I recall from boyhood years all the lengths to which we went to disguise the Christmas present we were giving. Sometimes the thin and smooth became the fat and crinkly by the time the present was put under the tree.
From time to time at a family birthday we may have a younger child whom we believe can be trusted with a secret. But, as the mystery is being opened amid much guessing, the child suddenly blurts out the secret - unable to hold back any longer.
Some of our members went to a surprise birthday party last week. The guest of honour thought she was going to a small family celebration, but, when taken upstairs to see the view, was greeted with over 120 well-wishers - "Surprise! Surprise!"
Already, when we were considering Ephesians 1, we came across Paul's reference to God's "mystery" - God "made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfilment - to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ" (1.9,10). I commented that "God's mystery is now an open secret."
In chapter 3 Paul picks up the theme again. Because of all he has said about how God has brought Jews and Gentiles together in Christ, Paul starts off to say something and then breaks off. "For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles -" (v. 1). Verses 2 to 13 are a digression. In v. 14, he picks up what be began to say - "For this reason I kneel before the Father…"
He digresses because he wants to be sure the Gentile believers understand the "mystery" - God's "open secret" - the reason why he, a Jew, ministers to the Gentiles, and why he is a prisoner "for the sake of you Gentiles."
He speaks of "the mystery made known to me by revelation" (v. 3), "the mystery of Christ… now revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets" (vv. 4-5).
The earthly ministry of Jesus was physically limited, because his time was limited to about three-and-a-half years. So we hear him sending his disciples ahead to prepare with way - "Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel" (Mt. 10.5-6). In his encounter with the Canaanite woman who sought the healing of her daughter, we sense the same urgency and limitation (Mt. 14.21-28).
In fact, in the gospel record we have just two incidents which point to the breadth of his redemptive love for humanity. One is his meeting with the woman of Samaria. It was right there in Samaria that Jesus said to his disciples, "I tell you, open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest" (Jn 4.35). The other is when some Greeks came to see Jesus (Jn 12.20ff). We have no record of the meeting, because it was so significant for Jesus that he commented, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified" (v.23).
In the Great Commission, however, the global scope of the mission and gospel is quite clear to us, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations…" (Mt. 28.18-20). But how clearly did they understand this global scope? It took time - and a vision to both Roman centurion Cornelius and Jewish believer Peter (Acts 10), and the responsiveness of Christians in Antioch (the first place where believers were called "Christians") who began reaching out to Gentiles as well as to Jews (Acts 11.19ff). So many were converted that Barnabas was sent to encourage them, and he went to Tarsus to fetch Paul to help teach all these new believers. Not surprisingly, it was also in Antioch that Christians first recognised God's call to go out on mission beyond their borders into the Gentile world.
So what is the "mystery"? "This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body, and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus" (v. 6).
Paul is just amazed - why me? The gift of God's grace to him has been "to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ" (v. 8).
In the Fall, not only have humanity and human relationships been broken, but the whole creation has become disjointed. The costly redemptive ministry of Christ aims at restoration - bringing "all things in heaven and earth under one head, even Christ" (1.10, cf. Rom. 8.19ff) and, specifically, bringing Jew and Gentile together into one body (3.6).
So as Paul comes to his prayer for the Ephesians, he has acknowledged them, not as a second-best divine afterthought, but fully belonging in the purposes of God, fully part of the family of God - "heirs together", "members together", "sharers together" (v. 6).
Paul addresses "the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name" (vv. 14-15). The footnote has "from whom all fatherhood." There is much broken "fatherhood" in our world. For too many the word "father" evokes painful memories. There are many absent fathers and single-parent families. The Greek word for "family" (patria) comes from the word "father" (pater). The divine purpose was always that fathers be there for their families with responsibility, wisdom, strength and love. God is both the source and model of true fatherhood. His Fatherhood is experienced by "the whole family" of believers - whether Jew or Gentile.
At this point Paul has two particular prayers for them - both involving "power" or "strength" (two different words are used) which is fully available from the Father's "glorious riches".
"I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith" (vv. 16-17a). A Christian is indwelt by Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit.
On the day of Pentecost, Peter said that the gift of the Holy Spirit is "for you and your children and for all who are far off - for all whom the Lord our God will call" (Acts 2.39). In the midst of some recent teaching on the Holy Spirit, we have somehow got the impression that there are first-class and second-class Christians. We have needed to understand our inheritance - that the Holy Spirit is given to all who believe in Christ, that when we "receive Christ" it is by the Holy Spirit that Christ lives within us. Instead of being divided by teaching about the one given to unite us, we need to live in the power of the one who is already at work "in our inner being."
Paul's second prayer for them - "I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (vv. 17b-19).
Receiving Christ into our hearts through faith is the foundation of Christian life and experience - "rooted and established in love" - that's God's redemptive love for us and now active within us.
"Power, together with all the saints" - that's all believers, whether Jews or Gentiles. He is praying for the Ephesians, but not for a different experience or measure of God's love from what he would pray for all God's people.
He wants them to grasp the all-encompassing magnitude of the love of Christ ("how wide and long and high and deep" it is) - yet it is far greater than we can grasp (it "surpasses knowledge"). What he wants for them is not just an intellectual appreciation of Christ's great love, but to know that love in experience, and, knowing it, to become the expression of it in the world - "filled to the measure of all the fullness of God" (v. 19b).
Do you watch the News? There are some people who don't watch the News on principle - it's too depressing! Often we wonder, not what will happen, but where it will happen next! Until the recent tragic killing of a young New Zealand soldier, the world had all but forgotten East Timor for Ambon and the Fiji crisis.
Of course, we don't have to look "out there". We can recognise in our own country, our own community - and ourselves - the evidence of human brokenness, of self-seeking, self-centred living.
That has never been God's purpose - we know that! If we didn't know it before, we ought to know it now, because the secret is out! The plan for reconciliation is fulfilled! All are now called to repent and believe the good news. The promise is that God will live, not just "with" us, but "within" us. There can now be a different way of life, a different kind of living - God's kind of living and loving and unselfish caring.
Surprise! Surprise! The secret is out! Come to the party!
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