise of a Savior was not a new revelation. The size and scope of that promise was. Because that is so important, because that is the key that unlocks the mystery, it bears repeating. The promise itself was not a new revelation. The scope of the promise was.

Thanks to the Holy Spirit’s guidance and direction, the mystery of Christ is no longer a mystery. The Epiphany mystery has been solved. God has revealed it through his holy messengers. God has revealed it to his holy people.

Normally a mystery writer will make the reader wait until the last chapter of the book before the mystery is solved. Paul couldn’t wait that long. His letter to the Ephesians is six chapters, but he reveals the mystery already in chapter three: “The mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise of Christ Jesus” (6).

Who stood to benefit from this revelation? Who are God’s holy people? Believers. Everyone who believes in Jesus is a saint. Every person who trusts in Jesus for forgiveness is holy in God’s sight. Not just the Jews. Not just the Gentiles. Both Jews and Gentiles.

But was this really a new revelation? Two thousand years before Paul put these words on paper, God told Abraham: “all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:3). Seven hundred years before Paul ever stepped foot in Ephesus, God spoke these words through the prophet Isaiah: “The Root of Jesse will spring up, one who will arise to rule over the nations; the Gentiles will hope in him” (Romans 15:12, quoting Isaiah 11:10).

The Jews had been God’s chosen people for thousands of years, planted in Canaan, protected in Egypt, re-established in Israel, ruled over in Babylon, and eventually returned to the Promised Land. The Lord set his people apart from the nations all around them by their law, their diet and their way of life.

The Israelites had a special revelation from God in the Old Testament as well. They were familiar with God’s promise to their father Abraham. They were aware of God’s desire to save all people. They just didn’t go out of their way to put God’s plan into action.

Why? Why weren’t they on fire to share the promise of a Savior with everyone? Maybe they had become too comfortable with the status quo. Maybe they didn’t want to share their special status. Maybe they were just plain lazy.

Maybe they aren’t the only ones. We have every advantage they had. One could argue that we have even more because we have God’s promises fulfilled. But we are not always the best at sharing the promise of a Savior either.

Why? Is it because we might ruffle some feathers in the process? Is it because we don’t want to get out of our comfort zone? Is it because it might mean we will have to change? Or is it because we are just plain lazy?

Paul was right when he said that “there is no difference” (Romans 3:22) between Jews and Gentiles. There is no difference, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23). It doesn’t matter if you are a first century Jew or a twenty-first century Gentile. People are the same. We are sinful. We are selfish. We bear the same guilt. We deserve the same fate.

The Jews never totally excluded the Gentiles from God’s promises, but they hadn’t exactly included them either. God wanted everyone to know that was about to change. God wanted everyone to know that the playing field had been leveled. That was the mystery. That was God’s new revelation. And Paul used three different (but similar) words to get God’s message across.

Jews and Gentiles were “co-heirs” of eternal life. The Gentiles were no longer second class citizens in the kingdom of God. The Gentiles were no longer left to fend for the scraps that fell from the Master’s table. They were members of the same family of faith. The Lord placed the same undeserved gift in their hands.

Jews and Gentiles were also members of the same body. Their skin color may be different. Their features may be different. The language they speak may be different. But the same blood of Christ washed away their sins, and the same love of Christ fills their hearts.

Finally, Jews and Gentiles were “co-sharers” in God’s promise. This Greek word was sometimes used to denote joint ownership of a house. The Gentiles weren’t renters of God’s promise. They weren’t on the outside looking in. Eternal life was their possession, and no one could take it away from them.

How would Jewish Christians be able to accept such a radical change? How had the Gentile Christians come to attain this new status before God? How does God change hearts and lives forever? Paul tells us how all of these things are possible in three little words: “through the gospel.”

The word “gospel” means “good news.” The good news is that God loves us. The good news is that God delivered his Son to this earth to save us. The good news is that Jesus sacrificed his life to pay for every one of your sins. The good news is that Jesus rose from the dead to defeat death forever. The good news is that the Holy Spirit gives us the faith to believe this unbelievable message. The gospel God tears down the barrier of sin that separates people from God. The gospel God demolishes the barriers that separate people from each other.

We will probably never know how many Wise Men there were or where they came from. We may not be able to explain the star that marked the birthplace of the Savior. But we do know that God used that star to lead Gentiles to Jesus.

This festival teaches us that God does not want his love to remain hidden from anyone. Through the gospel, through Jesus, the Epiphany mystery has been solved. It has been revealed through God’s holy messengers. It has been revealed to God’s holy people.

Happy Epiphany! Merry Christmas of the Gentiles! Amen.