Ephesians 3:1-3 “For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles — if indeed you have heard of the administration of God’s grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before briefly.”
Last Sunday, Pastor Herk continued in his sermon series through Paul’s Epistle to the Ephesians. He pointed out that God blesses us in so many ways with His grace, gifts and good tidings so that we’ll react to pay the blessings forward to others around us using those gifts. God’s design is for us to know Him, to make Him Known, to know who He wants us to be and how to do it. The goal of preaching includes leaving the listener with a godly biblical truth that they can apply to their lives, carrying that truth, God’s love, God’s blessing and God’s grace forward cheerfully. Think about what change we could make in this world for the better if we took this truth and paid them forward, passing them on to the people in our lives. The point is that the grace that God has given us is not just for our benefit. We normalize and take so many of God’s blessings for granted because they have become common and familiar to us. We are so use to God’s amazing love, mercy, grace and providence that we stop thinking about it, appreciation it, and thanking the Lord for it.
The Apostle Paul starts this passage of Holy Scripture but stating: “For this reason” (NASB) or “For this cause” (KJV) - “toutou charin” in Greek. Believers are one family in Christ; brothers and sisters with the same Heavenly Father. Paul write in Colossians 1:25-27 “of which I became a minister according to the stewardship from God which was given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God, the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” The Greek word “oikonomia” translated as “stewardship” (NASB) or “dispensation” (KJV) specially means, a religious "economy". In Scripture and theology, a steward is a minister of Christ, whose duty is to dispense the provisions of the gospel, to preach its doctrines and administer its ordinances; this stewardship of God’s true and pure religious economy in the world and is from God.
Ephesians 1:3-10 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons and daughters through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, with which He favored us in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our wrongdoings, according to the riches of His grace which He lavished on us. In all wisdom and insight, He made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He set forth in Him, regarding His plan of the fullness of the times, to bring all things together in Christ, things in the heavens and things on the earth.”
It is God who provides and is doing all the work, revealing the mysteries of His will regarding His plan of the fullness of the times, to bring all things together in Christ, but these actions of God require us to respond. Our heavenly Father doesn’t pass on His love, joy, peace, grace, provision and make known the mysteries of His Will without expecting a reply. Our almighty Creator doesn’t bless us, love us, and give us grace that He doesn’t demand us to react to; including paying it forward.
Let's continue Pastor Herk's message of "passing on the blessings" in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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